Visit Kingwood Center in Mansfield Ohio
An Estate With Heritage Gardens in a Midwestern State
Aug 27, 2008
The Kingwood Center grounds are home to garden rooms, bronze sculpture, and small wildlife. Visitors will find a tranquil place to soak up garden ideas from creative display gardens, greenhouse sales held by garden groups or by utilizing the horticultural library.
A Sunken Garden
The sunken garden is one of several outdoor rooms, part of the original formal gardens. It is outlined with grass pathways on either side, two sets of stone steps, facing each other, leading down into the garden. The center is marked with an urn planter completing the symmetry. Tall hedges surround the garden creating a quiet environment.
Kingwood’s well-known tulip displays are planted in the sunken garden every year. Later, annuals and large leaved tropicals fill the garden beds for the summer.
Garden Rooms and Plant Collections
Garden rooms and plant collections have evolved and expanded over the years. In addition to the outdoor gardens, there are several greenhouses open all year.
The cactus and succulent greenhouse contains a collection of desert plants. Some grow in trough planters made of hypertufa. Visit this greenhouse during December when many Schlumbergera, Christmas cactus, are blooming. Another area to visit during holiday seasons is the display greenhouse where bright spring bulbs, autumn chrysanthemums or Christmas poinsettias flourish.
The tropical greenhouse is home to lush foliage plants like banana palms or bird of paradise with its exotic flowers. No chemicals are used to control unwanted insects in this greenhouse. Instead predator, parasites and mechanical solutions are used; keep the camera handy in case a beneficial lizard is spotted.
Plant combinations offer imaginative ideas for the home gardener to replicate. Red Nicotiana with Swiss chard ‘Bright Lights’ mix annual flowers with vegetable plants. The blending of blue flowered Salvia next to Nicotiana ‘Lime Green’ is another unexpected look.
In the courtyard garden, a Xanthosoma with golden leaves is planted with red coleus, Setcreasea pallida purple heart, a traditional indoor plant, and the lime green of Ipomoea batatas ‘Margarita.’
Peony, daylily, iris and rose plant collections are among the displays at Kingwood Center. Gardeners will find an herb garden, perennial gardens, woodland and large plantings of annuals offering a place of inspiration for every type of gardener.
An Orangery
The long narrow orangery is located off the exhibit hall, near the courtyard garden and greenhouses. The floor to ceiling windows let in streaming sunlight for seasonal displays and protection for tender plants from freezing temperatures.
In this orangery a large aquarium provides a home for fish and plant life. It lights up an otherwise dark corner.
Kingwood Mansion and Horticultural Library
Built in 1926 for Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kelley King, this mansion sits on a 47-acre estate. The French provincial styled 3-story house has 26 rooms. Today, the library, reading room and Mr. King’s office are part of a horticultural library.
The estate is not a botanical garden, however, the library has 8,500 volumes and is considered the best Ohio library on the subject of gardening. It includes a collection of seed and nursery catalogs and references on nature and minerals. The lending library’s catalogue is connected to the Mansfield-Richland County Public Library. Since 1953, Kingwood Center has been open free to the public.
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