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Townsend Hall Garden

The Townsend Hall courtyards and entrance gardens feature unique plants that ordinarily cannot grow in northern Delaware. The microclimate created by the warmth and shelter of the building keeps the two courtyards at the back of the building warmer in winter. These conditions allow plants from USDA Zone 8 and some Zone 9 to thrive in this protected spot. Beds of succulents including agave, yucca, and cacti beautify the south entrance of Townsend. A wide range of broadleaf evergreens including Daphniphyllum macropodum, camellias, Southern oaks, evergreen viburnums, sweetspires (Itea sp.), and mahonias provide a year-round display. Plants such as daphne, false holly or sweet olive (Osmanthus sp.), magnolias, and paperbush (Edgeworthia papyrifera) fill these courtyards with their fragrance during the fall and spring. With its diversity of marginal evergreen trees, shrubs, and succulents, the Townsend Hall Collection is a fabulous garden for viewing plants rarely seen in Delaware.