Ringwood, New Jersey
New Jersey Botanical Garden at Skylands
The New Jersey State Botanical Garden (commonly known as Skylands) has 96 acres of specialty gardens surrounded by 1000 acres of woodlands, along with a 44-room Tudor revival manor house. Part of Ringwood State Park, New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry, Department of Environmental Protection, the NJBG at Skylands is on both the State and National Registers of Historic Places.
The house and gardens were originally built in the 1920s by Clarence MacKenzie Lewis, a New York City stockbroker, civil engineer and horticulturalist, who hired noted architect John Russell Pope to design the manor house. Mr. Pope’s other works include the National Archives and the National Gallery of Art.
Highlights
Perennial Border restored to theoriginal design; Crab Apple Allée that stretches a half mile; Hosta/Rhododendron Garden; Wildflower Garden; Lilac Garden with more than 100 varieties; Peony Garden; banks of azaleas and rhododendrons; a Magnolia Walk with sweet bay magnolias that are not usually found this far north.
The Moraine Garden (moraines are deposits of rock left behind by melting glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age) features heather, sedums, gentians, dwarf conifers, and many low creeping plants.
Visiting
Admission is always free; parking is $5 during high season
Open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily
Located in Ringwood State Park,
2 Morris Rd., Ringwood, NJ 07456
Phone 973-962-7527 or 973-962-9534 [ info ]