Good to Know: May 2025
Just a few things we’d thought you’d like to know this month
Garden Celebs
Congratulations to Longwood Gardens, recently voted the best botanical garden in the country by USA Today readers — beating out the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, Florida’s Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and Tucson Botanical Gardens — and named to Time’s 2025 list of the World’s Greatest Places. All the accolades attracted the attention of lifestyle guru Martha Stewart, who visited last month and raved about the gardens’ gorgeous blooms and 1906 restaurant. 1001 Longwood Rd., Kennett Square. LongwoodGardens.org.
History Reimagined
Historic Yellow Springs recently celebrated the grand opening of the Fraley Art Studio, transforming the village’s last remaining vacant building into an interactive studio and community hub for arts, culture, history and education. Originally built in the mid-1800s, the building has served as a general store, post office, private residence and offices. Now, it houses modern studios and learning spaces for artists, students and the community. 1671 Art School Rd., Chester Springs. YellowSprings.org.
More Murals
The halls of Pickney Hills Commons at the Melton Center are becoming more colorful. Downingtown artist Adrian Martinez is painting three murals, one on each floor, depicting famous faces of different backgrounds, including actors Benicio del Toro and Cynthia Erivo along with scientist Albert Einstein, all wearing tribal outfits with long, streaming ribbons. The ribbons will be painted by the children of Pickney Hills and their families. 500 E. Market St., West Chester. WestChesterCommunityCenter.org.
Native Guide
To celebrate National Garden Month, the Brandywine Conservancy launched the Brandywine Native Garden Hub, a new online resource designed to inspire gardeners to incorporate native plants into their landscape. This free, user-friendly website serves as both an educational guide and interactive database, where users can search for and learn about native plants of Pennsylvania and northern Delaware, save their favorites to personalized “Garden Boards” and browse educational resources. NativeGardenHub.org.
Local Reads
Add two new books by local authors to your reading list. In “Gettysburg Mysteries and More: Unexplained Personal Paranormal Phenomena” (Regent Press), Bruce E. Mowday details several unexplained experiences while researching history. And Gina Marie Wilson draws on her experience as a software engineer in Malvern in “Silicon Valley East” (Bayfront Press), a novel about a young woman working in the tech industry during the 1980s. Find them at your local independent bookstore. Mowday.com. GinaMarieWilson.com.
