Ladew Topiary Gardens — Attraction in Bel Air

We visited today. The topiary gardens are pretty yet not valued at $17 per person. Pricing is steep & felt a bit exclusive. A good number of people can't afford these prices! Is this really a nonprofit?? Unsure why they don't have signage letting visitors know to park first then pay. The payment booth is on the left before you see the parking lot. A white lady was given a pass for parking outside the booth and paying before parking in the lot. When my senior brother & I pulled behind her car, to do the same, we were told we needed to immediately move our car, park & then pay. It felt very unwelcoming. It's possible this scenario reflected a double standard for white & non white patrons. I suggest that administration inform staff to put up signage & implement the practice uniformly, equitably on parking. Some of the personnel were friendly yet did not know the names of unmarked plants when we inquired. I suggest that personnel or volunteers place plant IDs near the plants so that patrons know what they are seeing. This is helpful in case patrons want to learn about the plants or purchase some of their own in the future. Other gardens that we've visited provide plant ID markers. These other gardens are nearly in our backyards, & cost less money, some are for free! Regardless, that did not stop our family from enjoying each other's company & the day. Don't think we'll be returning. There are other places we'd prefer to return to and explore that are...

This is only in response to the admission booth. My sister was in town from Alexandria VA. She is looking for a new place to call home. We had an appointment at 2 pm with a realtor. A quick search on the map pulled up beautiful Ladew Cafe. The parking lot had maybe 10 cars when we arrived. I saw a path thar appeared to be the cafe, but my sister wanted to check in with the admissions to make sure all was copasetic. We waited for maybe 25 minutes while the booth lady had a personal conversation. We were the only other people in line. Once it was finally our turn we informed the woman that we were only interested in lunch. She told us we had to pay $20 per person for admission. My sister explained again we only wanted to have lunch and then we would be immediately leaving and would not be visiting the grounds and gardens. She denied us, then when I asked to use the bathroom she threatened that we better be quick. 😮She was very unwelcoming and unconcconcerned as she had her personal conversation. There was never an apology of any kind while we waited for her to finish her personal conversation. Mind you we could have just walked down the path and had lunch and no one would have cared or known. But in stopping to do the right thing we were treated unkindly. This isn't about the lunch, there was a place 5 minutes up the street it was simply about her...

This is mostly review of the Annual Garden Festival that Ladew Topiary Gardens hosts. I attended the festival this past weekend and honestly left feeling very underwhelmed, especially for the price paid for admission. The event is advertised as one of the mid Atlantic's largest plant and garden festival, attracting vendors from up and down the East Coast. While I did see some businesses making treks from as far away as South Carolina, the amount and selection of products left a lot to be desired. The festival uses a tiered pricing scheme, with earlier in the day tickets costing as much as $50 for entry and decreasing as the day goes on. This is a bold price to charge, as the Baltimore City Flower Mart happened the same day and was free to the public. Yes, there are some interesting oddities from vendors present at the festival, however I was easily able to browse the entire festival from start to finish in about an hour. The Timonium Fairgrounds Home and Garden Show costs a fraction of the price of the Garden Festival, yet has 5x the amount of vendors present. On a positive note, touring the topiary grounds was a nice touch that helped me rationalize the ticket price. Overall, this is a niche festival that is not worth anything above a $10 entry. Paying $30+ for the chance to shop is a bit of a stretch for even the most devout...