Gardens
The Gardens at Whipps Garden Cemetery
Whipps Garden Cemetery includes numerous small gardens surrounding the gravestones including the Rose Garden, Butterfly Garden, and Iris Garden. After the daffodil early spring blossoms, bright yellow Celandine poppies cover the cemetery followed by Virginia Bluebells, day lilies, phlox, and other summer flowers. The early tradition of adding liriope along the pathways continues today. Many benches, angels and bird baths are placed throughout for the public's enjoyment.
Rose Garden
Master Gardeners designed, built and maintain the Rose Garden. This is one of the few sunny spaces in the cemetery, and a small stream flows through the area. A dry creek bed was added to accommodate water run-off in 2007.
Branch & Twigs Garden
This area is maintained by a Howard County Garden Club and includes one of the many benches where visitors may rest and enjoy the flowers. It includes an assortment of native plants. Included are hosta, bleeding heart, Virginia Bluebells, and nandina. This garden is a favorite spot for photographers.
Herb Garden
This parterre garden was created to honor Barbara Seig and her vision to restore Whipps Cemetery. She spent more than 25 years studying, designing, and working to restore Whipps Cemetery.
Gaw Family Garden
A large triple-shaped stone marks the graves of all six of the Gaw’s children (inscribed on one gravestone) who died within a decade of each other from 1846 to 1857. Many children are buried at Whipps, which is a sad reminder of the poor health conditions prevailing in the 1800s.
Cross Country Garden Club
This section, near the iron-gate entrance, features large English boxwood and a stone angel looking down from its pedestal. The garden club, together with Master Gardeners re-designed the area and added shade-tolerant heritage and native shrubs and perennials. A memorial redbud tree (Cercis canadensis) was planted here to honor the historic preservation and horticultural efforts of Bette Chambers, past president and long-time member of Cross Country Garden Club.
Daffodil Demonstration Garden
This garden was designed in 2017 by Master Gardener Bob Glascock and planted by Bob and fellow volunteers Wes Phipps and Dorothy Moore. It features twelve different divisions of daffodils and over 800 planted bulbs.
Sibling of the Wye Oak
The oldest white oak in the U.S. stood for more than 450 years in Wye Mills, near Easton, MD. It was 31 ft. in circumference, 96 feet tall, and had a 119 ft. crown spread. The Wye Oak was toppled during a thunderstorm in 2002. It was cloned by a horticulturist at the University of Maryland by grafting buds from the tree onto seedlings from its acorns.
Butterfly/Pollinator Garden
This garden was created in 2008 and has many colorful flowers and native plants that attract butterflies and pollinators. Among the plants are: Monarda, Butterfly Weed , Catmint, Golden Rod, Coreopsis, Veronica, Helianthus among others.
Fern Garden
This shady section was recently reformatted and includes Christmas ferns, evergreen ferns, hostas and hydrangea.
Woodland Theatre
A rustic outdoor theater was built in 2007 as an Eagle Scout Project by Eric Suydam and Boy Scout Troop 1997. It was patterned after a theater at Monticello, and serves as a space for horticultural
presentations with seating for up to 30. White oaks shade the tranquil setting.
Whipps Family Garden
Early in the restoration, a line of broken and damaged gravestones was discovered nearby and relocated to the cemetery. Included were stones of William Whipps and his son, Samuel. An archaeologist helped restore many of the broken gravestones and William Whipps’ gravestone was the first to be mended. Day lilies, often planted in old cemeteries, cover the area behind the gravestones. Vinca spreading among the daffodils provide bright spring blooms. Liriope borders the front edge.