The Gardens at Soledad were designed and executed by the current owner, Robert Hollenshead. Nothing existed when he acquired the property except space and a dream. He believes the garden is a language. It is an opportunity to communicate with anyone inclined to listen. Music, painting, writing, architecture, and the garden are all a means of communicating with others. They all live on after the creator has gone. You can express your knowledge, inclinations, commitments, abilities, dedications, skill, and love of life through all of these disciplines. The gardens at Soledad are Robert's attempt to enter a conversation with the visitor.

After years of travel, study, trial and error, the gardens have evolved into one of the largest and most intricate examples of privately owned formal gardens in the Philadelphia region.  They consist of over twelve thousand hand sheered boxwoods, ewe, and countless plant material from around the world. Our seasonal display is constantly changing and evolving in an attempt to maximize and exaggerate the personality, smells, vistas and light of each space. 

Robert is a painter by trade and considers the gardens at Soledad as a canvas that is a life long painting, never complete, and always in need of imagination, study, dedication, commitment, time, energy and love.