The Garden Tourist’s Connecticut Gardens, Nurseries, and Wineries

Sunday, September 18–Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Itinerary

DAY 1: We begin our day with a tour of ROSELAND COTTAGE, a Gothic Revival House and Parterre Garden in Woodstock. Built in 1846 for Henry Bowen and family, this elaborate summer cottage was used to entertain friends and political connections, including four U.S. presidents. The picturesque landscape includes 21 original boxwood-edged beds planted with colorful flowers. The estate includes an icehouse, aviary, carriage barn, and the nation’s oldest surviving indoor bowling alley.

From Woodstock we continue to ELIZABETH PARK in West Hartford, a 100-acre park with formal gardens and green spaces designed by the Frederick Law Olmstead firm. A member of the Elizabeth Park Conservancy will guide us through America’s oldest public Rose Garden, with more than 15,000 rose bushes and arches, as well as gardens devoted to perennials, herbs, shade plants, dahlias and annuals. We will lunch at PARKVILLE MARKET, Connecticut’s first food hall with 19 distinct restaurants.

From Hartford we head to the scenic Litchfield Hills in Connecticut’s northwest corner—known for its charming villages, waterfalls, covered bridges and beautiful fall foliage. We will enjoy a wine tasting at Connecticut’s oldest farm winery, HAIGHT-BROWN VINEYARD. Each year, the vintner evaluates the harvest, and creates a selection of wines that highlight that harvest’s bounty. Because no two seasons are ever the same, the wines vary from year to year. Once they sell out, that vintage is gone. It was a ‘one and done’!

We check in at our home for the next two nights, THE LITCHFIELD INN. Welcome to quintessential New England in this modern-meets-traditionalist colonial boutique hotel with 32 rooms set on ten acres in the foothills of the Berkshires. We will enjoy our Welcome Dinner at The Saltwater Grill, an award-winning destination restaurant for seafood lovers.   

DAY 2: We begin our day at HOLLISTER HOUSE GARDEN, a private 30 year “labor of love” that is now open to the public. The gardens here surround an 18th century farmhouse on 25 acres of rolling hills with a pond. The style is an American interpretation of such classic English gardens as Sissinghurst, Great Dixter and Hidcote—formal in its structure but informal and exuberant in its style of planting. This garden is breathtaking in early fall with towering perennials, vivid color, and brilliant Japanese maples.

We continue to BRUSH HILL GARDEN, the personal garden of Barbara Paul Robinson, author of Rosemary Verey: The Life & Lessons of a Legendary Gardener, and Heroes of Horticulture: Americans Who Transformed the Landscape. This garden is a unique husband and wife collaboration with peony borders, a Rose Walk, Moon Garden, Woodland Walk, and Waterworks, augmented with handmade bridges, trellises, and arches.

Lunch will be at the Fife & Drum, a charming country inn in Kent.

Our next stop is SCULPTUREDALE, the studio, gallery and historic home of sculptor Denis Curtiss. Curtiss’ rusted steel sculptures capture dancers and animals in elegant motion. You will enjoy a safari through a landscape of lions, elephants, rhinos, cats and dogs, and figures in mid-dance. All are made in the studio located on the property. Sculpturedale is comprised of 3 acres of tended garden where visitors may stroll amidst interesting plantings which enhance the placement of over a hundred pieces of sculpture.

We continue to HOPKINS VINEYARD, a heritage farm turned vineyard in a spectacular setting overlooking Lake Waramaug. We will enjoy a tasting of the Vineyard’s award-winning whites, reds, and sparkling wines created from the 11 varieties of grapes grown on the property.

Dinner tonight at another local favorite, THE BOATHOUSE.  The ambiance is warm and rustic, and infuses traditional New England style with fine dining elegance. Similarly, the menu pairs old fashioned home cooked classics with more complex culinary masterpieces.  

DAY 3: This day features a “nursery crawl” for avid plant collectors. After breakfast, we check out and head to the infamous WHITE FLOWER FARM, one of America’s premier mail order nurseries. We will have a tour of the fabulous display gardens including the English-style Christopher Lloyd border, the rose garden, the native and pollinator beds, and the trial garden. Of course, we will have time to shop here as well!

Next stop is the CRICKET HILL FARM, one of the first tree peony nurseries in the US. Fall is the best time to plant peonies, and here you can shop for tree peonies, Itoh, and herbaceous peonies, as well as ornamental trees and shrubs, and unusual fruit trees. We will tour the orchards, learn about some of the unusual plants propagated here, and shop for our own gardens.

Off for lunch at ABIGAILS’ GRILLE AND WINE BAR, located in a building dating back to 1803 which was once part of the Underground Railroad. There is still a bricked up tunnel in the basement leading to the basement of the house across the street. Abigail’s is known for its New England atmosphere and fabulous food.

Our last visit will be to O’BRIEN NURSERY, one of New England’s premier specialty nurseries. The extensive display gardens feature over 1,300 hosta varieties as well as other shady companion plants like asarums, pulmonarias, epimediums, polygonatums, and arisaemas. The gardens also include a wide variety of unusual dwarf conifers and over a hundred varieties of Japanese maples. We will have a tour and of course, time for shopping.

Cost:  $995 pp double/tripple, $1,265 pp single

Includes: Deluxe motorcoach, 2 nights hotel, 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches, 2 dinners, 2 wine tastings, sightseeing & admissions, Friendship Tours Escort

Departure Location: Framingham, MA
Depart: 7:45 AM on Sunday, Sept. 18.  Return: 8:15 PM on Tuesday, Sept. 20

Jana Milbocker is a garden designer, speaker, and author of the Garden Tourist travel guides. She combines horticulture, design, and travel tips to educate, inspire and delight both new and seasoned gardeners.

Friendship Tours has been operating group tours for more than 40 years, including custom trips for the Connecticut Horticultural Society, Federated Garden Clubs of Conn., and Tower Hill Botanic Garden. FriendshipTours.net

Photos from the trip: