Goodstay is a historic tudor-style garden located on the grounds of the University of Delaware's Goodstay Center at 2600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Wilmington. Of course, eons ago, when I was a student at UD, I never ventured outside the classrooms in this lovely circa 1740 Historic Home to see the gardens--class schedules were hectic and I had small children waiting at home.
Now that I have more time, and more time to learn about gardens, I have grown to enjoy visiting the grounds and was a guest there at an event held by the Delaware Center for Horticulture. Today, I visited the 80th Annual Wilmington International Exhibition of Photography at Arsht hall, next door to Goodstay Center. This gave me time to stroll through the gardens, thanks to The Friends of Goodstay Gardens. This volunteer group was founded in 1993 to help restore, maintain, and celebrate this magnificent garden gem located in Wilmington, Delaware. An intimate niche on the grounds of the Goodstay Center on Pennsylvania Avenue just north of downtown Wilmington, the garden is one of the oldest in the state and traces its legacy to the du Pont family.
Planted in the early 19th Century in the American Tudor style, the garden is partitioned into "rooms" with boxwood hedges bordering gravel paths. Ellen du Pont and her landscape architect husband, Robert Wheelwright restored and enhanced the gardens in the early 1920’s, changing from vegetables to flowers with iris, rose, and peony "rooms". A more naturalistic area, known as The Park, was recently renovated, as was the Magnolia Walk, which was originally added in 1938. Upon her death in 1968, Mrs. Wheelwright left the property to the University of Delaware. Be sure not to miss the iris garden installed by the Diamond State Iris Society to see some spectacular blooms.
The Friends of Goodstay Gardens invite you to visit this horticultural treasure situated halfway between downtown Wilmington and Greenville, Delaware. Close to Hagley, Winterthur, and Longwood Gardens, and across the street from the Gibraltar gardens, another du Pont related property, Goodstay is a small, peaceful setting with world-class iris and peony displays in late spring. Locals are invited to volunteer time to maintain this historic garden for future generations.
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