The Garden’s Mission

We provide information, education and inspiration concerning the science, art and joy of gardening and its role in preserving the environment.

Revered as one of the older public display gardens in the Northeast, Berkshire Botanical Garden is a not-for-profit, membership-supported educational organization encompassing 24 acres of land at the intersection of Routes 102 and 183 in Stockbridge, Mass. A showcase of horticulture and garden design and a “museum of living things,” Berkshire Botanical Garden's 24 acres feature dozens of display areas that are educational, functional and highly ornamental, with plant collections emphasizing plants that are native to the Northeast or that thrive in Zone 5b. Among the oldest in the region, the gardens have evolved and expanded over the years in breadth and variety. 

Online and on-campus classes, workshops, lectures, exhibits, and special events are offered year-round. The Garden also offers a broad variety of educational programs to school children both onsite and at local schools.

Major annual events at the Garden include the Winter Lecture, Spring Fest, Plant Sale, the Grow Show, Fête des Fleurs garden gala, Harvest Festival, Rooted in Place Ecological Gardening Symposium, and Holiday Marketplace. The Harvest Festival was first held in 1935 as the Garden’s first fundraising event and has since become the Berkshires’ best-known end-of-season community gathering. 

We are members of the American Public Gardens Association, the North American Reciprocal Museum Association and the Reciprocal Organization of Associated Museums.

Berkshire Botanical Garden is pleased to have the Red Lion Inn as a premier partner.

Our History

From its auspicious founding (as the Berkshire Garden Center) by a large group of civic-minded local organizations, Berkshire Botanical Garden has remained a community resource like no other. The Harvest Festival, begun in 1935 to raise much-needed funds, quickly became the quintessential Berkshire marker of fall. Our display and trial gardens, along with dedicated educators, have inspired generations of gardeners and garden lovers. And over the decades, our buildings and grounds have changed to meet the needs of our community. Today we honor our long history and the people who made BBG what it is today. 

The Early Years (1934-1945) — A Garden 'Appears' in Stockbridge

The Berkshire Garden Center was conceived in 1934 by a group of local civic-minded organizations, led by the Lenox Garden Club, who felt that the region needed a public botanical center for the dissemination of garden information. 

On seven acres of farmland (donated by Chicago transplant Irene Botsford Hoffmann, who became the president of the Garden Center) the first plantings and educational programs were overseen by Director Kenneth Simpson. Anne Braman (neé Webb) became the first secretary and supported the Garden Center in many ways, welcoming visitors and even serving tea.

In 1935, the first of many Harvest Festivals was held to help the fledgling organization's finances. But soon enough, the Garden Center boasted having hundreds of dues-paying members. An 18th-century farmhouse on the property (christened "Center House") became both visitor center and the home of Simpson and his family. 

The Garden Center was incorporated as a public charity in 1936. Soon thereafter, a master plan by local architect Edward Belches was drawn up in 1938 and survives as an unusual oil-on-wood painting in our archives. The 1937 terraced Herb Garden was featured in national publications and drew garden-loving visitors to the region. With space at a premium, a new home for the director was built on land south of Route 102, and ultimately another seven acres were donated to the Garden Center by Irene Hoffmann.

The Depression and war years led to gas rationing and a reduction in classes and lectures. Still, the Garden Center adapted by teaching visitors how to grow their own fruit and vegetables in "Victory Gardens." 

The Garden Center's expansive trial gardens featured grape arbors and an orchard of apple and crabapple trees, some of which survive to this day.

Postwar Exuberance (1946-1984) — Flower Shows, Herb Associates and Roy Boutard

The end of World War II ushered in a renewed interest in ornamental horticulture. Roy Boutard, a debonair European plantsman who was hired as the new director in 1954, oversaw an enormous expansion of the gardens, and thanks to his enthusiasm and energy, the Berkshire Garden Center's reputation grew.

In 1966, the Procter Garden, a jewel box of perennials, annuals, shrubs and bulbs was created adjacent to the Center House and dedicated by the Lenox Garden Club in honor of their past president. In 1967, Roy Boutard entered the Garden Center in the prestigious New York Flower Show, and won a ribbon. A wooden "salt box" structure that anchored the design at the Flower Show remains in BBG's Rose Garden to this day. Roy's wife Sherry was responsible for all of the Garden's educational programs, and soon educational buildings, sheds and greenhouses were built on the Southern portion of grounds to meet the growing need for classroom and propagation space. Volunteerism also grew in the postwar years, and in 1957 a group of volunteers calling themselves the Herb Associates was formed to continue the tradition of herb growing and cooking so beloved by Irene Hoffmann.

By the 1970s, the nation was focused on a looming energy crisis, so the Garden was all too happy to showcase a new "passive" solar greenhouse, and quietly removed some more energy intensive greenhouse structures in the process. When Roy and Sherry Boutard retired in 1984, they left behind an organization that had grown tremendously on their watch.

Planning for the Future (1985-Present) — Making Flowers (and the Garden) Grow

In the 1990s, the Berkshire Garden Center adopted the moniker "Berkshire Botanical Garden" and rebranded as one of the quintessential cultural destinations of the Berkshires. That decade also focused anew on strategic growth, with BBG hiring Boston landscape architecture firm Sasaki Associates to design a master site plan. Several important landscape features of the Sasaki Plan were implemented in the following decades, including the Vista Garden and Oval.

Under the guidance of long-serving Director of Horticulture Dorthe Hviid, additional garden features such as the daylily path, the deGersdorff and Frelinghuysen borders, and the Rose Garden took shape. By the early 2000s, BBG's Board of Trustees had spearheaded several successful capital campaigns and received some significant bequests and gifts that allowed for further expansion, most notably the beautiful Tatkon Entry Garden. By 2015, it became clear that the aging Center House would need to be completely renovated, and BBG began its most ambitious fundraising campaign to date. The expanded Center House opened to acclaim in 2017 and showcased a beautiful mix of modern features and historical architecture. With its new teaching kitchen, horticultural library, and art gallery space, the Center House has become a focal point for BBG visitors and a locus for its programs.

BBG's foray into art has been especially noteworthy, with the Garden routinely featuring horticulturally inspired group and solo exhibitions by world-renowned artists such as Ellsworth Kelly, Gregory Crewdson, and Michele Oka Doner. After the success of the Center House campaign, and with additional acreage added to the campus through donations and strategic purchases, BBG engaged with Nelson Byrd Woltz (NBW) to revisit its master site plan. A new five-phase plan was unveiled in 2020, just before the Covid pandemic forced BBG (and the world) into temporary shutdown. Despite these challenges, BBG has continued to work towards implementing the NBW plan. With the completion of a new Mother Earth Lodge and Amphitheater for youth education, and a wildflower meadow on its northern border, BBG is excited to launch into the next phases of the plan. All of these years after first appearing on this corner of Stockbridge, Berkshire Botanical Garden looks toward the future with excitement and optimism.