The Naumkeag Daffodil Festival

The Daffodil Festival at Naumkeag is officially underway! That means spring has arrived in The Berkshires and it's the perfect time to experience this Gilded Age home and historic garden in all its glory. There are over 60,000 bulbs planted on the grounds of Naumkeag which occupies 46 acres in picturesque Stockbridge. The Festival runs Thursdays - Sundays between 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. until May 12. Admission is $9 for adult members of The Trustees and $15 adult non-members, children are free. Admission includes self-guided access to the grounds as well as the first floor of the house. 

Sometime between 1884-1890 landscape architect Nathan Barrett developed the original garden design at Naumkeag including the cut flower gardens, linden walk, tennis court, orchard, and farm complex. After inheriting the estate, Mable Choate collaborated with another landscape architect named Fletcher Steele beginning with the Afternoon Garden. This lead to 30 years of extensive garden transformations ending in 1956 with the completion of the Moon Gate in the Chinese Garden (below). They preserved the best of the original Victorian gardens and added a variety of whimsical and distinct "Garden Rooms" inspired by trips abroad. Steele's designs incorporate both land and structural elements to define space with flowers, shrubs, and trees providing visual accents.

For the festival, the Evergreen Garden (pictured below) has been transformed into a bubble garden complete with bubble machines and inflatables floating in the fountain creating what feels like an enchanted secret garden. In true New England style, it started snowing while I was visiting despite it almost being May. At first, it was just a few flurries mixed in with rain showers but it turned into full on snow at one point. Naturally, I took it upon myself to laugh and twirl around the gardens because with bubbles and snow in late April, why not? 

You can find more information about the Daffodil Festival and purchase tickets here.

What I'm Wearing:

Dress: Boden | Sneakers: Tretorn

This is the comfiest dress ever. Seriously, it's the softest jersey wrap dress and the perfect length. It's true to size (I'm wearing a 4 Petite). It comes in a few other colors as well. My Tretorns also run true to size (I'm in a 7.5). These are also wicked comfy right out of the box, no breaking in necessary.

Naumkeag | 5 Prospect Hill Road, Stockbridge, Massachusetts | https://naumkeag.thetrustees.org/