April 03, 2024

Best Spring Bulb Displays in the Northeast

April 03, 2024/ Jana Milbocker

HOlland ridge farms (photo courtesy of holland ridge farms)

Ready to welcome spring after a long Northeast winter? Nothing lifts the spirit like a stroll among masses of daffodils, tulips and other spring bulbs. Here’s my list of wonderful spring bulb displays to enjoy this year.

New England Botanic Garden

Mid-April to late May, Boylston, MA

Enjoy a changing bulb display at New England Botanic garden, beginning with Reticulated Iris and Hyacinths in mid-April, fields of 25,000 daffodils in late April to early May, and gorgeous tulip displays in mid to late May. nebg.org

Spring Bloom Fest at The Stevens Coolidge House and Gardens

Late April–mid-May, N. Andover, MA

Immerse yourself in the beauty of more than 175,000 tulips and other bulbs, filling nine display gardens with the exuberant colors of spring. the trustees

Naumkeag Daffodil and Tulip Festival

Late April–mid-May, Stockbridge, MA

Stroll through the 8 acres of our world-renowned gardens decorated with over 75,000 daffodil, tulip and minor bulbs as we celebrate spring in the Berkshires. the trustees

Nantucket Daffodil Festival

April, Nantucket, MA

Nantucket’s annual daffodil celebration includes the Nantucket Daffodil Flower Show, a window decorating contest, antique car parade, tours, and art shows. Come in costume to the Daffy Hat Contest and children’s parade. daffodilfestival.com

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens

Late April–late May, Boothbay, ME

Coastal Maine’s display gardens feature thousands of tulips, daffodils and other spring bulbs from late April to late May in one of New England’s premier public gardens. mainegardens.org

Blithewold Daffodil Days

April through Mid-May, Bristol, RI

The Bosquet, a cultivated woodland, features more than 50,000 daffodils at Blithewold Mansion Gardens and Arboretum. You will also see many woodland wildflowers in bloom. blithewold.org

Wicked Tulips Flower Farm

Late April–mid May, Exeter, RI and Preston, CT

Wicked Tulips has the largest u-pick tulip field in New England, with 600,000 early, mid, and late blooming tulips. Enjoy the fields of color, and bring home a fresh hand-picked bouquet. The early tulips begin blooming in late April, followed by waves of later blooming tulips until Mother’s Day. The website Bloom Report provides important updates and allows you to see what is in bloom. Advance tickets are required and must be purchased online. wickedtulips.com

Green Animals

April–May, Newport, RI

Visit the nation’s northernmost topiary garden ablaze with the bright colors of tulips and daffodils!

Newport Daffodil Days Festival

April, Newport, RI

Now in its 8th year, the Newport Daffodil Festival has beautified the city with more than 1 million daffodils. The week-long celebration includes a garden party, classic car parade, concerts, tours, dog parade and much more. newportdaffydays.com

Elizabeth Park

Mid-April–mid May, Hartford, CT

Daffodils in mid-April give way to a beautiful display of 11,000 tulips that peak on Mother’s Day. elizabethparkct.org

ColorBlends House and Spring Garden

Bridgeport, CT

 Stroll through an evolving display of color as snowdrops, crocuses, daffodils, tulips and other spring-flowering bulbs come into bloom at the ColorBlends House and Spring Garden. Located in Bridgeport’s  Stratfield Historic Distric, the 1903 Colonial Revival  mansion is surrounded by an intimate garden designed by distinguished Dutch  garden designer Jacqueline van der Kloet for Colorblends Wholesale Flowerbulbs. colorblendsspringgarden.com

Bartlett Arboretum & Gardens

Late April–mid May, Stamford, CT

Enjoy planting of early bulbs, daffodils and tulips blooming in 93-acres of formal gardens and natural habitats. bartlettarboretum.org

Meriden Daffodil Festival

April, Meriden, CT

One of Connecticut’s favorite celebrations, the Meriden Daffodil Festival features a juried craft fair, rides and food vendors, and an amazing fireworks show, all set against a spectacular display of 600,000 daffodils. daffodilfest.com

New York Botanic Garden

April–May, Bronx, NY

Explore the Rock Garden for tiny species daffodils, and Daffodil Valley, where the Murray Liasson Narcissus Collection is located. See the latest hybrids on the Daylily/Daffodil Walk, and antique cultivars planted in a seal of yellow and white on Daffodil Hill. nybg.org/garden

Reeves-Reed Arboretum

Mid April, Summit, NJ

Celebrate spring with a "host of golden daffodils," as poet William Wordsworth wrote, at Reeves-Reed Arboretum and enjoy one of the largest daffodil collections in New Jersey. The collection, planted in the Arboretum's glacially carved 'kettle' or bowl, was started in the early 1900s by the original owners of the property. Today the collection boasts more than 50,000 bulbs and the annual Daffodil Day brings visitors from all over the tri-state area. reeves-reedarboretum.org

Deep Cut Gardens

Mid-April–mid May, Middletown, NJ

Beautiful tulip and daffodil blooms are on display in this 54 acre formal garden. monmouthcountyparks.com

Holland Ridge Farms

April, Cream Ridge, NJ

Tulip Festival with more then 8 million tulips that you can pick. hollandridgefarms.com

Frelinhuysen Arboretum

Mid April-mid May, Morris Township, NJ

The formal gardens at Frelinghuysen Arboretum feature gorgeous bedding displays of tulips. arboretumfriends.org

Chanticleer

Early April to mid-May

Chanticleer is ablaze with spring bulbs from species tulips, miniature daffodils and grape hyacinths on the hillside, to formal bedding of tulips and daffodils around the mansion. A sloping lawn, punctuated by flowering shade trees, features 80,000 white or pale yellow narcissus running in two rivers to the bottom. Virginia bluebells, trilliums, grape hyacinths and camassias create gorgeous displays in the woodlands. chanticleergarden.org

Longwood Gardens

Early April to early May, Kennett Square, PA

Early spring bulbs like glory-of-the-snow, winter-aconite, and crocus first herald the season’s arrival, with gorgeous tulips, wisteria, and flowering trees creating a lush spring tapestry of color, fragrance, and warmth. longwoodgardens.org

October 02, 2023

Longwood’s Chrysanthemum Festival: Horticultural Artistry at its Finest

October 02, 2023/ Jana Milbocker

As part of the Garden Bloggers Fling in September, our group of 100 garden writers were treated to a behind-the-scenes tour of the propagation greenhouses at Longwood Gardens. What a treat! I have been to Longwood Gardens many times in the past 10 years, and always wished to see the magic behind the beautiful displays.

Longwood’s annual Chrysanthemum Festival, held in October and early November, celebrates fall’s favorite flower in its many forms, hues, and varieties. During previous visits, I had marveled at the beautiful chrysanthemum displays, so was happy to see how they are created by Longwood’s designers and growers.

Chrysanthemum Festival is a distinct “season” in the Conservatory, when the Orangery, Exhibition Hall, and East Conservatory undergo a nearly complete transformations with an autumn color palette and thousands of mums. Preparations for the Festival begin more than a year in advance, when the designers finalize the appearance of the displays and choose the Chrysanthemum varieties that will be grown. The team is led by Jim Sutton, who has been at Longwood Gardens for more than 20 years. In addition to fall colors, Jim tries to incorporate Asian aesthetic touches since mums are native to Japan and China.

While most of us are familiar with the potted mums sold at nurseries and grocery stores, modern chrysanthemums are actually divided into 13 classifications based on their flower form. In the floral trade, the decorative, pompon, daisy, spider, and football mum are some of the more common types seen in floral arrangements. The Chrysanthemum Festival includes all of these varieties in amazing displays that require labor-intensive grafting techniques developed more than 400 years ago in Japan and China. To learn these techniques, Longwood’s growers traveled to Asia to train with specialty chrysanthemum growers who are skilled in this dying art form.

Jim considers the Chrysanthemum Festival to be the most horticulturally challenging exhibit presented each year. The special hybrids that are grown for the Festival are not the regular garden mums or hardy outdoor mums that we are all familiar with, and require a lot of attention. We met Jason who has been the Chrysanthemum grower for the past 20 years. With the assistance of 6 seasonal employees and 6 volunteers, he cultivates that hundreds of mums that amaze visitors each year.

The process begins more than a year in advance with cuttings from stock plants. Some cuttings are grafted on two different stocks—either on chrysanthemum stock or Artemisia (Artemisia annua) stock. Artemisia is used because it has strong root system for summer heat, disease and insect resistance. Others are grown on their own roots. Once rooted, these young plants are potted in mid- to late-summer, depending on when they are scheduled to bloom. From then on, plants are fertilized, pruned, pinched, trained, and grown under lights to create various forms that are needed for the displays. Some are trained to be “single stems,” so that side buds are continuously pinched off to produce one giant flower. Others are disbudded to produce plants with five medium-sized blooms. The mums that require the least amount of work are the spray-style mums, which are allowed to retain all of their buds.

Cascade chrysanthemums have long been at the heart of the Chrysanthemum Festival. Longwood grows specialty mums (Chrysanthemum x moriflorum) that originated in China and Japan and are selected for their ability to create beautiful and lasting forms. These amazing plants can grow six feet in a season, are extremely flexible, can be adapted to many shapes and forms, and produce an abundance of small anemone-type blooms. They are used in the three-dimensional pieces such as columns, globes, swags, and cones. We saw them trained into spirals, on v-shaped supports and obelisks, which have been fabricated by Longwood’s in-house welders. These mums are capable of being grown down a metal frame, and then removed from the frame, brought into the Conservatory and hung from their pots down the columns.

An interesting training method is stem-breaking, which is used for creating spirals and cascade curtains. This ultra-meticulous method requires nerves of steel, because it is easy to snap the plant in half. First, the pants are wilted, and then, using both hands, the stems are broken in multiple locations without rupturing the surface layers. The stems are then bent in the desired directions, wired to their frame and the plants are watered. Within hours the plants have mended with no lasting damage! Stem breaking is used throughout the entire vegetative growing season to create the incredible forms that you see on display.

A star feature of the Chrysanthemum Festival is the Thousand Bloom Chrysanthemum. This is always a show-stopper, and takes more than 1,800 labor hours of growing, pruning, pinching and training. The plant reaches a diameter of 12-1/2 feet, barely able to fit through the Main Conservatory’s doorway. We did not get to see this plant during our tour, but you can read more about its cultivation on Longwood’s blog.

The Chrysanthemum Festival is definitely worth a visit! This year, it runs from September 30–November 12. Visit longwoodgardens.org for more information.

April 01, 2022

Best Spring Bulb Displays in the Northeast 2022

April 01, 2022/ Jana Milbocker

Tower Hill Botanic Garden

Mid-April to late May, Boylston, MA

Enjoy a changing bulb display at Tower Hill Botanic garden, beginning with Reticulated Iris and Hyacinths in mid-April, fields of 25,000 daffodils in late April to early May, and gorgeous tulip displays in mid to late May. Daffodils Day May 4-5. towerhillbg.org

Spring Bloom Fest at The Stevens Coolidge House and Gardens

April 21—May 15, N. Andover, MA

Immerse yourself in the beauty of more than 175,000 tulips and other bulbs, filling nine display gardens with the exuberant colors of spring.. the trustees

Naumkeag Daffodil and Tulip Festival

April 21—May 15, Stockbridge, MA

Stroll through the 8 acres of our world-renowned gardens decorated with over 75,000 daffodil, tulip and minor bulbs as we celebrate spring in the Berkshires. the trustees

Nantucket Daffodil Festival

April 22-24, Nantucket, MA

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens

Late April–late May, Boothbay, ME

Coastal Maine’s display gardens feature thousands of tulips, daffodils and other spring bulbs from late April to late May in one of New England’s premier public gardens. mainegardens.org

Blithewold Daffodil Days

April through Mid-May, Bristol, RI

The Bosquet, a cultivated woodland, features more than 50,000 daffodils at Blithewold Mansion Gardens and Arboretum. You will also see many woodland wildflowers in bloom. blithewold.org

Heritage Museums & Gardens

Mid April–mid May, Sandwich, MA

A spectacular Bulb River of 35,000 grape hyacinths highlighted with 1,500 white daffodils flows on the grounds of Heritage Museums & Gardens in spring. The grape hyacinths begin to open in mid April and reach their peak around Mother’s Day. heritagemuseumsandgardens.org

Wicked Tulips Flower Farm

Late April–mid May, Exeter, RI and Preston, CT

Newport Daffodil Days Festival

April, Newport, RI

Now in its 6th year, the Newport Daffodil Festival has beautified the city with more than 1 million daffodils. The week-long celebration includes a garden party, classic car parade, concerts, tours, dog parade and much more. Don’t miss the display of 11,000 daffodils of 29 varieties and the Green Animals Topiary Garden. newportdaffydays.com

Elizabeth Park

Mid-April–mid May, Hartford, CT

Daffodils in mid-April give way to a beautiful display of 11,000 tulips that peak on Mother’s Day. elizabethparkct.org

ColorBlends House and Spring Garden

April 1–May 8, Bridgeport, CT

Bartlett Arboretum & Gardens

Late April–mid May

Enjoy planting of early bulbs, daffodils and tulips blooming in 93-acres of formal gardens and natural habitats. bartlettarboretum.org

Meriden Daffodil Festival

April 30—May 1, Meriden, CT

New York Botanic Garden

April–May, Bronx, NY

Reeves-Reed Arboretum

Mid April, Summit, NJ

Deep Cut Gardens

Mid-April–mid May, Middletown, NJ

Beautiful tulip and daffodil blooms are on display in this 54 acre formal garden. monmouthcountyparks.com

Frelinhuysen Arboretum

Mid April-mid May, Morris Township, NJ

The formal gardens at Frelinghuysen Arboretum feature gorgeous bedding displays of tulips. arboretumfriends.org

Chanticleer

Early April to mid-May

Longwood Gardens

Early April to early May, Kennett Square, PA

November 18, 2020

A Longwood Christmas

November 18, 2020/ Jana Milbocker

A visit to A Longwood Christmas at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA is a magical journey through a botanical garden decorated with more than 500,000 twinkling lights and spectacular fountain shows. The conservatories feature gorgeous displays, decorated trees and amazing tropical plants.

A Longwood Christmas was named number one in Best Botanical Garden Holiday Lights by USA TODAY’s 2019 10 Best Readers’ Choice Awards.

April 03, 2019

Best Spring Bulb Displays in the Northeast

April 03, 2019/ Jana Milbocker

Tower Hill Botanic Garden

Mid-April to late May, Boylston, MA

Nantucket Daffodil Festival

April 26-28, Nantucket, MA

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens

Late April–late May, Boothbay, ME

Coastal Maine’s display gardens feature thousands of tulips, daffodils and other spring bulbs from late April to late May in one of New England’s premier public gardens. mainegardens.org

Blithewold Daffodil Days

April through Mid-May, Bristol, RI

The Bosquet, a cultivated woodland, features more than 50,000 daffodils at Blithewold Mansion Gardens and Arboretum. You will also see many woodland wildflowers in bloom. blithewold.org

Heritage Museums & Gardens

Mid April–mid May, Sandwich, MA

Wicked Tulips Flower Farm

Late April–mid May, Johnston, RI

Newport Daffodil Days Festival

April 13–21, Newport, RI

Elizabeth Park

Mid-April–mid May, Hartford, CT

Daffodils in mid-April give way to a beautiful display of 11,000 tulips that peak on Mother’s Day. elizabethparkct.org

ColorBlends House and Spring Garden

April 1–May 12, Bridgeport, CT

Bartlett Arboretum & Gardens

Late April–mid May

Enjoy planting of early bulbs, daffodils and tulips blooming in 93-acres of formal gardens and natural habitats. bartlettarboretum.org

Meriden Daffodil Festival

April 27 & 28, Meriden, CT

New York Botanic Garden

April–May, Bronx, NY

Reeves-Reed Arboretum

Mid April, Summit, NJ

Deep Cut Gardens

Mid-April–mid May, Middletown, NJ

Beautiful tulip and daffodil blooms are on display in this 54 acre formal garden. monmouthcountyparks.com

Frelinhuysen Arboretum

Mid April-mid May, Morris Township, NJ

The formal gardens at Frelinghuysen Arboretum feature gorgeous bedding displays of tulips. arboretumfriends.org