Directions The Botanic

Garden Visitors Guide of Smith College Route 91 Exit 18. Left onto Route 5 north into the town center. Left at the

first traffic light Capen onto Route 9. Go through four traffic lights, turn left into Smith’s main entrance (College Lane), just opposite the chapel. The Botanic Garden is ahead on your left. Some parking is available in front of Lyman Conservatory or along Route 9.

Hours About Lyman House and Conservatory: Open daily 8:30 am – 4:00 pm Closed on Thanksgiving Day the Garden Closed between Christmas and New Year’s The Smith College landscape was Campus and : Dawn to Dusk designed over 100 years ago as a botanic garden, to be of aesthetic as well as scientific value. The Botanic Admission Garden has served generations of The suggested donation is $2. For some special events and shows there is a fee. students and visitors as a place of engagement, wonder, and learning.

Accessibility Today, the Botanic Garden functions There is one designated handicapped parking space in as a living plant museum that presents front of the Lyman Plant House. We have two accessible and utilizes its plant collection for entrances, a lift, and wheelchair accessible bathrooms. All education, research, display, and except Fern House are wheelchair accessible. conservation. We maintain diverse For other special needs please contact us. plant collections in the Lyman Conservatory and on the 125 acre T he Botanic Garden of Smith College campus. Our collection contains over 16 College Lane 7,000 labeled and mapped . Northampton, MA 01063 Changing educational exhibits are 413-585-2740 [email protected] featured in the Exhibition Gallery. www.smith.edu/garden Margaret P. Holden ©1999

© 2017 Botanic Garden of Smith College T hank you for visiting! The Botanic Garden is a college campus and a living museum, not a park or recreation area. We are recognized for our diverse collection, which includes fragile, rare, and endangered plants.

For everyone’s enjoyment, for your safety, and for the protection he Botanic Garden began as of the plants we ask: a collection of plants from Seasonal Shows The Spring Bulb Show runs for two around the world, supporting PLEASE weeks beginning the first Saturday in • View and enjoy, but do not classical studies of plant systematics and March and the Fall Chrysanthemum pick anything. physiology.T In time, the Garden evolved Show runs for two weeks starting the into a landscape for learning, complete • Stay on paths and out of first Saturday in November. Show hours with a sizable conservatory filled with planting beds, and do not are 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. daily. botanical wonders. Conservatory climb trees. collections include cacti and succulents, • Use caution on wet walkways ferns, epiphytes, orchids, fragrant plants, and watch out for water hoses. economic , carnivorous plants, and other tropical plants. Outdoor collections • Conditions in the greenhouses may be hot and humid, and feature woody trees and shrubs, a rock Volunteer garden, systematics garden, perennial bees may be present. Please garden, and garden. Today our Opportunities be aware if this poses a risk to Botanic Garden plant collections are used for teaching your health. volunteers lead Amazing plants and research at Smith College. We • Do not touch the plants; tours, staff our from all over the provide plant material to research many may cause allergies. reception area and world bloom scientists nationally and internationally. exhibition gallery, • Do not eat plants or fruits; throughout the Images and information about our plant develop educational many are poisonous. seasons collection are available and searchable Tours materials, assist with at . Free guided tours are offered for school • Supervise children carefully; www.smith.edu/garden exhibitions, and groups and nonprofit organizations. Bus no running or shouting. much more. Contact subsidies are generally available with us if you would like • No strollers or backpacks in advanced reservation and scheduling. to learn more about the Conservatory. Audio tours of the Conservatory are $1 volunteering. • No pets. (free to Friends of the Botanic Garden Collections and anyone with a Smith College ID). • No picnicking in the Systematics Garden, Rock Membership Garden, Capen Garden, President’s Residence Gardens, Education Members of the Friends of the Botanic or . Garden enjoy many benefits and know they are supporting a worthy cause. • Enjoy the quiet and do not Research Membership applications are available disturb the relaxing nature of at the reception desk or online. the Garden. We reserve the right to remove Conservation any person or group whose behavior is irresponsible. 1875 1893 1894 1895 1897

The Smith campus, the President Seelye envisions The first greenhouses are The new Lyman Plant The is former Lyman and a campus botanic garden. constructed. Beds for House is built, including established, modeled Dewey homesteads, is a The Olmsted plan includes herbaceous plants are laid the large Victorian Palm after the rockery at the The mix of gardens, , curving walkways, open out in what will become House. Royal Botanic Gardens Botanic hayfields, and pastures. space, and vistas. the Systematics Garden. at Kew in . Garden of Smith College Over a Century of Growth The campus arboretum The college acquires Geneticist Albert F. Expansion of Lyman The Japanese Garden Major renovation of develops as an outdoor the Capen School and Blakeslee comes to Plant House includes for Reflection and the Lyman Plant House laboratory for the study adjacent garden area, Smith in 1942 and two a new Cool Temperate Contemplation is built updates environmental of native and exotic laid out as a series of research greenhouses House and new overlooking Paradise systems and adds an trees and shrubs. outdoor garden rooms. are added in 1952. classrooms. Pond. Exhibition Gallery.

1905 1921 1952 1981 1984 2003 Historic photographs courtesy of the Smith College Archives T he Campus Arboretum The entire Smith campus Campus Gardens is a living museum of over 1,200 types of woody plants. The & Arboretum collection is used for A study and research, while at the same time providing a pastoral A Capen Garden environment for learning Located on the northeast edge of and enjoyment. For more campus, this garden is essential for information on our trees teaching . Features include please see our tree guide. a rustic rose arbor, perennial beds, a knot garden, and fountain. A formal D B D Wildflower and Woodland Garden gazebo, honoring Jill Ker Conway, Understory trees, shrubs, ferns, and wildflowers hosts a spectacular spring display of C grow under a mature canopy of native hardwoods tulips and colorful summer annuals. and conifers in the wooded ravine below the President’s house. A path with bridges over the stream provides a means through the woodlands. Best seen in early spring. E F

E T he Systematics Garden and Perennial Border Beds are arranged according to evolutionary relationships, allowing students to observe and compare flower types and B growth forms. Featured Happy Chace ’28 Garden are economically Gardens surround and beautify the 1920s important, botanically interesting, and ornamental president’s residence and offer panoramic species. The adjacent Ruth Brown Richardson views of Paradise Pond and Mount Tom. The Perennial Border extends along the wrought iron garden was redesigned in 2016 and includes fence. , annual and perennial displays, and some lovely mature tree specimens in the landscape around the house. F T he Rock Garden Home to about 2,000 alpine, dwarf, and C Japanese Garden woodland plants, this garden is the most Built in the 1980s and redesigned in 2017, the intensively cultivated garden is situated on the hillside along Paradise Pond area on campus. The below the President’s house. It incorporates elements garden was created in of Japanese design within the context of a New 1897 and was modeled setting and features stone statues and lanterns plus after the rock garden rocks from the surrounding region. The rock formations at Kew Gardens in are designed to represent events in the life of Buddha. London. It is at its peak Visitors are invited to pause for contemplation and in April and May. scenic views of Paradise Pond and Mt. Tom. &Conservatory House Plant Lyman Entrance Wheelchair Accessible Lift Handicapped Accessible Water Fountain Restrooms Information Center Guide AvailableAudio

Conservatory map: Pamela Dods AC Camellia Corridor Physiology House Lining the Camellia Corridor are plants that were The hundred year old slate-topped work grown in the earliest European glasshouses (called benches are evidence of early plant orangeries), such as camellias, citrus, orchids, physiology classes held here. Since the agapanthus, and rhododendrons. A large collection mid 1970s the Fall Mum Show and the of English ivy cultivars hangs along the wall. Spring Bulb Show have been displayed here, Smith traditions dating from the Camellia japonica early 1900s. Spring Blub Show Cold Storage House Show House Generally kept quite cool, this Once used for the Spring Bulb Show and the Fall serves as a rotating production house, with Chrysanthemum Show, this greenhouse now holds an plants continually changing. January through array of plants with foliar and floral scents—those with early March you’ll see bulbs and other plant culinary, medicinal, perfumery, or other economic material being forced for the Spring Bulb Show. uses. There’s always something in bloom here, In the summer chrysanthemums are grown and Amaryllis in Cold Storage providing color and fragrance throughout the year. trained for the Fall Mum Show.

Stove House Cool Temperate House Formerly housing a coal stove, this greenhouse Cooler temperatures and lower humidity levels contains many orchids and bromeliads, and is than in the Palm House provide ideal conditions known for its epiphyte collection. In the center for subtropical plants from four geographic pool you can find rice, papyrus, and sugar cane, regions: Asia, Latin America, Africa, and Australia/ as well as tropical water lilies, which are said to New Zealand. Look for avocado, tea, eucalyptus, Show House display at least one flower every day of the year. coffee, fig, and olive as well as the waterfall. Church Exhibition Gallery

Succulent House Church Exhibition Gallery One of the original greenhouses built between The Gallery’s primary function is educational. 1892 and 1894, the Succulent House now Using an interdisciplinary approach, exhibitions displays plants adapted to deserts and dry are designed to present diverse horticultural habitats. It is arranged biogeographically, with and botanical themes. This melding of arts plants from Europe, Africa, and Asia on the and sciences broadens visitors’ knowledge southern half, and plants from the Americas on and conception of plants and fosters greater the northern half. understanding of their universal importance. Fern House Center bed of Succulent House Warm Temperate House Fern House Palm House Featured in this greenhouse are Built as a part of the 1895 Fondly called the plants adapted to tropical and expansion, today this humid “Jungle Room” by subtropical ecosystems, with an greenhouse contains a collection children, this is the emphasis on ornamental foliage, of nonhardy ferns, fern allies, and most popular of including many common houseplants other primitive plants such as the Conservatory and carnivorous plants, such as cycads. A Wardian case and tree houses. Here you find plants from lowland Venus flytraps and pitcher plants. ferns grace the center bed. tropical forests of the world, including rubber, Venus flytrap cacao, banana, mahogany, and cinnamon.