Just up ahead, you’ll spot Sherwood Gardens as a wide, rolling green park with huge, blooming bursts of tulips and azaleas, surrounded by neat lawns and clusters of tall, leafy trees - it’s the one that looks like nature decided to throw itself a fancy springtime party!
Welcome to Sherwood Gardens, a magical six-acre carpet of grass, tulips, and color right in Baltimore’s Guilford neighborhood. Imagine you’re back in the 1800s: this whole spot would have been a big pond, part of the huge Guilford estate owned by A. S. Abell, the founder of The Baltimore Sun. The pond is gone now, but if you listen hard, maybe you’ll hear a splash or two from way back when. It was only in 1912 that the area was filled in, and the famous Olmsted Brothers named this open green space “Stratford Green.”
Fast forward to the roaring 1920s - picture flappers, jazz, and one John W. Sherwood, a man who loved tulips almost as much as he loved a good business deal. He was the son of the president of Baltimore’s “Old Bay Line” and later bossed around the Sinclair Oil Company. Sherwood started planting tulip beds on his property, right next to Stratford Green, and he wasn’t stingy with his blooms - he imported them straight from the Netherlands and invited the public to visit every May. It must have looked like the gardens were hosting a secret party only the flowers knew about.
When Sherwood passed on in 1965, the gardens became the pride of the Guilford Association and then Stratford Green, Inc. Today, these gardens are technically private, but they stay open to everyone, all year, just waiting for you to wander through. And here’s the real scoop: every Memorial Day weekend, they host the great “Tulip Dig,” where you can dig up and take home your very own tulip bulbs. Imagine a bustling, slightly chaotic treasure hunt - don’t forget your gardening gloves, or you might meet one mischievous tulip bulb that just refuses to budge. For now, just breathe in the fresh air, take in the color, and let Sherwood Gardens work its quiet magic.
