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| - I sprung for the membership last year, which is a bargain of insane proportions. If, like me, you like to wander around gardens (perhaps armed with your notebook and/or camera) at random times, the membership is amazing. A double membership (for you and one other person - I opted not to get a name on the second card so I can bring any date I choose!) is only $75 a year. Basically, it pays for itself after just a handful of visits.
I am a Phipps nerd. I mark things excitedly on my calendar like, 'FALL FLOWER SHOW!!!!' and 'MINIATURE RAILROAD OPENS TODAY!' with billions of little hearts around it.
And what I love about Phipps is that the staff is *just* as nerdy about plants as I am.
Phipps is committed to making botany cool and interesting. They bring in new stuff and constantly change and improve with each new season. And they're NAILING the social media thing - recently, their corpse flower, Romero, was doing one of his very-rare (and very-smelly) blooms, and not only did they stay open until 2am on back-to-back nights to let us all in to experience the stench, they alerted us all via Twitter, Facebook, and email instantly so the maximum number of people could take advantage of this uncommon occurrence. They even sold t-shirts for the occasion (I got one of course) and ran special events like Romero-tinis and stinky cheese plates, and a few showings of Night of the Living Dead in stinky-flower-vision!
(I would be remiss if I didn't mention the moment I got all teary-eyed waiting in a half-hour-long line to see Romero and just kept saying, 'Look at all these people coming to experience my garden!!!' I was so proud of *my* little botanical wonderland getting so much attention!)
On to the details!
Phipps brings in different flower shows for each season. They're all great, but the winter one is usually my favorite. They have an outdoor light garden you can visit, and all of the rooms are decorated for the holiday season. They frequently integrate art into their garden features, bringing in national and local artists, and often keeping remnants of past shows on display after the next show comes in.
And you should never just visit Phipps once - you need to do a daytime and a nighttime visit to get the very most out of it. Daytime is relaxing and rejuvenating, and you get a great chance to explore all of the plants up close and personal. But at night, the gardens transform into a magical fairyland that's just out of this world. The Serpentine Room is one of my favorites to visit at night - the fairy lights above the gardens transport you to a secret, beautiful world.
The gardens are open until 10pm on Fridays, and they often have other specials running on Friday evenings as well, like live music, dancing, and wine events. During the winter flower show,they are open late most nights so you can get the full effect of all the holiday lighting and candles.
There are both indoor and outdoor sections of Phipps, and another favorite spot of mine is the outdoor Bonsai garden and pond. There are benches there, and as long as the weather holds up, it's one of the best places in the City of Pittsburgh to sit down with a notebook and do some writing.
There's a lot of information about sustainable gardening and farming integrated in the displays and also promoted by the staff, and every effort is made to keep things 'green'. The docents are plentiful and super helpful. I know I talk their ears off sometimes asking questions, but I always appreciate it!
Also, here's a little hidden secret: if you're a member, you get unlimited visits to the gardens, so stop in on a day when Phipps is between shows. You might have limited access to certain rooms, but you can watch the magic as the new displays are being set up, and you can chat with the botanists on duty about what they're planning and get a great preview of the upcoming flower show. It's generally less-crowded on those days as well, so you have more time for photography and writing or sketching without feeling like you're in someone's way.
They have a cafe and gift shop on site (and the cafe serves wine), and during the summer months, there is a weekly farmers' market on the grounds outside of Phipps.
I think we Yinzers often take for granted what a magnificent resource we have at Phipps, and that's why I love my membership so much. At any time, I can slip away from city life and wander the grounds of a magical, earthy world and get my dose of nature after just a short bike ride. So, you know I'm pretty dang grateful that 'unlimited visits' really means 'unlimited' lol.
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