The South Riding RV Travels

05th October 2007 - Hershey PA - Hershey Gardens

We didn't fancy a visit to Hershey's Chocolate World, which has a pretend factory illustrating the process of making chocolate, but Jan wanted to visit the gardens there. Americans make an event out of every season in some way, and create some lovely displays. Autumn lends itself to this particularly well with its bright colours and interesting shapes.

The morning was very misty, but as we arrived the sun was just beginning to break through. This view over part of the gardens shows just how much colour can still be produced by flowering plants and foliage even this late in the year.

There were also still a lot of roses in bloom. We particularly liked these two with their striking combinations of pin and yellow.

The garden was started when the chocolate magnate Milton S Hershey decided to create a rose garden in 'his' town that could be enjoyed by the whole community. The original 3½ acre garden has expanded to cover 23 acres and now contains a number of themed areas. But there are reminders here and there of its links to Hershey, such as in these three fountains, their shape echoing one of the most famous Hershey chocolates, the 'Hershey Kisses'.  This Autumn has been unusually fine and warm, so the butterfly house was still open, though not all of the range of butterflies it normally contains were still alive.

However with a lot of patience we were able to get these photos of a few of them.

We also found two of these Cynthia moths still on display in a wire cage, much larger than we generally expect moths to be as they are about 5in across. We also found this caterpillar, though have no idea which species it is

And another plant with an amusing name: the 'eyeball plant'.

The chocolate theme is continued here in the names of these three plants: coleus 'Chocolate Drop', Chocolate Copperleaf, and Chocolate Flower Plant - note that no Latin names are given, so we don't know how authentic they are.

The fruits of the various species of pepper plant, and sometimes the foliage as well, are also very decorative. These are the capsicums 'Black Pearl' and 'Chilly Chilli'.

In the right setting, even cabbages can look good. And the statue of the girl chasing butterflies makes for an expertly designed setting as a centrepiece for one of the gardens.

The striking pink foliage of this plant would add colour to any Autumn border, but is rather unexpected given its name: yellow fritillary.

Another signature plant for Autumn, the 'pot mum'. These are available here in vast quantities and a wide variety of colours, and are spectacular when displayed in mass groups.

Considerable space is devoted to specimen trees, including the Japanese dawn sequoia, which is relatively easy to grow. However Hershey Gardens also has some specimens of the giant sequoia which we believed only grew on the west coast in very specific conditions. The ones growing here seem to be very happy and in good condition. This has nothing to do with sequoias but is just a nicely shaped tree, one of hundreds in the gardens.

Another venerable specimen, this time a Japanese acer. If we had had more time we might well have rested on this inviting bench in its shade.

This one seems an extremely sad tree: a weeping Norway spruce with its branches touching the ground and almost turning skywards again. It is not the type that you often see in big gardens.

In contrast to the grand scale and shape of such big trees, the details of foliage or needles and bark can often be just as striking, such as the bark of the amur corktree or the amazingly soft and tactile, 4 in long, needles of the eastern white pine.

You can't have a Japanese garden without water. There were koi in the pond too. It always makes for a peaceful setting.

Canna lillies seem to do very well here and form a colourful backdrop to this small fountain which supports and contains a blue ball in its jet.

Black is an unusual colour in the display garden but next to more normal shades of green forms a lovely contrast. Here we also have a contrast in size between the large leaves of elephant ears 'Black Magic' and nigrescens.   Below are two groundcover plants which also provide vivid colour even at this late season: the Alleghany spurge which sounds like a local native, and golden stonecrop.

As we left the gardens it was still quite misty, but we had to take this shot of the Hershey theme park. It just looks like a man-made jungle, but some people must enjoy it. It was actually closed for a couple of weeks while it was decorated with lights ready for the Christmas season.