Berkshire Blast: Overnight Bus Trip Tuesday, June 24 & Wednesday, June 25, 2014 Bus leaves Arboretum Tuesday at 8:30 SHARP and returns approximately 6:00 pm on Wednesday. Please be advised: the bus will not wait for latecomers – please plan for traffic. COST: $375 includes bus, hotel, 1 full breakfast, 2 lunches and all admissions and guided tours.

The Friends of The Frelinghuysen Arboretum and DIG IT! take Fletcher Steele with Mabel you on a very special garden experience. Leave the driving to Choate, horticulturist and us on this overnight garden-intensive Berkshire Blast! owner of this summer estate. This trip is in the Berkshire Mountains, a part of the Appala- Mabel inherited the estate and chian Mountain Range. All properties have rolling terrain with its earlier designed varying materials to walk on such as stone steps, loose gravel, by landscape architect Nathan mulch, soil, bark chips and rolling . You must wear sturdy, Barrett, whose Linden Walk, secure shoes. DO NOT WEAR SANDALS OR HEELS. Nothing orchard and farm complex remain. Gardens include is handi-capped accessible. This trip is recommended for those Naumkeag who are able to do a great deal of walking and climbing. Tree Peony Terraces; a rose garden that wiggles downslope on gravel paths; vegetable Enjoy guided tours at three National Historic Landmarks with gardens; Linden Walk; the South Lawn with sweeping curves, fabulous gardens, the Berkshire Botanical Garden, an overnight stone walls, raised beds and sculpture; the Afternoon Garden, stay in Great Barrington and some passion quenching shopping Mabel’s “joy and delight;” and Steele’s most famous work at a discount! Bus seats are limited! created in 1938 – the Blue Steps that connect the top lawn with flower gardens below. The two sets of steps flank a series Day 1 of blue and falls, and are hugged on both sides and Stop 1: We will enjoy a guided tour of Chesterwood, the all levels with a white birch grove. Naumkeag is a National home and studio of Daniel Chester French, sculptor/landscape Historic Landmark. designer of the new American culture of art, landscape and Stop 4: We’ll spend the night at Berkshire Days Inn in at the turn of the 20th-century. Chesterwood’s historic, downtown Great Barrington. Located one block from landscape is a blend of those trends with classic elements and downtown, the hotel is within walking distance of a multitude agriculture, French’s New England heritage. Formal gardens of restaurants where you will have dinner on your own. flank the mansion as extended living spaces. In the Studio Garden, columns, a marble exedra, a and Italian terra Day 2 cotta pieces accent the English style along with a mixed flower Stop 1: Breakfast at Martin’s. Take a very brief walk to Martin’s Long Border, a lily pond and . Woodland surrounds the Restaurant where we will savor a hot and cold breakfast buffet formal landscape and French used it well. He created paths, with fresh fruit, home fries, ham, bacon, sausage, eggs, a variety such as Hydrangea Walk (with peonies) from the studio to of pancakes (all home-made), muffins, breads, coffee, tea in a the woods. Others paths connect to vistas with sculpture, rustic, downhome environment. magnificent trees and exposed rock outcroppings. Chesterwood is a National Trust Historic Site. Stop 2: The Mount, the home and gardens of Stop 2: Berkshire Edith Wharton. Here we Botanical Garden awaits will enjoy guided tours us with guided tours and of Ms. Wharton’s gardens a catered luncheon. This and also her home and 15-acre garden has an have a catered luncheon emphasis on plants native on the expansive terrace. to the Berkshires and others The gardens at The Mount Edith Wharton was a that thrive there. Gardens prolific writer, author of 40 books, a master house builder Berkshire Botanical Garden galore include a mixed and gardener. This pioneering woman designed and built The border entry garden with 2,000 annuals; a raised bed ornamental Mount and was the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize. vegetable garden and fruit garden; a garden room with two Wharton designed the gardens with the aid of Beatrix Farrand. island beds, one sunny, one lightly shaded, connected by a Three acres of formal gardens with “outdoor rooms” include gravel walk; a pond-woodland garden; an informal, themed an Italianate walled garden, rock garden with grass steps, a herb garden from 1937; a David Austin rose garden; a daylily dolphin fountain and Lime Walk. With lunch, beer, wine and garden laid out historically and other delights. special sodas are available for purchase. The Mount is one of The Frelinghuysen family vacationed in the Berkshires, and just five National Historic Landmarks dedicated to women. at The Berkshire Botanical Garden two garden areas are Stop 3: Windy Hill Farm for great shopping! Enjoy a 10% dedicated to them. One features an embankment filled with discount on anything and everything in the nursery and retail old-fashioned perennials which will enclose you in a blue, shop from tools to trees. They feature an extensive selection pink, purple and white haze. of hard-to-find trees, shrubs and perennials, fruit trees, locally Stop 3: At Naumkeag, we will have guided tours of this and organically grown vegetable plants, herbs and annuals, Gilded Age landscape designed largely by landscape architect pots and unique gifts for the home.