A Treasury of Glorious Public and Private Gardens

for Garden Lovers to Visit!

Connecticut Gardens

 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.

 Bartlett Arboretum & Gardens: 151 Brookdale Road, Stamford, CT 06903-4199

 (203)322-6971.

This 63 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 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. The house is closed for 2000.

 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.

 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.

 Gazebo Gardens: 54 Hennequin Road, P.O. Box 209, Columbia, CT 06237-0209

 (860)228-0244.

A commercial nursery with 40 display gardens on 3 acres and over 1000 species.

 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.

 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.

 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.

 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.