Project Overview
Edgewood Gardens is a private horticultural showcase in Exton, Pennsylvania, home to several thousand rare alpine and woodland plants grown across diverse microhabitats. Founded in 1995 by John Lonsdale, a Gold Merit Medal recipient from the Alpine Garden Society, the garden has become known for successfully cultivating species that push traditional hardiness boundaries. While the garden itself remains private, John shares his expertise through plant sales, lectures, and an extensive digital archive of over 20,000 photographs documenting two decades of horticultural experimentation.
The existing website served primarily as a photo repository but didn’t reflect the caliber of expertise or the premium nature of the rare plant specimens available for purchase. The client needed a complete rebuild that would elevate their brand presence while maintaining their extensive image archive and providing practical functionality for managing events and inventory.
Scope of Work
I rebuilt the entire front-facing website from the ground up, creating a luxurious, gallery-focused experience that lets the high-resolution plant photography take center stage. The rebrand included a new logo and sophisticated color palette that conveys the premium, collector-focused nature of the business.
The homepage features a custom-programmed animated image gallery that showcases the garden’s seasonal transformations and rare specimens. This Hero section immediately establishes the visual quality visitors can expect throughout the site.
For the backend, I developed a custom WordPress solution using Custom Post Types and custom fields that allows the client to easily manage their lecture schedule and plant sales events. The Events page automatically displays only upcoming engagements, while past events are programmatically moved to an archive page without any manual intervention required.
I also built in functionality for the client to upload and swap PDF price lists for their Cyclamen, Trillium, and Galanthus collections, as well as update gallery photography as new specimens come into bloom.
One unique challenge was preserving the client’s existing jAlbum system, which housed their 20,000+ image archive organized by botanical taxonomy. Rather than migrate this extensive library into WordPress, I integrated the jAlbum galleries seamlessly into the new site architecture and applied custom skinning to match the updated branding. This allowed the client to maintain their established organizational system while presenting a cohesive visual experience across the entire site.
Client Testimonial
"Mike Hirst is a very rare individual. From first contact he was friendly, understanding, helpful, courteous and clearly experienced in web design. He listened to what I wanted and didn't try to immediately impose his ideas of what I wanted. His proposal was reasonable and throughout the process he was timely in meeting deadlines. He 'got' exactly what I was looking for and within a couple of weeks produced a functional redesigned web site that exceeded my expectations. Subsequent minor modifications were handled quickly. I am thrilled with my new website and can't recommend him and Hirst Digital highly enough. Thanks Mike!"
