Bellamy-Ferriday House & Garden (9 Main Street North, Bethlehem, CT 06751): 12-4 pm. Enjoy free garden tours for the day. Marvel at the formal parterre garden created by Eliza and Caroline Ferriday as well as the surrounding 10-acre property filled with specimen trees and the remains of an antique orchard. House tours are $16 for adults, $12 for seniors, free for members.

Butler-McCook House & Garden (396 Main Street, Hartford, CT 06103). 12-4 pm. Inspired by their European travels, Eliza Butler and Mary Sheldon adapted an original plan by the Swiss landscape architect Jacob Weidenmann for their Victorian ornamental garden on Hartford’s Main Street. The formal parterre garden features low boxwood hedges with beds of roses, perennials, and annuals connected by winding stone paths. It is lovingly cared for by the West Hartford Garden Club. Butler-McCook joined CT Historic Gardens in 2004 as a founding member. Enjoy free guided garden tours. House tours:$16 adults, $12 seniors, students, and teachers; $5 children ages 6-18; free for Connecticut Landmarks members and children under age 5. 

At the Florence Griswold Museum (96 Lyme Street, Old Lyme, CT 06371), drop in 11am- 4pm at the Hartman Education Center to enjoy several hands-on craft projects. Plein-air painting is available, weather permitting. From 12-4 pm, members of the dedicated Garden Gang will be on hand to answer questions and give impromptu garden tours. At 2 pm, enjoy a Celebration of JUNETEENTH with Jazz and Poetry. Between 1670 and 1826 upwards of 300 enslaved African-descended and indentured Indigenous people labored in the historic town of Lyme. Today, Witness Stones mark 60 former sites of enslavement and indentured servitude. Join us on the Museum’s north grounds featuring music by the Avery Sharpe Quartet and readings by the Witness Stones Poets Marilyn Nelson, Kate Rushin, Rhonda Ward, and Antoinette Brim-Bell, who will present their moving tributes in verse to those remembered with Witness Stones plaques. Seating will be provided under a tent and additional lawn chairs are welcome and encouraged. Museum admission is waived 3-5pm (otherwise, fees are $18 adults, $17 seniors (62+), $16 students (13+), $7.50 children ages 5-12, free to children age 4 or younger). This is the last day to view the special exhibition Their Kindred Earth: Photographs by William Earle Williams. 

Glebe House Museum (49 Hollow Road, Woodbury, CT 06798) main floor will be open 12-4 pm for self-guided, free tours. Jekyll Garden volunteers will provide garden tours that include information about the current restoration. Tours will be ongoing during the day and guests may join as they arrive. Plants will be for sale. Light refreshments will be available. Admission is free.

Harkness (275 Great Neck Road, Waterford, CT 06385): The park is open for visitors from 8 am to dusk. Stay tuned for further information.

At Hill-Stead Museum (35 Mountain Road, Farmington, CT 06032), visitors can stop in the Museum Shop for a handout about the Sunken Garden and a trail guide. The garden and grounds will be open for self-guided exploration 12-4 pm. Volunteers will be in the garden to answer questions. Visitors can also walk the beautiful trails or meander down to the old farm to see the sheep from Clatter Ridge Farm! The Historic House will be open for guided tours; regular admission fees apply for house tours and can be paid in the Museum Shop ($20 adults, $18 seniors, $15 students). 

The Mark Twain House & Museum (351 Farmington Ave., Hartford) offers self-guided tours 9:30 am to 5:30 pm, with multiple master gardeners on site to answer questions. There are several beautiful and historic gardens on site; the UConn Master Gardeners care for them and make sure they are in keeping with the historic nature of the home. Seeds will be available.
Note: setting gps for 385 Farmington Ave., Hartford, will put visitors right at the driveway to the main parking lot. 

Osborne Homestead (500 Hawthorne Ave., Derby, CT 06418) will provide self-guided and docent-led tours of the museum and gardens 12 to 4 pm. After strolling through the gardens, visitors can tour the historic house museum where they will learn about Frances Osborne Kellogg’s love of flowers and impact on environmental conservation.

Phelps-Hatheway (55 South Main Street, Suffield, CT 06078) will be open 10 am to 4 pm. The garden will be open for free admission from 12-4pm. Tours of the museum will leave from the Visitor’s Center at 1, 2, and 3pm (regular admission fee applies: $16 adults, $12 seniors, $5 children, free to members). New this year will be a print-making workshop with Heini Korhonen, one of the conservators who is restoring Phelps-Hatheway’s 1795 wallpaper! The workshop will take place from 10:00am-12:00pm in the Hatheway barn. REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED IN ADVANCE: https://ctlandmarks.org/properties/phelps-hatheway-house-garden/. 

Promisek (694 Skyline Ridge Road, Bridgewater, CT 06752) will be open 12-4 pm, with live music by Hot Acoustics on the patio 1 to 3 pm. Master Gardener Irene Skrybailo will offer guided garden tours. Trails along the property are available for walking.

Roseland Cottage (556 Route 169, Woodstock, CT 06281) invites you to celebrate the day with a visit to Roseland Cottage’s historic parterre garden 11am-4pm. Tour the garden, quiz the gardener, then make a your own garden in a teacup! Bring a cup from home or use one we provide. April Guilbault, the artist who created this year's Historic Gardens Day poster painting featuring Roseland Cottage, will be on site.

Stanley-Whitman House (37 High Street, Farmington, CT 06032): CT's Historic Gardens Day features free historic garden tours 12 to 4 pm. Tours are first come, first served. Volunteers and staff will be on site to guide visitors through the 17th-century-inspired Early Settlers and Hops and Dye Gardens and the 18th-century-inspired Dooryard Garden. Tour topics include: Telling the Bees; Smiths in the Kitchen; Whitmans in the Parlor. Featured will be "Foodways: Dye Plants for CT Open House Day," a demonstration in the Whitman Tavern with historic interpreter Dennis Picard.

The Stowe Center for Literary Activism (77 Forest Street, Hartford, CT 06105): While the Stowe House is closed for tours on Sundays, garden volunteers will be on hand from 12 noon to 4 pm on CT Historic Gardens Day to talk with visitors about the beautiful Stowe Center gardens. Complimentary lemonade and cookies will be offered.

At Thankful Arnold House Museum (14 Hayden Hill Road, Haddam, CT 06438), 12 -4 pm, visitors will learn how herbs, vegetables, and plants were used by the Widow Thankful Arnold in the early 19th century. The garden features over 50 varieties of herbs including those used in cooking, dyeing, fragrance, and medicine. This year’s activity for both adults and children will be making a wreath craft and garden scavenger hunt. Kristy Benson-Amarante of Higganum’s Bittersweet Farm will be on hand to talk about herbal and medicinal teas and Bethany Naccarato, author of the museum’s garden book will be featured to sign books and talk about her experience as a master gardener. Light refreshments will also be served including our famous rhubarb tea.  Admission to both house and garden is free.

Join us at the Webb Deane Stevens Museum (211 Main Street, Wethersfield, CT 06109) 10am-4pm for complimentary refreshments and guided tours of the Amy Cogswell Colonial Revival Garden. At 10am, enjoy a nourishing yoga practice on the lawn, led by our friends at Soulshine yoga. Hear a free garden talk with Webb Dean Stevens' Head Gardener Peter Winne at 1 pm.
CT's Historic Gardens Day guests will save $1 off the price of regular museum admission for guided historic house tours of the Webb, Deane, and Stevens Houses. Together, the houses represent a series of significant milestones in the military, political, social, and economic history that saw America’s transformation from a series of colonies into a concerted nation. Admission includes access to two new exhibitions: Out of the Attic: A Century of Collecting, which showcases a dazzling array of pieces, some of them family heirlooms, that allow us to ask: “What is a collection” and “why is a gathering of objects significant?” and How to Build a Georgian House: Preservation in Action, which offers a fascinating step-by-step explanation of 18th-century construction techniques through architectural fragments and interpretive panels.

Weir Farm (735 Nod Hill Road, Wilton, CT 06897): The Park is open daily from dawn to dusk. Free tours of the Weir House and studios are available 1-5 pm. Visitors can sign up at the Visitor Center and view excellent exhibits with information about the Park. Self-guided tours are also very popular.The Friends of Weir Farm will offer a variety of activities for children of all ages to enjoy. There will also be refreshments. The gardens will be staffed with knowledgeable Garden volunteers to share information and talk with visitors.