The demonstration garden areas at the Donohoe Center are known as the Richard E. Thorn Memorial Demonstration Gardens. They are open to the public year-round and show home gardeners how a variety of ornamental and edible plants perform in western Pennsylvania.
A view of some of the garden areas. Penn State
The gardens at the Donohoe Center known as the Richard E. Thorn Memorial Gardens, feature annual and perennial plants, herbs, spring ephemerals, and more. The "cottage garden" is planted with tried-and-true flowers, and a vegetable plot shows backyard growers how to raise fresh produce. The site also includes deer-resistant plants, a pollinator-friendly garden, and a composting area.
The demonstration gardens hold tours, programs, and an open house yearly. Master Gardeners have put together plant lists and/or maps for many of the garden areas. You can access them here.
Garden Areas:
Annual
Each year the two annual garden beds change with designs and popular plants of the season.
Conifer
The dwarf conifer garden has been in place since 2002. It contains a variety of decorative evergreens in all shapes and sizes that are found in Western PA landscapes. Stay tuned for new education on the care of conifers that will be available to our visitors.
Cottage
Highlights popular tried and true old-fashioned plants enjoyed by our grandparents.
Daylily
The daylily garden has over 90 Hemerocallis cultivars, hybrids of the old-fashioned orange and yellow daylilies. Daylily cultivars are adaptable perennials that come in various colors and sizes and can flourish in a garden for many years. July is the peak bloom time.
Deer Resistant
The deer-resistant garden at Donohoe Center was established in 2017 to feature plants rated as unpopular among our cervid (a.k.a. deer) neighbors. Annual growth noting any deer damage is monitored to evaluate the nursery rating of these plants. The public can view the ongoing growth as these are unfenced and not sprayed with deer repellent.
Four Seasons
The garden incorporates something in bloom from each of the four seasons in Western Pennsylvania. Spring brings Narcissus and pussy willow. Summer shows off with butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) and flowering shrubs. Fall flowers include sedum. Winter delights with the witch hazel.
Herb
Established in 1995, the herb garden delights the senses. Each garden segment showcases herbs for different uses: culinary, fragrance, teas, folklore, international cuisine, and ornamental use. Visit during the growing season, and you will be sure to discover an herb you want to add to your garden.
Grossheim Memorial
The garden area was planted in memory of Butch Grossheim, a Master Gardener of Westmoreland County. Originally planted with a Japanese garden theme, the garden now reflects the importance of native plants and removing invasive non-native plants. The spaces are slowly filling with native woodland perennials and shrubs, including spring ephemerals, all so important to our local ecosystem. A natural flagstone path demonstrating various ground covers leads to a restful glider under the arbor.
Harrold Memorial
Borders the parking lot and features large shrubs.
Perennial
An emphasis of this garden is to highlight the perennial plant of the year and those plants that bloom during different seasons.
Pollinator Lane
A children's pollinator garden, started in 2022, which features plants from A to Z for a fun and educational experience for budding gardeners.
Rock
Contains plants that grow in rocky, dry areas.
Shade
The shade garden was established in the autumn of 2019 and further developed in 2021. It features a variety of shade-tolerant plants, including spring and summer-blooming native woodland perennials. This is an underplanted bed beneath mature trees that provide the shade canopy.
Vegetable & Insectary Border
The vegetable garden started in 2001, showcasing various new, heirloom, and tried-and-true vegetables for our plant hardiness zone. Produce is harvested throughout the growing season and donated to the community through the food bank and soup kitchens. The insectary border is planted in native pollinator plants to encourage successful pollination of the vegetable plants.
Welcome
Near the entrance to the gardens from the parking lot, with a mixture of native and ornamental plants.
Winterberry
The winterberry holly (Ilex verticillata 'Red Sprite') bed was established in September 2014. Winterberry holly is a dioecious species, meaning that female and male flowers are on different plants. 'Red Sprite' is a female cultivar that requires a male cultivar like 'Jim Dandy' to grow nearby to set fruit and attract birds to the garden. This garden demonstrates two landscape applications: an underplanting of mature flowering trees and a mass planting of a single species.
Located at 214 Donohoe Road, Greensburg, PA 15601
