American Clock and Watch Museum: 100
Maple Street,
Bristol, CT 06010 (860)583-6070.
- At the site of the Miles Lewis
House, a post-revolutionary mansion built in 1801, this fascinating museum's
grounds include, what else?, a Sundial Garden.
Ansonia Nature and Recreation
Center: 10 Deerfield Road,
Ansonia, CT 06401 (203)736-9360.
- A
butterfly/hummingbird garden and an award-winning woodland wildflower and fern
garden at featured at the visitor center of this park, formerly a 104 acre
family farm.
Ballard Park: 21 Gilbert Street,
Ridgefield, CT 06877 (203)438-5816.
-
The greenhouse and perennial gardens have been restored and
are maintained by members of the
Ridgefield Garden Club for the enjoyment of the public and in memory of the former owner who loved
her property and the pleasures of flower beds.
Bartlett Arboretum &
Gardens: 151 Brookdale Road,
Stamford, CT 06903 (203)883-4052.
- This 93 acre arboretum and garden contains over 2000 plants and nine display gardens
including The Conifer Garden, the Heisinger Wildflower Garden, the Mehlquist
Garden (rhododendrons and azaleas), the Nut Tree Collection, the Bartlett Magnolia collection, the Perennial
Border, the Overlook Lawn, the Pollarded Tree Display, the Secluded Garden (low
maintenance annuals and perennials) and the Witches'-Broom Collection. There are
also 5 miles of trails including the Swamp Trail, the Woodland Trail and Pond,
and the Rose A. Thielens Self-Guided Ecology Trail.
Bates Scofield House: 45 Old Kings
Highway North,
Darien, CT 06820 (203)655-9233.
- This 1736 saltbox, now a museum
run by the Darien Historical Society, includes an herb garden with over 30
varieties of herbs used during the 18th century and over 20 varieties of
historical roses.
Beardsley Zoological
Gardens: 1875 Noble Avenue,
Bridgeport, CT 06610 (203)330-6046.
- Looking for
a tropical rainforest in Connecticut? You'll find one at the 52 acre Beardsley
Zoo, as well as one of the largest greenhouses in the State. The Zoo also offers
wildflower beds, natural ponds, green trails and hummingbird gardens.
Boothe Park Wedding Rose Garden: Boothe Memorial Park and Museum, Main Street/Putney,
Stratford, CT 06497 (203)381-2046.
- The 32 acre grounds of this
historic home contain a lovely All America Rose Selections accredited garden.
Butler McCook House and
Garden: 394 Main Street,
Hartford, CT 06103-3001 (860)522-1806 or
(860)247-8996.
- This 1782 historic homestead, owned by the Antiquarian and
Landmarks Society, includes a garden built in 1865.
Colorblends House & Spring Garden: 893 Clinton Avenue,
Bridgeport, CT 06604 (203)338-0776
-
Open for six weeks in the spring, the garden showcases more than 35,000
spring bulbs demonstrating how bulbs can be used
to create a beautiful spring display in any American yard. The house, a fine example of colonial revival architecture,
will also be open with a pop-up gallery featuring works from 4 to 5 local artists.
Connecticut
College Arboretum: 270 Mohegan Avenue, Box 5201,
New London, CT 06320
(860)439-5020
- The plant collections are divided into four divisions. The 20 acre
Arboretum (between Williams St. and Gallows Lane), specializing in trees and
shrubs native to eastern North America and hardy in New London, cultivates
nearly 300 kinds of woody plants and features the The Nancy Moss Fine Native
Azalea Garden, the Josephine Hooker Shain Mountain Laurel Garden, the Lincoln
and Lillian Dauby Gries Conifer Collection, and the Edgerton and Stengel
Wildflower Gardens. The Caroline Black Garden (located across from the main
college entrance on Route 32, is a mature collection of ornamental trees and
shrubs from all over the world. The College Campus as a whole is managed as a
plant collection. And, an 8500 square foot greenhouse permits a tropical and
cactus collection.
Denison Pequotsepos Nature
Center: 109 Pequotsepos Road,
Mystic, CT 06355 (860)536-1216.
- The 200 acre
site of a natural history museum features a wildflower garden of ferns and other
natives plants, as well as 7 miles of nature trails.
Dinosaur State Park Arboretum:
400 West Street,
Rocky Hill, CT 06067-3506 (860)257-7601.
- You probably don't
think of Connecticut as dinosaur country, but they left their tracks at the
Park. This unusual Arboretum of Evolution thus features over 250 species and
cultivars of conifers, as well as katsuras, ginkgoes, magnolias and other living
representatives of plant families which appeared in the Age of Dinosaurs.
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Conservatory and Garden: Behind the Torrey Life Sciences Building,
University of Connecticut,
Storrs, CT 06269 (860-486-4052).
- This comprehensive
living plant collection of over 5400 plants is housed in 12,000 square feet of
greenhouse (plus a 300 square foot fern room), as well as in an outdoor garden,
nursery and coldframe, and a protected courtyard. Special interest collections
include orchids and succulents.
Elizabeth Park Rose Garden
: 150 Walbridge Road,
West Hartford, CT 06119
(860)242-0017.
- This city park designed by Olmsted and Son with gardens designed
by Theordore Wirth, displays a breathtaking All America Rose Selections test
garden and a Heritage Rose Garden, together consisting of 2.5 acres and 15,000
bushes of 800 varieties. In addition, visitors will enjoy the Annual Garden, the
Herb Garden, the Perennial Garden, the Rock Garden and the 100 year old Lord and
Burnham greenhouses.
Eklund Garden: 10 Oak Valley Road,
Shelton, CT 06484 (203)924-1555
-
Accessible by car or by hiking or biking the Shelton Lakes Greenway trail system,
this native wildflower garden located on the ruins of a former cabin
features native perennials and those of the surrounding acidic
oak-hickory forest. A "marble bed" showcases plants from the marble
valleys of northwest Connecticut.
Fairfield Nature Center: Audubon Society of Connecticut, 2325 Burr Street,
Fairfield, CT 06430-1806 (203)259-6305.
- This Audubon Center includes hiking
trails and a wildflower sanctuary.
Garden
of Ideas: 647 North Salem Road,
Ridgefield, CT 06877 (203)431-9914.
- This
delightful privately-owned garden features unusual plants and garden design
ideas for sun and shade, and highlights water features, a vegetable garden, a
natural marsh, a lilac hill, an iris collection, turtles, bee hives, poetry and
many unusual plants.
General
William Hart House: 350 Main Street,
Old Saybrook, CT 06475 (860)388-2622.
- The Colonial gardens of this 1767 home have been restored to duplicate what
General Hart might have maintained including fruit trees, lilacs, a hawthorn, a
quince, a black walnut, a dogwood, a tulip and other trees native to the region.
Special collections include an herb garden with 125 medicinal, culinary and
fragrant herbs, a rose garden and an extensive wildflower collection.
Glebe
House Museum and Gertrude Jekyll Garden: Hollow Road,
Woodbury, CT 06798
(203)263-2855.
- The only extant garden Gertrude Jekyll designed in the U.S. was
created 60 years after its design and features a 600 foot classic English style
mixed border and foundation plantings. (A "glebe" is land given a rural
clergyman.)
Greenbrier
Greenhouse and Crosby Conservatory at Edgerton Park: 75 Cliff Street,
New
Haven, CT 06511 (203)777-1886.
- The 22 acre park, listed on the National Register
of historic Places, displays an 18th century English style landscape garden
emphasizing open space. A tropical collection can be found in the greenhouse
complex.
Richard D. Haley Native Wildlife Garden: 23 Potter Road,
Hampton, CT 06247 (860)455-9534
-
The 1.6 acre Haley Native Wildlife Garden is a free space open to the general public year round
from sun-up to sun-down. Information stations describe various techniques, reasons for plantings and habitat use,
and laser-engraved plaques identify many of the plants used throughout the garden. The Garden is located in the
James L. Goodwin State Forest which offers recreational facilities and trails.
Harkness Memorial State Park: 275 Great Neck Road,
Waterford, CT 06385
(860)443-5725.
- A 42 room Roman Renaissance Revival mansion (Eolia), formal
gardens, an Asian Garden, and an entire collection of Rex Brasher bird paintings
are showcased in this Connecticut State Park. A formal "Italian" West Garden has
been restored with symmetrical footpaths, statuary and iron fencing and its
center fountain has been re-built with new limestone, while the East Garden was
restored by the Friends of Harkness.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
House: 77 Forest Street,
Hartford, CT 06105 (860)525-9317 or (860)522-9258.
- The "cottage" home with its historical gardens gives a glimpse into the life of
the writer Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Highstead Arboretum: 127 Lonetown Road, P.O. Box 1097,
Redding, CT 06875
(203)938-8809.
- The 36 acre Arboretum, dedicated to growing collected plants in
harmony with existing flora, includes an unusual variety of habitats and
features a two and a half acre pond, swamp walk, and recently planted
collections of mountain laurel and native azalea.
I-Park: (Formerly EightMile
Gardens) Adjacent to Devil's Hopyard State Park, 428 Hopyard Road,
East Haddam,
CT. (864)873-2468.
- An exciting and ambitious plan for a garden park and
facilities with "wild and improbable gardens", a memorial park, unusual
performing arts facilities and, for visiting artists, on-site studio facilities,
all within a 450 acre New England forest.
Keeler Tavern Museum: 132 Main
Street,
Ridgefield, CT (203)438-5485.
- A sunken garden with brick wall, arches
and a reflecting pool which displays more than 100 varieties of annuals and
perennials is featured at this 1733 restored tavern, a gathering place for
patriots.
Marsh Botanical Gardens:
Yale University, 277 Mansfield Street, Prospect Street and Hillside Terrace,
Stratford, CT.
- The Gardens contain outdoor plots and three large greenhouses for
research purposes as well as a display collection of native and exotic woody
plants. Originally gracing the mansion of Othniel Marsh, a paleontologist, they
were later bequeathed to Yale and re-designed by Beatrice Farrand.
New Canaan Nature Center: 144
Oenoke Ridge,
New Canaan, CT 06840-4198 (203)966-9577.
- The 40 acre grounds of
the Horticultural Education Building showcase a naturalist garden, a 3000 square
foot solar greenhouse, an herb garden, a large perennial border and a small
arboretum.
Noah Webster House: 227
South Main Street,
West Hartford, CT 06107 (860)521-5362.
- Tour the house of the
author of the first dictionary with costumed guides and participate in hands on
activities like flax breaking and wool carding. This web site offers a virtual
tour of Noah's herb garden.
Norwich Memorial
Rose Garden: Mohegan Park, 400 Rockwell Street/Judd Road,
Norwich, CT 0360
(860)823-3791.
- In additional to recreation facilities, Mohegan Park contains a
formal All America Rose Selections accredited rose garden dedicated to all
veterans of foreign wars.
Palmer Arboretum: Route 169 (Behind the Historical Society Building, Palmer Memorial Hall),
Woodstock, CT (860)928-0208 x310.
- The Palmer Arboretum was founded in 1914 by Minnie Palmer Dean
and several of the
trees date back to 1914 or 1916, among them the huge purple beach and the grove of cypresses
which can be seen from the parking lot. After a period of overgrowth when the area became a jungle of poison ivy, multiflora rose and honeysuckle,
a restoration began in 1985. Plantings include flowering azaleas, an Arnold Palmer Witch Hazel, a Paper Bark Maple, a Royal Star Magnolia,
a Fothergillas Major, a Burkwood Viburnum, Mountain Laurel, Dwarf Fothergillas, and Paxistema.
Restoration of this lovely park continues.
Pardee Rose Garden: East Rock Park, 180 Park Road,
Hamden, CT 06514
(203)946-8142.
- Tranquil formal All America Rose Selections rose garden with over
50 varieties of roses, plus annuals, perennials and herbs.
Phelps Homestead: 800 Hopmeadow
Street,
Simsbury, CT 06070-1825 (860)-658-2500.
- The complex of nine homes and
buildings run by the Simsbury Historical Society provides visitors a chance to
"participate" in history. Among its attractions are the accompanying gardens.
Roseland
Cottage Grounds: 556 Route 169,
Woodstock, CT 06281-2344 (860)928-4074.
- The two-acres surrounding this 1846 Gothic Revival summer retreat reflect the
design principles of Andrew Jackson Downing and feature the only boxwood garden
of its kind in the region. A parterre garden, set out in 1850, is the
centerpiece of the landscape.
Sandy Hook Memorial Fountain: 505 Wlliams Street,
Portland, CT
06480 (860)342-7331
-
This fountain sculpture and garden honors and celebrates the lives of those
who lost their lives at Sandy Hook. It features 6 metal iris flowers, 20
metal cone flowers, all with their own butterflies, embedded in a 12,000 lb
quartz base, set within a small garden with a stone walkway and and three
benches.
Sundial Gardens: Brault Hill Road,
Higganum, CT 06441 (860)345-4290.
- An
18th century farmhouse is surrounded by striking formal gardens including a
Persian-style knot garden, an 18th century style garden with geometric walkways,
and a topiary garden with boxwood, roses and ivy garlands surrounding a
fountain. A tea room and shop with tea, gifts and herbs is open.
Webb Deane Stevens Museum: 211
Main Street,
Wethersfield, CT 06109 (860)529-0612.
- Gardens and a small orchard
surround the Webb Barn on the grounds of this historic home where George
Washington really did sleep.
Wilton Old Town
Hall: 69 Ridgefield Road, Route 33,
Wilton, CT 06897 (203)834-1032.
- On the
grounds of the Town Hall can be found a wildflower garden and fieldstone-framed
grotto garden with native plants.
White Flower Farm: 19 Esther's Road off Route 63,
Morris, CT 06763-1401
(860)567-8789 or (800)503-9624 or (800)411-6159.
- This commercial nursery
maintains extensive trial and display gardens as well as dozens of acres of
growing gardens for most of the plants it sells.
Wright's Mill Farm: 63 Creasey
Road,
Canterbury, CT 06331 (860)774-1455.
- This restored farm with 250 acres of
rugged rolling land, now operated as a tree farm, offers an Educational Farm
Tour which includes topics such as development of a tree farm and landscape
plants and nursery techniques.