This area of the Garden features a diverse selection of native and exotic trees, including American beech, copper beech, honey locust, little-leaf linden, Ohio buckeye, downy hawthorn, and yellowwood.

Long ago, a tiny green ash seed germinated in a crack in this boulder. Amazingly, its roots were able to find sufficient nutrients and water to grow into a mature shade tree. The destructive emerald ash borer, now firmly established in this area, could become a challenge for the tree, so we are closely monitoring its health.

A mixed-border garden of spring bulbs, annuals and perennials that provide a riot of color in summer. Shrubs and trees add year-round structure and interest. Designed by Cudnohufsky Associates, 2002.

Carol Clark Tatkon, a Berkshire Botanical Garden benefactor, loved the brilliant blooms of both Western Massachusetts and Texas — the two places where she lived most of her life. This mixed border garden, created in her memory, features colorful spring bulbs, annuals, perennials, and woody plants organized into garden "rooms" — with annuals grouped by color.

Designed by a team of landscape architecture students from the University of Tennessee, this garden has a contemporary sensibility. The plant selection and naturalistic layout framing a fountain and fire feature evoke a feeling of serenity and simplicity. It is a favorite stop for many visitors.

A special place for children of all ages to get their hands dirty and wet while exercising their imaginations and learning about food crops and flowers. A colorful playhouse structure was designed by the late local artist Allen Timmons.

An American Daylily Society Display Garden featuring more than 200 historic and modern cultivars from more than 120 years of hybridizing. The daylilies are organized chronologically by date of introduction and put on a great show in July and August. Designed by Dorthe Hviid, 2003.

Sun-loving herbaceous perennials and ornamental grasses stand in large drifts against a backdrop of flowering shrubs and trees. The colors keep changing all summer long. Designed by Lyle L. Blundell, 1954.

The raised beds in these two plots are laid out in tidy grids, each highlighting one type of vegetable or fruit. Raised beds can be planted earlier in spring as their soil warms up faster than lower ground. This is a benefit in our short growing season. Designed by Jack Staub, 2009.

Nestled in a grove of shady crabapples, just down the path from the Rose Garden, is BBG's fernery, which includes both native and nonnative species — more than 100, representing 17 varieties. Designed by Eric Ruquist, 2024.

What gardeners grow is typically limited by climate and season. Greenhouses, however, create a controlled environment for year-round growing, from seed starting and bulb forcing to growing heat-loving exotics. The Fitzpatrick Conservatory, a greenhouse built in the 1930s and donated to BBG in 1959, was renovated in 2014 with a grant from the Jane and Jack Fitzpatrick Trust.

Controlling Conditions

Gardeners often build rock or alpine gardens around existing large, natural formations — like the rock at the center of this one. They also introduce rocks to imitate a geological formation. This example weaves together both natural and introduced rocks.

It's Not All About the Rocks

This border, honoring Beatrice Procter Frelinghuysen, a longtime supporter and trustee of the Garden, is shaded by maturing trees and planted with shade-tolerant perennials. As is often the case with perennials, the flowering time of each plant can be brief, so interesting and long-lasting foliage is of the utmost importance. In this border, flowers are used primarily as an accent to the tapestry of different leaves.

Season-Long Splendor

Created in 1937, the Herb Garden is the oldest continuously planted area of the Berkshire Botanical Garden. Since 1957, the Herb Associates volunteer group has been meeting weekly to grow and harvest herbs, and makes herb-based mustards, dressings and jellies sold in the Visitor Center. The proceeds support our programming.

Practical Plants

A concrete foundation for a compost pile was created on this site to serve a nearby Victory Vegetable Garden during World War II. After the war, the foundation and surrounding area was filled in with soil and graded and a collection of unusual evergreens planted on top. The concrete foundation can still be seen at one end.

Our topiary collection showcases the horticultural practice of clipping plants into specific shapes. These living sculptures were created from boxwood, yew and arborvitae and represent animals as well as inanimate objects. A gazebo provides a shady spot. We expanded the hedge in 2023 with several hundred European Hornbeams, planted in the fashion of a labyrinth to elevate the sense of whimsy and to link Lucy’s Garden with the expanded Woodland Garden. Designed by Matthew Larkin, 2018.

The heart of BBG’s popular Farm in the Garden Camp, the Lodge was assembled using old world post-and-beam construction and many notable innovative engineering and design elements, including gorgeous, painstakingly engineered and arranged trusses. It opened in 2023, on Roy Boutard Day. Built by Adam Miller, Scott Brockway and A.J. Schnopp Jr., Construction Inc.

Our collection of native North American plants demonstrates the effective use of such shrubs and ground covers for a home garden setting. Native plants can often provide better food sources for native insects and birds while still offering ornamental value.

Among the Collection:

Most gardens are designed for beauty, but our New Wave Garden is also designed for balance. Embracing ecological principles, it uses plants that originated in similar habitats to recreate the naturalistic look and health of wild plant communities — in this case, an open sunny area with good drainage. This garden relies primarily on natural rainfall and does not receive regular irrigation.

Matching the Plant to the Place

Despite its naturalistic look, this is a man-made pond with a waterproof liner. But local wildlife doesn't care if a pond is natural or artificial. Frogs, toads, dragonflies, salamanders, water beetles, and other animals gravitate to and depend upon this watery habitat.

Creating a Community

Beatrice Sterling Procter loved pinks, blues, and purples. Those hues — combined with calming white, silver, and maroon accents — form the primary palette for this informal, mixed-border garden, created in her honor by the Lenox Garden Club in 1967. A mixed border uses both woody and herbaceous plants as part of its design.

Building Good Bones

Our rose garden contains hundreds of shrub roses in an informal setting anchored by a stone mill wheel. In collaboration with David Austin Roses, Berkshire Botanical Garden has trialed a beautiful assortment of new English roses known for their color, perfume and ability to repeat bloom even after their first spectacular show in June. Designed by Michael Marriott, 2011. Stonework by Mark Mendel.

Our Tree of Forty Fruit, framed within a circular rock wall beside the Visitor Center, is part art piece, part conservation project. In a riot of pink, white and crimson, it blooms heavily in spring and summer to become what it was created to be: a fruity little Frankenstein, a Swiss Army Knife for stone fruit enthusiasts.

Designed for all four seasons, this garden provides year-round interest. Spring bulbs, fothergilla, crabapples, and dogwoods flower in spring. Summersweet and oakleaf hydrangea bloom in summer. Autumn brings brilliant fall foliage. And evergreens and brightly colored bark provide interest all season long and enliven the winter landscape.

Evergreen or Deciduous?

This 2.5-acre ecological showpiece opened to the public in 2023 and includes walking trails and sweeping vistas. Eschewing the use of herbicides, our horticulture team manages weeds by mean of scheduled mowings, string trimmers and hand clippers. What you see as a vesults a vibrant, densely interwoven array of flora native to the Berkshires and the Northeast. Designed by Larry Weaner Landscape Associates.

Providing a charming and mysterious outdoor event space for children’s programming, performances, presentations, and weddings, the Amphitheater was created out of locally quarried marble salvaged from an old stone wall. Built by Ingersoll Land Care, 2023.

Visitors who come upon the amphitheater are surprised to discover this 65-seat marvel in the woods. Native flora accompany the intricately tiered stonework, along with a pergola and presentation screen, both built by Aaron Dunn out of locally harvested locust trees. The materials used in the construction all are local.

Redesigned and expanded in 2023, this shady haven is perfectly suited for our collection of native and non-native herbaceous perennials, including hardy Hosta cultivars, wildflowers and other woodland plants, all framed by a backdrop of ferns. The moist soil makes for a happy home for primroses that form a patchwork of color in early- to mid-spring.