Lavender Fields at Warrington Manor LLC at 18864 Cool Spring Road, Milton, Delaware 19968, is a five-acre lavender farm between Lewes and Milton, with a beautiful historic manor house dating to the Eighteenth Century, surrounded by delightful small gardens, a meadow, and an impressive 11-circuit labyrinth. The labyrinth, one of the best in the Mid-Atlantic region, is encircled by large evergreens making for a gorgeous contemplation experience.
Other delights include a small garden with delicate heirloom vegetables and flowers between twin silos and an intimate Zen garden with a small gurgling pond. The Cottage Shop features lavender themed gifts and well-loved specialty soaps designed and handcrafted at the farm. The Garden Shed has spring and summer vegetables and flowers for sale, grown on the farm.
The farm grows serious fields of lavender and the air is always perfumed with the delicate scent of lavender. The woods have a wonderful handmade tree swing. There is an apiary at one end of the garden which visitors should not approach closely.
The proprietor of lovely Lavender Fields at Warrington Manor LLC, Marie Mayor, retired from an education career at various county, state and federal agencies to bring her Acadian French heritage and love of farming, herbs, and the good life to Delaware where her success is widely known and appreciated. Marie also served as Chair of the Southern Delaware Tourism Board among many other leadership roles in the community.
The Shimizu Garden in old town Lewes at 431 Kings Highway, Lewes, Delaware 19958 is a treasure of sophisticated design and exquisite collection of mostly perennial and woody plants. The ancient handsome three-hundred-year-old house is surrounded by garden rooms with fabulous fountains, sitting areas and several charming old out buildings. Children of all ages will enjoy the tiny fairy garden. Gardeners will admire the diversity and beauty of cultivars and the master artistic style pruning of shrubs and trees to bring out their best and give them expressive character, a schooling in taste by itself worth the visit. Even the pavings are amazing in materials and design and planted in places with a diverse collection of perfect plants for between pavers. The custom wood fencing is a work of art. This garden provides intense interest all seasons of the year.
This five-year-old garden is the creation of owners Osamu and Holly Shimizu, both retired professional horticulturists. Holly is emerita Managing Director of Lewis Ginter Botanic Garden and Executive Director of the United States Botanic Garden in Washington, DC, among many other leading roles in American and world horticulture. Osamu studied in Japan and Europe and has designed and installed private and public gardens in the mid-Atlantic, a highly esteemed Master of gardening arts and design.
Mill Pond Garden, the Farm and Garden Tour hosting venue, on Red Mill Pond at 31401 Melloy Court, Lewes, DE 19958, is a small, holistic, non-profit, public botanical garden, website at millpondgarden.com. The garden is a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat, a member of the American Public Garden Association, and a USDA Sentinel Garden. The three quarters of an acre of beautiful garden rooms is situated on Delaware’s largest 158-acre fresh water Red Mill Pond, with abundant wildlife including nesting resident Bald Eagles, Osprey, Great Blue and Green Herons, Cormorants, many species of ducks and geese, an Otter, a Beaver, and numerous other abundant birds, turtles, water birds and wildlife.
This is a walking garden designed for beauty, enjoyment, educating by displaying and providing information on the plants most beautiful and wildlife beneficial, sustainable, that do best here in the Cape region. The garden features fountains, a stream, waterfalls, a Koi pond, a Frog Pond Garden, woodland garden, fire pit, many arbors with ornamental vines, collections of ephemerals, Spirea, Camellia, Hellebores, Rhododendrons, a complete collection of Azalea poukenense, Roses, Hollies, Lilies, Phlox, evergreen groundcovers, 3 hibernaculums, several pollinator gardens, and homes for many native birds, reptiles, amphibians, and small mammals. Visitors might even see a resident 2.5 ounce Flying Squirrel peeping out of its box hole. The often highly fragrant garden, about 60% evergreen and 40% deciduous, has a lovely frontage onto beautiful Red Mill Pond with great vistas. Every season is floriferous for year-round garden appeal, including abundant flowering in winter, spectacular spring bulb displays, lush and lively annual and perennial summer displays. It is a garden for the senses and the spirit. Roses will be abundant for this Tour.
Mill Pond Garden, a federal IRS non-profit entity, was created by Michael Zajic, also founder of the Delaware Botanic Garden, after a career as Horticultural Supervisor of two botanic gardens, Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, and McCrillis Gardens in Bethesda, Maryland for the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission. Zajic has a long history in public horticulture including design of some of the prime gardens in the Washington, DC area, design of two world class light shows, a series on HGTV and Victory Garden, CBS Morning News Garden presenter, and more than a score of books, magazines, and newspapers of coverage of his own private gardens, as well as authorship of garden educational tracts and gardening articles for newspapers.
The 2021 Cape Farm and Garden Tour allows access not only to three of the most beautiful destinations in the Cape region at their peak, but also access to these talented and knowledgeable individuals who created them and will be on duty, a rich opportunity. Tour participants will experience three unique gardens and support nonprofit organizations that work to address Delaware food insecurity.
The Cape Farm and Garden Tour 2021 on Saturday, June 5, 2021 from 9 AM to Noon and from 1 PM to 4 PM, will raise money to benefit local food charities that serve this region. The Tour includes three beautiful venues – Lavender Fields at Warrington Manor, LLC, a working herb farm with gardens, Mill Pond Garden, Inc., a small gem of a public botanic garden on Red Mill Pond, and the famous Shimizu Garden in old town Lewes with charming, sophisticated garden rooms around a three-hundred-year-old house, rarely available to public access.