Blogtober Day 28: Exploring Stonecrop Gardens

October 28th 2018

“Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.” -Frank Lloyd Wright

I am definitely the kind of person who loves taking small trips on a whim, so when my friend Brigid asked me if I wanted to explore a garden that was a few hours upstate from where we live, I was completely down! Stonecrop Gardens is in Cold Spring, NY and was originally owned by author Anne Cabot (at least I think it was from what I’ve been told). The garden is acres and acres long and has so much to explore!

The garden’s season is from April to October so we were really lucky to have gotten in before it closed up for the end of the season! When you first get there, you get a numbered map and a booklet of all the flowers and foliage you will come across in your travels. Then you are pointed off in the right direction and are on your way.

I will admit, the map was a bit difficult to read, but I believe we found our way through everything we could see! Our first stop was the pergola which was home to a lot of different vine, ivy, and cacti plants! Despite the cold weather, the green hues really shined through on the plants draping the pergola.

After we found our way out of the pergola, we made our way to the rock slope/rock bowl, which I found to be the most beautiful place in the whole garden and I could honestly spend the entire day there just staring at its beauty. The huge lake acted like a mirror that reflected the beautiful hues of the green and yellow trees in the area. One big yellow tree was the star of the whole area (and most of my photos).

There was a gazebo-like structure towards the back that had beautiful round windows and archways that gave it sort of a Japanese zen garden feel. And inside the gazebo was a metal frog who sat on a little bench waiting for passerbys to take photos (which I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do).

On the opposite side of the gazebo, there was a stone bridge over the water that offered the most beautiful and uninterrupted view of the spectacular yellow tree. And the whole area was quiet except for the sound of running water and a man in the distance shoveling dense piles of muddied leaves away from the main path.

After getting out fill of the gazebo, we made our way down some stone steps to the bamboo garden which was a tunnel of bamboo that cast a sort of yellow hue to everything inside of it.

After making our way out of the bamboo, we returned to the rock slope and made our way up to a gravel garden which featured more trees and foliage. We made our way through in the quest to find the woodland path which was the next stop on our map. The woodland path was filled with a canopy of gorgeous tall trees and plants with large leaves that hugged the edges of the paths. After a bit of wandering through short paths, we ended up at the main greenhouse.

I love plants so I was over the moon when I wandered inside to see the big glass building in all of its glory. The beautiful architecture and all of the well kept plants made for some gorgeous photos as well! And since the garden was empty that day, I felt like we were getting our own private run of the land.

Lastly, we explored the main flower garden, which I would image looks amazing in the spring time. It was still gorgeous now but it in a more subtle way. Many flowers were no longer blooming but the twisting vines and stalks of large beautiful plants was still a beautiful sight.

After about 3 hours wandering the garden, we got our fill and saw everything there was to see, so we made our way back to the car to go home. I had an amazing time and would love to visit Stonecrop Gardens again in the spring!

Jess~