‘Secret Garden’ in Chadds Ford Beckons the COVID Weary with a Promise of Summer

“I can’t help but to think that, when people come to this garden, we’re selling them the biggest smile,” said Bruce Mowday. “Everybody here is so happy to be out of the house, and they’re taking a minute to smell the flowers.”

Mowday manages Styer’s Festival of the Peony at Hill Girt Farm in Chadds Ford, reports Matteo Iadonisis for 6ABC.

The Styer family started a nursey in the 1880s, preserving acres of Chadds Ford land.

Today, Styer’s Peonies is a wholesale provider of flowers to grocers and florists along the East Coast.

The Styer fields were an appropriate hotspot in the COVID spring of 2020 and are popular again this year as a mask-less outdoor experience.

Some customers, and Mowday, see the symbolism of these returning flowers and coming out of last year.

“I mean, it’s been very long since we are able to do this,” said Lynn Marks of Newtown Square. “So, this is a great day to share with loved ones.”

Not that many even know this two dozen acres of flowers exist.

“We have lived here for 35 years, and this is the first time we’ve been here,” said Sharon Sweinberg of Newtown Square.

Read more about Styer’s Festival of the Peony at 6ABC.