Home > Science & Nature > Gardens & Arboretums

Gardens & Arboretums

One of the gifts of Massachusetts' English heritage is a rich tradition of gardening and horticulture.

Take a trip back in time to 1800s Charleston, South Carolina, when you visit the magnificent gardens and woodland trails of Long Wood, the Sedgwick Gardens, north of Boston. A century later, author Edith Wharton, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and authority on architecture and design created magnificent formal gardens at her mansion, the Mount.

The greenhouse gardens of the Lyman Estate in the Greater Boston area will evoke the grandeur of a country estate. And the Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Central Massachusetts is a living museum of plants featuring a Lawn Garden, Secret Garden, Cottage Garden, Systematic Garden and in winter an Orangerie filled to capacity with fragrant, blooming plants.

Quick hits:

Visit the Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum in Greater Boston, an outdoor museum featuring an extensive collection of woody plants, bonsai and lilacs from around the world...The Botanic Garden of Smith College in Western Massachusetts displays thousands of plants...From Memorial Day to the second week in June visit Heritage Museums and Gardens in Sandwich and see thousands of rhodedendrum in bloom...Explore 15 acres of colorful perennial and annual gardens, pond gardens, an arboretum, greenhouse gardens and an interpretive woodlands trail at the Berkshire Botanical Garden in Western Massachusetts.