Flower power: Area spring garden shows unfold

By BRIAN KLUEPFEL  

Now is the time for planting, and what better way to inspire ideas for your garden than by visiting a flower show or local garden? Westchester and the surrounding areas are brimming with such sites, where you can figure out what tickles your fancy and often buy the seeds, flowers or plants in the moment, all the better to take home with you to begin this year’s gardening adventure immediately.

Just steps from Metro-North’s Harlem Line, the New York Botanical Garden has caught the eye of amateur and professional planter alike for more than a century. This year’s Orchid Show (through April 27) has a Mexican twist and, while you wander the grounds, you’ll no doubt stop in awe at the various shades of yellow on Daffodil Hill, the resilient Rock Garden and classic Rose Garden. 

NYBG is located at  2900 Southern Boulevard, Bronx. For more information, visit nybg.org. 

Katonah’s Lasdon Park & Arboretum sponsors a free one-hour Garden Highlights tour Sunday, April 20, where you’ll learn about Westchester’s public garden and its various flowering and fruiting trees, as well as annual and perennial flowers. The “What’s in Bloom” link will lead you to seasonal specialties, like orange peel witch hazel and the azalea garden’s snowdrops. In addition to the magnolia garden, Lasdon is home to towering pine and conifer collections. 

Lasdon Park & Arboretum is located at 2610 Amawalk Road (Route 35), Katonah. For more information, visit lasdonpark.org.

For those with a bit of a competitive spirit, the Chappaqua Garden Club hosts “Spring Awakening on the Greely Farm” on April 25-26. 

The free show has competitions in design (categories include butterflies in flight, garden party, and busy bees) and horticulture (swing into spring, and tie a yellow ribbon), and an exhibit of pressed flowers by local children. 

New Castle Historical Society, located 100 King Street, Chappaqua. For more information, visit chappaquagardenclub.com.  

If you’re ready to start digging, a quartet of local events will get you down and dirty in no time. The Pound Ridge Garden Club  hosts its April bulb sale at The Market at Pound Ridge Square on April 26-27, from 11 a.m to 2 p.m. The bulbs, ordered in the spring, are delivered to you by a garden club member for optimal fall planting, and come in hues ranging from yellow to purple and crucially, most are deer and rodent proof. 

The Market at Pound Ridge Square is located at 55 Westchester Avenue, Pound Ridge. For more information, visit poundridgegardenclub.com.

Somers’ Honeybee Grove Flower Farm holds their annual u-pick Daffodil Day on Sunday, April 27, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. You purchase a picking jug, grab a pair of scissors, and walk home with a unique bouquet of hand-cut stems. You’ll also get tips on handling the daffodils for maximum vase-life and to prevent damage to other flowers. Honeybee also hosts a tulip pick in the spring, as well as other flowers like zinnias, snapdragons, Gladiolus and sunflowers throughout the rest of the growing season. “It’s a great way to celebrate our spring flowers,” says Honeybee’s Sarah Coldwell. “It’s nice to start the season with flowers that we put in the ground as bulbs last fall.”

The family-friendly event is free and features face-painting, music, crafts and food. 

Honeybee Grove Flower Farm is located at 265 Route 202, Somers. For more information, visit honeybeegrove.com.

Ossining’s Teatown Lake Reservation holds their annual Plantfest on May 9-10, from 3 to 7 p.m Friday, and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. While you’re shopping, enjoy music, wine, hard cider, local craft beer and food. You may also want to visit the reservation’s Wildflower Island, a wildlife bonanza in the midst of Teatown Lake hosting more than 200 native wildflowers, shrubs and trees.

Teatown Lake Reservation is located at 1600 Spring Valley Road, Ossining. For more information, visit teatown.org.  

Lewisboro Garden Club holds their Mother’s Day plant sale at the Gossett Brothers Nursery May 10. 

“Spring is when members of the club really begin their hard work to beautify their gardens as well as those in public places,” said Robin Korman of LGC. “We educate and encourage gardeners of all levels to join us in learning more and helping beautify our community.” 

And beautify they do. The  Lewisboro Garden Club designs, plants and maintains 17 roadside flower triangles, and cares for the Alice Poor Memorial Garden at Onatru Farm and manages the organic community gardens at Onatru Farm. Each spring 65,000 daffodils bloom along hamlet roadsides thanks to their Golden Roads Daffodil Program. 

For more information, visit lewisborogardenclub.org.

For those taking a spring field trip a bit further afield, Mohonk Mountain House radiates the Dutch spirit of the Hudson region with its annual Tulip Festival, April 28-May 9. Their mountaintop Victorian Garden will be bursting with more than 30,000 colorful tulips, and if that’s not enough sensory stimuli, they’ll be serving floral teas, cookies, local artisan chocolates and granola.

Families can reserve tours to stroll through the tulips, learn how the vibrant display was planned and created, and make pressed flower bookmarks. 

Mohonk Mountain House is located at 1000 Mountain Rest Road, New Paltz. For more information, visit mohonk.com.  

So whether you’re planning a spring garden, anticipating fall bulbs, or just feel like wandering among various habitats and allowing the flowers to put on a show, Westchester and its array of gardens await.