Five Regional Gardens to Add to Your Calendar

Winter's short days leave me dreaming of gardens. While my own design work continues through the cold months - analyzing sites, drawing plans, and helping clients envision spring - I find myself increasingly drawn to visits at public gardens. There's something magical about experiencing these spaces in winter. Without summer's abundance, the bones of great gardens reveal themselves, teaching lessons that inform my work back home in Western New York. Over years of practice, I've developed a deep appreciation for several remarkable gardens within driving distance of Buffalo, each offering unique insights into the art of garden making in our challenging climate.

Cornell Botanic Gardens
124 Comstock Knoll Dr, Ithaca, NY 14850
cornellbotanicgardens.org

Reading the Land: Cornell's gardens demonstrate masterful site adaptation across challenging terrain. The gardens' response to the region's dramatic topography offers crucial lessons about grade changes and microclimate creation. Throughout the gardens, we see thoughtful management of water flow through intentional design choices, alongside strategic placement of windbreaks protecting sensitive collections. Perhaps most instructive is their successful integration of native and ornamental plants in sustainable compositions that thrive despite harsh winters.

Be sure to visit: The Zucker Shrub Garden- For those dreaming of beautiful, low-maintenance spaces, these gardens demonstrate the untapped potential of thoughtful shrub design.

Sonnenberg Gardens
250 Gibson St, Canandaigua, NY 14424
www.sonnenberg.org

This historic estate showcases how good bones support garden design through all seasons. The formal gardens provide textbook examples of evergreen hedging creating essential winter structure, while architectural elements direct snow distribution in beneficial ways. Throughout the gardens, tender plants survive thanks to thoughtful placement within the protected landscape. Despite incorporating multiple garden styles, from Italian to Japanese, the overall design maintains coherent flow through careful attention to transition spaces.

Be sure to visit: The Blue and White Garden- Walking through these spaces teaches an invaluable lesson about restraint - how limiting your palette to just a few carefully chosen colors can create more dramatic impact than a riot of competing hues.

Longwood Gardens
1001 Longwood Rd, Kennett Square, PA 19348
longwoodgardens.org

While grander than most private gardens, Longwood's design principles scale beautifully to residential spaces. Their gardens illustrate the art of creating intimate spaces within larger landscapes, demonstrating how strategic use of water features can work even in cold climates. Their masterful layering of plants for year-round interest provides endless inspiration for home gardens, while the transitions between formal and naturalistic areas offer lessons in harmonious design.

Be sure to visit: The Conservatory District- A conservatory on steroids. A series of intimate garden rooms unfolds like chapters in a story - from the towering palm court to the mist-filled orchid houses, each space demonstrates how indoor gardens can be both theatrical and contemplative.

*photo credit:* *highlandparkconservancy.org*

Rochester's Garden Trail
Various locations across Rochester, NY
visitrochester.com
Rochester's gardens offer a perfect day trip of contrasting styles: Olmsted's naturalistic Highland Park (best visited in spring, but dodge the crowds of Lilac Festival), Eastman Museum's classic estate design, and the intimate spaces of Warner Castle's Sunken Garden. Each space teaches different lessons about what works in our climate, and you can easily explore them all in a single visit.

Be sure to visit: Warner Castle Sunken Garden - it's my favorite hidden gem in the city. The stone walls and intimate terraces pack so many design lessons into a small space that I find myself coming back again and again.

Innisfree Garden
362 Tyrrel Rd, Millbrook, NY 12545
innisfreegarden.org
If you're tired of formal gardens, Innisfree is completely different from the others on this list. It feels almost wild - in the best possible way. The paths just follow the land around a misty lake, rocks look like they've always been there, and plants grow in natural drifts instead of neat borders. The designer took ideas from Chinese gardens but made something that feels uniquely American. Go early in the morning when it's quiet and you'll see why so many designers love this place. It's the perfect example of working with your site instead of fighting it.

Be sure to visit: The Lake Path- Walking around Innisfree's lake, you get one great view after another. It really shows that gardens don't need to be perfectly controlled to be beautiful - sometimes letting nature take the lead gives you the best results.

Conclusion

These visits never fail to send me home with renewed energy for my own design work. Sometimes it's a clever solution to a grading challenge I've been puzzling over, or a particularly effective grouping of winter-interest shrubs that would work perfectly in a client's garden. Other times, it's simply the reminder that gardens are never finished - they evolve, grow, and respond to care over time. As winter holds Western New York in its grip, consider taking a weekend to explore one of these remarkable places. You might just find yourself, like me, seeing your own garden with fresh eyes when you return.