The Bower

05/25/2026

With our new Wed-Sat open garden hours people are popping up all over....rain or shine...to enjoy a stroll and show off their favorite hat

05/13/2026

New this season, no appointments necessary!

05/12/2026

New this year, no appointments required for general attendance.

If you'd like group tours or to have an organizational event please contact us via the contact form on our website.

04/04/2026

Hello again....Jane and I are looking forward to a new Bower year beginning May 16. We are celebrating our 50th year together on this land and our 6th year of The Bower Operations.

New this year, individual appointments will not be required or a limiting factor for attendance. We ask that you register on our website and check that we are open, but this year we will not limit attendance.

Our plan is to be open each Wednesday through Saturday for general attendance.

Large groups or those that would like to host a retreat or other event, and would like a garden tour shall make a request through our website.

For those new to The Bower, please check our website and check back here to learn about us.

10/31/2025

We have closed following a successful fifth season welcoming the public.

Here are a few images highlighting early autumn at The Bower.

We plan to open and see you again in mid-May 2026 during which we will be celebrating our 50 years in this wonderful place.

10/07/2025

We look forward to seeing you!

08/13/2025

Settin up the shots….A short video about The Bower and how we tell a story about our place within the Commonwealth designated Kittatinny Ridge Conservation Landscape, and more so its importance as a continental scale migratory corridor.

07/11/2025

Thanks to warm temps + summer rains, the garden is bursting with color—meadows, woodlands, and native blooms near their peak! 🌼✨

Come wander the trails, enjoy the sculptures, and soak in the beauty of the season. It’s all free and open to the public—bring a friend and a camera!

📍 The Bower: Native Plant Landscape and Sculpture Park

🆓 Free admission | All ages welcome | Rain or shine

Thanks to warm temps + summer rains, the garden is bursting with color—meadows, woodlands, and native blooms near their peak! Come wander the trails, enjoy the sculptures, and soak in the beauty of the season. It’s all free and open to the public—bring a friend and a camera!

📍 The Bower: Native Plant Landscape and Sculpture Park

🆓 Free admission | All ages welcome | Rain or shine

And now for these pics....

I finally encountered our new friend while toting my long lens about....still shots are helpful as his rapid movements and "stripieness" make him difficult to discern

The small red patch is his back and the longer red stripe is the underside

Hopefully we will soon see the caterpillars on our pawpaws

The zebra swallowtail butterfly (Eurytides marcellus) is a striking and elegant native butterfly found in the eastern United States, easily recognized by its long, narrow wings adorned with black and white stripes and trailing tails. In the spring and summer sunlight, it flashes hints of iridescent blue and red near its body, making it one of the most beautiful butterflies in its range.

This butterfly has a specialized and intimate relationship with the pawpaw tree (Asimina triloba), the only host plant for its larvae. Female zebra swallowtails lay their eggs exclusively on young pawpaw leaves, where the emerging caterpillars feed and grow. This host specificity is not just ecological but chemical—the caterpillars ingest compounds called acetogenins from the pawpaw, which make them distasteful to predators, offering them a crucial form of protection.

The pawpaw tree, a native understory species in moist, shady woodlands, thus plays a critical role in the life cycle of the zebra swallowtail. Without pawpaws, the butterfly cannot reproduce successfully. In turn, the butterfly helps to highlight the ecological importance of preserving native plant species and the delicate interdependence of flora and fauna in North American forest ecosystems.

Planting or protecting pawpaw trees can directly support zebra swallowtail populations, making this relationship a compelling example of how native landscaping and conservation can nurture biodiversity.

07/06/2025

06/30/2025

See you soon!