Highlights include Frank Lloyd Wright house and Boscobel House & Gardens
Partners with PARC’s Secret Garden Tour will be held Saturday, June 11 2011. Voted “Best Garden Tour” in the Hudson Valley, the day-long event is a self-guided driving tour to the best and most beautiful private gardens in Putnam County. Back by popular demand, the tour will also feature the spectacular and renowned Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house on Petra Island on Lake Mahopac, N.Y. The home, built by the Massaro Family, is believed to the be last known house in the U.S. built on the exact location and with the plans desgined by Wright. The Massaro Family has recently restored the original Frank Lloyd Wright Cottage, circa 1951, and it will also be open to tour.
This country driving tour includes private homes and renowned sites with formal gardens, perennial flowering landscapes, pastoral fields and vistas, gorgeous roses, water gardens, and herb and flowering vegetable gardens throughout Putnam County. At each garden destination, home owners will guide you through their landscapes, telling the history of the gardens and answering questions about plantings and designs.
New this year is the legendary Boscobel House & Gardens in Garrison that will open its gardens to tour attendees. Boscobel, as an event sponsor, will be waiving its $9 grounds fee for all garden tour ticket holders. Set upon 68 acres of landscaped grounds, Boscobel House & Gardens is situated on a bluff on the Hudson River overlooking the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Boscobel offers over 600 individual plants and over 150 varieties of roses. Spring presents weeping cherry trees, candytuft, pansies, lilacs and more. Also on the tour is Stonecrop Gardens in Cold Spring; with 63 acres of alpine gardens, bog garden, woodland and water gardens, cliff rock garden and an enclosed English-style flower garden.
Gardens will be open in Mahopac, Carmel, Garrison, Putnam Valley & Cold Spring from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with special events and activities taking place throughout the day, including an expanded Cold Spring Farmers’ Market with sales of annuals and perennials. “The garden tour is a great way to show off Putnam County and what it has to offer,” says Val Hickman, director of the Putnam Visitors Bureau. “From our spectacular views of the Hudson River in the west to the rolling hills and sparkling reservoirs of the east, Putnam County may very well be the best kept secret of the Hudson Valley and this tour is sure to introduce people to our county’s hidden treasures.”
This is a rain or shine event. Advance ticket prices are $30 for all the gardens. Only 90 tickets, at $125 each, will be sold for the Frank Lloyd Wright house and cottage tour plus all the gardens. Advance tickets may be purchased online at http://www.putnamsecretgardentour.com/. All major credit cards are accepted.
Photos courtesy of PARC, except as noted
