I love when out-of-town guests come to stay. We get to be the local experts and show them around. Having moved to the Hartford area only two years ago, it also means we get to explore all those places we intend to see but somehow never do.

When our friends Carol and Jim visited from Indiana in September, I decided it was finally time to visit Wickham Park in Manchester, Connecticut, our “new” hometown.

Wickham Park spreads across 280 acres of gardens, fields, woodlands, ponds, picnic areas and sports facilities. It hosts weddings, receptions, fundraising walks, disc golf tournaments, tree tours, garden tours, cross country races and all sorts of family gatherings.

A nonprofit, private foundation owns and operates the park, which started with the bequest of 130 acres from the estate of Clarence H. Wickham. Upon his death in 1945 he also left the bulk of his financial estate to fund the park. Charles and his wife Edith traveled widely across the globe, a fact reflected in the themed gardens of the park. Through other land donations, swaps and purchases, the park expanded to its current size.

We set out on a beautiful September day, but the forecast called for late afternoon showers, so we decided to focus our visit on the themed gardens and forego the arboretum, which includes groves of beech, laurel, hemlock and hickory trees.

Irish Garden

Irish Garden

As we ambled through the gardens, we were delighted that even in early fall so many plants were in full bloom.

For a spectacular start to our tour, we stepped into the walled Irish Garden, following a brick pathway through a whimsical fairyland of feathery perennials and stone statues.

Scottish Garden

Scottish Garden

Wandering off one end of the garden, a colonnade of 14 archways brought us to the wee little half-acre Scottish Garden with its statuary relevant to Scottish history and mythology (including a unicorn, a creature which first appeared on the Scottish royal coat of arms).

English Garden

English Garden

We spent the most time in the colorful English Garden. Based on formal English garden design, it includes three garden “rooms”: the Maze (with a Peter Pan statue at its center), the mesmerizing Knot Garden and the expansive Great Lawn. Hemmed in by 1,000 feet of hedges, the formal garden contains dozens of roses and hundreds of perennials, designed so something is blooming all season long. The two-acre formal garden feels like an Alice in Wonderland experience. I look forward to returning next summer when the roses are in bloom … I just might see someone “painting the roses red.”

Oriental Garden

We passed through a tori archway to the Oriental Garden, which charmed with its large pond, a moon bridge and teahouse. As it began to sprinkle, we took shelter under a trellis in the Italian Shrine and admired the plantings around the stucco pillars and statues of St. Theresa and St. Francis. Created by the estate owners as a place for workers to worship, the garden provided a peaceful place for us to rest and wait out the showers.

Lotus Garden

Speaking of peaceful, the Lotus Garden offers a taste of tranquility with its pagoda overlooking a pond with a fountain. Along the waterway stands a rare Usuzum cherry tree, grown from cuttings taken from a 1,400-year-old tree growing in the village of Neo in Japan. According to legend, the 26th emperor of Japan planted the original tree (now declared a National Treasure of Japan) to celebrate his ascension to the throne.

Sensory Garden

Sensory Garden

The Sensory Garden, the largest of its kind in New England, incorporates elements designed to stimulate the senses, both individually and in combination, inviting visitors to experience touch, scent, sound and sight through textures, stone sculptures, and water features in an accessible arrangement with raised beds and flat walking surfaces. It can be used to educate people with special needs and autism but is enjoyed by all.

Scottish Garden

The arrival of rain cut our tour short, so we headed to Silk City Coffee for lattes, where we waited out a torrential downpour and mused about our discovery of a true hidden gem in Wickham Park, making plans to return during other seasons to check out what’s blooming.

— Jan Hecht, senior editor