Sherwood Gardens is Abloom in Baltimore, MD

The time is now: Sherwood Gardens is Abloom in Baltimore, MD with its annual show of flowering trees and plants. I love this time of year when we make our annual visit to the gardens begun in 1927 by John Sherwood. Gardening was his hobby then, and over the years his private garden has become public; it is now owned by a neighborhood association in Baltimore City. Over the years, Sherwood Gardens has grown to become one of the largest tulip gardens in the country with over 80,000 bulbs planted each fall. After they bloom, many are dug up and sold to the public over Memorial Day weekend – another Baltimore tradition.

Many people know about the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC that happens every year at the beginning of April. That's when the hundreds of cherry trees around the Tidal Basin near the Jefferson Memorial reach their peak. But you don't have to go to DC to enjoy cherry blossoms – the cherry trees at Sherwood Gardens are beautiful now. Since many of the trees were planted long ago, they are large and put on a magnificent show each spring.

Combine the beautiful pale or bright pink cherry blossoms with the brilliant colors of the tulips, and you have a springtime flower treasury. In about a week, the azaleas will add their brilliance to the show. There was one tree with wonderful rumpled bark; I think it might be a sycamore, but I'm no arborist - I just like the texture.

Since Sherwood Gardens is in the middle of the Guilford neighborhood, you pass some magnificent old homes while looking for a place to park. The gardens, surrounded by these homes, make for a stress-relieving mid-day vacation. I make it a point to visit Sherwood Gardens every year when they are abloom.