The Garden Conservancy Open Days™ program is finding vibrant new roots in a city bursting with horticultural energy and community spirit: Detroit. The success of last year’s Detroit Garden Weekend, anchored by the spectacular Oudolf Garden Detroit (OGD), is fostering a bold vision for the future of Open Days in the Midwest.
The momentum began with Meredith Simpson, Chief Operating Officer at the Friends of the Oudolf Garden. Her love for gardening and her hometown sparked the region’s inclusion in the Open Days program. Simpson shared the immediate drive behind the effort: “Working with Oudolf Garden Detroit, we have such a fantastic community of gardeners and garden volunteers. When I met the Open Days team and saw the 2024 Directory, with nothing in Michigan, I thought, we must change this! So I worked with our team to fill out our first Open Day, and now we’re off and running.”
With that energy, the metro area soon had five Open Days gardens, plus a Digging Deeper event at OGD that delved into the gardening philosophy of renowned Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf, and a Garden Masters event on the interplay of architecture and landscape at the iconic Dorothy H. Turkel House, a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in historic Palmer Woods. With the Detroit Garden Weekend proving a resounding success, Simpson says that she’s determined to demonstrate that Detroit is indeed a premier garden destination.
Detroit’s Open Days in June showcased the personal passion and ingenuity of the area’s gardeners. Attendees were captivated by the creativity on display, which Simpson observed firsthand, and the local pride was unmistakable. “A local garden club member wrote to say she was ‘beaming with pride for my hometown!’ after attending the event. I think I was beaming as well,” says Simpson.
Beyond the lush plantings, Simpson points out that Detroit stands out as the only UNESCO City of Design in the United States, offering a truly immersive weekend getaway. It is, as Simpson describes it, an affordable city that truly shines.
Looking ahead, OGD is positioning itself as a world-class teaching garden and a hub for ecological horticulture. Their goal is not just to preserve the garden in perpetuity, but to share the knowledge needed to thrive, with plans to expand their endowment, bring on additional staff, and host an annual garden intern.
Guests will be invited to volunteer and “dig deep into Piet’s different planting styles” alongside the horticulture team.
Going forward, Simpson would like to involve public gardens, including celebrated sites like Cranbrook House & Gardens, the Edsel & Eleanor Ford House, and Matthaei Botanical Gardens in Ann Arbor, and community-focused gems like Detroit Abloom and Circle Forest at Arboretum Detroit.
Such an expansion, she says, would elevate the profession of horticulture and recognize that the work done by gardeners is vital “to biodiversity, to our communities, and to mental health.”
Top Photo: Ryan Southen
