Play With Animals At Brandywine Zoo, Then Explore The Grounds Of Marian Coffin Gardens In Delaware

There is nothing like a day out in a city where you can easily take in not one, but two different attractions. Wilmington, Delaware, is one of those cities. At a little over 17 square miles, it’s the largest city in the state and there’s a ton of things to do here. For example, you could start your day off at Brandywine Zoo in Delaware to check out the animals and then head just seven minutes away to the Marian Coffin Gardens to check out the flora.

Opened in 1905 and accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, Brandywine Zoo is located across from Brandywine Park.

Although modest in size at 4.7 acres, the zoo boasts an assortment of rare (and fun) animals to observe and even interact with.

If you’re a bird lover, you’ve come to the right place. Here, you can see the planet’s biggest bird of prey, the Andean Condor. There are two living at Brandywine Zoo, a male and female.

The other feathered creatures you’ll see include a sandhill crane, two western burrowing owls, two bald eagles, and two toco toucans. And in the Barnyard, you’ll find chickens (and goats too!).

And then there’s the red pandas, an endangered species with under 10,000 left in the world. Here, you can watch two play, eat, sleep, and just be very adorable in general.

Other special animals at Brandywine Zoo include two pudus (the world’s smallest deer) and a female capybara.

The zoo is also home to a Florida bobcat. You may have to look closely for this wild cat as it enjoys hiding within the foliage of its habitat.

This is just a small sample of what you’ll encounter here. There’s also North American porcupines, a green tree python, radiated tortoises, prehensile-tailed skinks, lemurs, scarlet ibises, white-faced sakis, golden lion tamarins, and more.

Once you’ve finished up at the zoo, head just under two miles to the iron gates of the Marian Coffin Gardens on Greenville Avenue.

The gardens are named for Marian Cruger Coffin, one of the first female professional landscape architects in America, who rose to fame during the early 1900s when women in architecture were a rare thing. This garden was her work, in addition to Winterthur, located just under four miles away, and over 100 other famous places like Caumsett Estate in New York.

Although not open to the public or maintained at all, there is also a mansion on site that lies behind the stone wall, built in the 1840s. The garden came later in the early 1900s.

The garden fell into disrepair by the 1960s, but was thankfully restored to its grandeur in the 1990s.

While the flora in this "secret" garden changes based upon the seasons, just some of the beautiful flowers you’ll be able to see include magnolias, azaleas, tulips, peonies, irises, roses, water lilies, gladioluses, Spanish bluebells, and more.

Each area here was designed to be almost its very own “room” in an Italianate Beaux Arts style with terraces, staircases, shrubs, trees, flowers, stone pieces, fountains, and statues adorning the 80-acre garden.

Visit Brandywine Zoo in Delaware on the web to learn current hours of operation, admission fees, and more. The Marian Coffin Gardens are free to explore and are usually open from dawn until dusk. Check out Preservation Delaware for the most up-to-date information.