Today we’re in Youngstown, Ohio, visiting the Fellows Riverside Gardens, a beautiful spot that is gorgeous, extensive, and completely free to all visitors thanks to a dedicated group of donors, staff, and volunteers.

There are impressive formal garden plantings, with geometric stonework, perfectly clipped hedges, and exuberantly colorful annuals, all guiding the eye on to the water fountains. The names on the bricks thank some of the many people who have donated to keep this garden looking great and open to the public.

Side paths take you into informal shaded gardens, like these beautiful plantings of hostas and a bench framed by two huge dawn redwoods (Metasequoia glyptostroboides, Zones 4–8).

The rose garden is full of beauties, like this bloom of the rose ‘Elle’.

One of the best small trees or large shrubs is seven sons flower (Heptacodium miconioides, Zones 5–9). It can look awkward when young, but as it matures it turns into a beautiful plant like this and gives a wonderful flower display late in the summer when most trees and shrubs are long done blooming.

The honeybees like the flowers too.

The setting sun helps show off how beautiful this garden is.

Here the paths wind through dense plantings of ornamental grasses and other perennials.

A spectacular old weeping beech (Fagus sylvatica ‘Pendula’, Zones 4–7) is one of the many beautiful trees in the garden.

A long vista up to the fountains features colorful flowers like this impatiens (Impatiens walleriana, Zones 10–11 or as an annual) lining the edge.

And don’t miss the dahlia garden! There are tons of beautiful plants there, looking their absolute best now at the tail end of summer.

Visit the Fellows Riverside Gardens’ website to learn more about this magical place.

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