Oglebay Park Bissonnette Garden

Discover the enchanting beauty of Oglebay Park Bissonnette Garden, a public garden display located in the heart of Wheeling, West Virginia. This stunning 16-acre garden features over 30 meticulously maintained flower beds, dozens of vibrant hanging baskets, and multiple soothing fountains. Originally known as Waddington Gardens, the Bissonnette Gardens are a faithful re-creation of the lush gardens that once adorned the summer home of Earl Oglebay in the early 1900s.

Visitors are invited to meander down the winding red brick path to fully immerse themselves in the garden's splendor. The garden's picturesque flowerbeds, hanging baskets, and majestic trees are beautifully accented by soft landscape lighting and serene water features. Each season brings a new array of floral displays for guests to enjoy. From mid-April through early May, the gardens burst with the vibrant colors of tulips, hyacinths, pansies, and daffodils. In June, the beds are filled with a delightful mix of annuals, including canna, salvia, celosia, angelonia, verbena, petunia, and geranium. As fall approaches, the gardens transform with the warm, jewel-toned hues of fall mums, creating a breathtaking autumnal display from mid-September to late October.

The dedication and hard work of a skilled staff of 10 ensure that the garden remains lush and beautiful from early spring through late fall. These dedicated individuals spend countless hours planting, pruning, watering, dead-heading, re-planting, weeding, and fertilizing the grounds daily.

In September 1999, the garden was re-dedicated to Joseph F. Bissonnette, who served as the director of development for the Wheeling Park Commission from 1975 until 1992. In 2017, the garden was further enhanced with the addition of a captivating sculpture titled "Miss West Virginia," created by local Wheeling artist Jeff Forster. This striking piece of art is located just outside the herb garden near Oglebay’s greenhouse on The Hilltop.

Oglebay Park is renowned for its rich botanical diversity, boasting at least eighty varieties of ornamental shade trees, one hundred varieties of shrubs, twenty-five varieties of evergreens, and fifty varieties of perennials. The park's conservatory houses over twenty-five varieties of tropical and sub-tropical flora, while the summer months bring an array of one hundred varieties of annuals, all meticulously labeled.

The park's history is deeply rooted in its extensive nursery and arboretum projects, which began in the early 1930s under the guidance of Crispin Oglebay and Milton Hine. Thousands of trees were cultivated in the park nurseries, contributing to the beautification of the Wheeling area through roadside plantings and family projects.

The Oglebay Institute formed an arboretum committee in 1937, which included notable figures such as Sarah Paull, Homer Fish, A.B. Brooks, and Brooks Wigginton. In 1940, F. Elwood Allen, an arboretum specialist for the National Recreation Association, prepared an innovative study that envisioned the arboretum as a people-centric attraction, designed to draw visitors from far and wide, thereby boosting the local economy.

Today, the arboretum at Oglebay Park continues to be an ongoing project, offering a tranquil and picturesque setting for visitors to explore and enjoy. While the cost of maintaining such a beautiful space is high, the garden remains a labor of love, offering a serene escape and a testament to the park's rich history and dedication to botanical excellence.

Directions to Oglebay Park Bissonnette Garden:

- From Exit 5 (WV-88/Elm Grove/Triadelphia): Turn left at the end of the exit ramp. At the traffic light, turn RIGHT onto U.S. 40/WV-88. Travel approximately 1 mile to the Wheeling Park entrance on the right.

- From Exit 4 (WV-88/Elm Grove): Turn left at the end of the exit ramp onto U.S. Route 40. Travel approximately 0.7 miles to the Wheeling Park entrance on the right.