THE BERKSHIRES, MA—For generations, gardeners have applied their talents throughout the Berkshire hills, nurturing landscapes countywide into places of unparalleled allure and interest. More than just pretty places, some Berkshire gardens also provide visitors with an important perspective on the past, offering a chance to see the world through the eyes of those whose creativity, even spirituality, is reflected in the gardens they left behind. From heirloom herb and vegetable plots to formal traditional beds, Berkshire gardens offer breathtaking beauty, incredible variety and a host of new ideas for gardeners of every persuasion.

The Berkshire Botanical Garden’s peaceful 15 acre refuge offers compelling display gardens, classes for all ages and skills, and year round community events. Comprising more than 3,000 species and varieties, the Garden’s collections are displayed in an informal, country setting. Emphasizing plants that thrive in the Berkshires, the display gardens are laid out on a residential scale designed to inspire and inform the home gardener.

The Mount, the country estate designed and built by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edith Wharton in 1902, features one of the most significant formal gardens in New England, recently restored to its historic splendor. Wharton’s gardens are a living monument to her passion for horticulture and talent for landscape design. The 49-acre property includes vibrant flower borders, a sunken Italian "secret garden" with stone walls, stately grass terraces, a lime walk of linden trees, a rustic rock garden, and exceptional grass steps.

Visitors to Hancock Shaker Village explore the Shakers’ lives through the sect’s medicinal and herb gardens, heirloom vegetable and seed beds, Victorian-era plantings and food crop plots. A bounty of color and scent flood the senses amid gardens featuring asparagus plants, calendula, thyme, sage and 100 distinct varieties of herbs grown by the Shakers. In the fall, the gardeners collect seeds from heirloom varieties for the Village's ongoing conservation efforts.

At Chesterwood, the home and studio of leading sculptor Daniel Chester French, the artist’s eye is reflected in the landscaped grounds and Studio Garden he designed. With its many porches, gardens and woodland walks, Chesterwood endures as an ideal place to revel in the outdoors. French carefully planned his estate to imbue a range of pleasures in different parts of his property: formal gardens and spacious lawns for elegant receptions and parties; broad porches for dining with a spectacular view of peaceful mountains; and cloistered garden nooks for tranquil reflection.

Naumkeag, a property of The Trustees of Reservations, is an intact Berkshire Cottage estate renowned for its eight acres of terraced gardens and landscaped grounds surrounded by forty acres of woodland, meadow, and pasture. Designed in the late 1880s by Nathan Barrett for the Choate family, the gardens and landscaped grounds were transformed and expanded between 1926 and 1956 by noted landscape architect Fletcher Steele and Miss Mabel Choate. Separate garden "rooms" include the Afternoon Garden, Tree Peony Terrace, Rose Garden, Evergreen Garden, Chinese Garden, and Linden Walk. Perhaps the most famous feature of the landscape is Steele's Blue Steps, a series of deep blue fountain pools flanked by four flights of stairs climbing up a gentle hillside and overhung by birch trees.

Following ministerial studies at Yale, the Reverend John Sergeant moved to the Berkshires to establish a mission for fifty Mohicans, and in 1739 he built the Mission House atop Prospect Hill, Stockbridge. In the 1920s, the house was carefully disassembled, moved, and restored by Mabel Choate at its present Main Street location.

Between 1928 and 1933, Fletcher Steele designed the Colonial Revival garden, featuring a colonial-style Dooryard Garden of circular brick paths enclosed by a tidewater cypress fence. The Orchard Garden is crisscrossed with paths edged with bricks, sage, and wormwood. Small fruit trees make this garden both useful and beautiful.

To accommodate garden aficionados who wish to have a personally guided visit, group tours of Berkshire gardens are offered by Valerie Locher Horticulturists, Inc. of Housatonic. The tours are conducted by an expert horticulturist with more than 30 years of professional experience.