gardens not candy bar. 🙂
Although, Milton Hershey did create the 5¢ Hershey candy bar in 1900 with the almond variety being added in 1908. According to Candy Central this year, the simple Hershey Bar still ranks #4 in the world as most popular.
In 1937, he wanted to build a nice 3.5 acre rose garden for his community with a special area devoted to his wife, Catherine. Today it covers 23 acres of botanical delight and includes around 7,000 rose bushes.
So, last Friday, my sister-in-law and I headed west from Reading to check out the gardens.
Situated below the 5-star Hotel Hershey and
above the Hershey Amusement Park and Hershey Park Stadium, the gardens include an amazing variety of rare trees, shrubs, and roses. There is also a very nice hands-on children’s garden.
It has nice wide walking paths through the gardens, but it is situated on a hill so it is not like walking on a flat surface. It might provide a slight challenge for some.
Next to the beauty of the vast rose garden is the unbelievable wonder of the Butterfly Atrium. I’ve been to butterfly exhibits before, but never have I seen 25 varieties with about 300 flying around.
It is a very inviting garden, and a wonderful place to spend a few hours enjoying the interesting selection of trees, shrubs, and flowers. We even saw a wedding that was taking place under an archway in the rose garden.
Milton Hershey summed up the garden best when he said:
The more beautiful you can make the place look, the better life the people will have.
I enjoyed all of the photos but the roses are my favorites. Now we have to talk chocolate. Do they still offer the factory tour? We took our kids there over 30 years ago. Just thinking about it makes me want a Hershey kiss.
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They do, but on Friday they also had a car show in the same area, and there were so many people they were turning cars away from the parking areas. I decided that I might be better off avoiding that crush of people, but it was painful to do. 🙂
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Beautiful!
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Welcome home! This garden is indeed stunning. So glad you and your s-in-l got to enjoy it. Gorgeous roses, and that black (think it’s black) butterfly with the white markings is exquisite.
I would have been devouring Hershey Dark Candy Kisses throughout the entire tour!!
🔹 Ginger 🔹
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They didn’t have a cafe on site at the gardens, but they did happen to sell Hershey bars in the gift shop. 🙂
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We took our daughters to Hershey—the factory and the amusement park—when they were young teens. Oh, what a good time we had! And the whole place smelled of chocolate. Didn’t know there were gardens, too. Lovely!
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You look right down from the gardens onto the amusement park. I can imagine how much fun those girls had. 🙂
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We all had a blast!
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Beautiful photos, Judy. I’ve been to the other Hershey attractions, but I’ve never been to the gardens. Thanks for sharing a little of what you saw. Now, did you at least have a candy bar?
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I’m sitting her laughing out loud because the answer is ‘no.’ We were headed over to Chocolate World to take the tour and eat some chocolate, but the crowds there and at the car show were just unbelievable. I can’t complain though because I certainly do contribute on a regular basis to the Hershey profits. 🙂
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If you don’t, you can take credit for some of my surplus.
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I visited the gardens years ago and was so glad to be able to see them again, thanks t you.
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Oh, this makes me smile, Lillian. I am so glad we could share it. 🙂
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I love visiting botanical gardens, and the butterfly conservatory sounds delightful!
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You would have certainly enjoyed it because of the gorgeous flowers and the unique trees and shrubs. 🙂
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Beautiful garden, and images! I would have loved it here. Those butterflies are gorgeous. There were some I’ve never seen before!
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The large brown one with what looked like an eye was blue when he opened his wings. It was a fun time for sure. 🙂
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I’ve never been to Hershey but I’ve certainly heard of it from many people who have visited. This is the first time I’m hearing about the rose garden though. I think Milton Hershey was a rare visionary to realize that when employees are treated well with good work/home conditions they are happy and therefore more productive. I wish more companies thought that way today.
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It sure would make ‘working’ a lot more fun wouldn’t it. 🙂
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Yup! So would an open bar, but for some reason that is frowned upon 😉
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What a lovely idea to plan a garden for sharing with the community.
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Milton Hershey is so right that people can have a better life in beautiful surroundings & what a great legacy to build such a beautiful garden. The roses and butterflies look wonderful.
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This must be what the Garden of Eden looked like! Everything’s so perfect!
What I also find interesting is that the 5 cent Hershey candy bar was “invented” and priced in 1900. I was born in 1948 and around the time I was eight years old, my sisters and I were allowed to walk three blocks* to a neighborhood grocery store to buy candy. Hershey bars were 5 cents and “penny candy” was little bites like Mary Janes and Squirrels and gum balls. (The former two were outright murder on one’s teeth!) I’m surprised that 5 cent price lasted so long, unless the bar shrank significantly in size over the 50+ years before I was a customer!
I have learned so many interesting things by faithfully reading here! And comments of others add to the fun of discovery!
*YES! Three blocks! Three sisters! ALONE! No GPS tracking, no helmets, no cell phones, no Amber alert! The times, they sure were different!
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I’ve just jotted down the number for child welfare so I can report your mother. What do you mean – no GPS, no helmet, no cell phone? You mean, a child just walking around their neighborhood with no fear? Those were the days. 🙂 Now, picture me living next door to a candy store in those days. I’d take a soda bottle or two back and get pennies in return which I would then buy penny candy. Penny candy that was not individually wrapped – oh, the horrors. 🙂 I love Hershey bars and probably always will, but now I also love the man behind the candy and his beautiful community gardens.
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Such beauty! But those roses!!
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I don’t recall ever visiting these gardens. We went to the amusement park when I was a kid in the 70s and toured the factory (back when you went through the factory and not the later tourist facility). Saw my first concert at Hershey Arena. Ah, memories! The gardens look so lovely. I would enjoy seeing them. Thanks.
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Glad this brought back fun memories for you. 🙂 The crowd of people for that car show and chocolate factory tour blew me away, and the amusement park wasn’t even open. I can’t imagine the thousands of people that move through there on a daily basis in the summer. The gardens were much easier to maneuver and more calming, at least for this woman. 🙂
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I don’t care much for crowds, either!
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You had me with the word “Hershey”! Oh, those wicked little squares! They tasted so good and melted so fast in a summer car! Or in my pocket. We’re in the grip of some autumn gloom right now, so these photos are all the more wonderful, as are the memories that come with thoughts of Hershey bars. Though my memories pre-date Joyce’s, I too remember that store on the corner and the penny candy therein. Thanks for the visit to the garden and the visit to that store!
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It was truly a beautiful garden, and thank you for the memory of melted chocolate in my uniform jumper pocket. 🙂 It has been gloom and doom here as well. It is either raining or gray and dreary. We’ve got 10,000 without power because of high winds coming through last night.
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NO!! I had no idea New England had been hit by such winds! That gloom is so disheartening, especially with all else going on. I hope you have some good chocolate in your pockets now. (I bet your mom was as delighted as mine was with those gooey pockets.)
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That looks like a wonderful day, especially the butterflies! But . . . no chocolate? A girl can’t live on flowers and butterflies alone, you know!
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My motto exactly. 🙂
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Ah, very nice. I like his take on beautiful places. I’m a believer!
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But you didn’t get a tour of the chocolate factory? Do they offer free samples?
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We decided not to tour because of the unbelievable crowd there for that and the car show. But, in the gardens gift shop they were ‘selling’ Hershey candy. 🙂
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I hope you waved hello to my sister there while you visited there! What a fun day. 🙂
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