Federated Garden Clubs of Vermont has created a two day Massachusetts garden tour with renowned horticulturist Charlie Nardozzi on July 8 and 9. Meet your Garden host Charlie Nardozzi and trip director Deb Flanders at the Williston Park and Ride. Board your private coach with stops in Montpelier and White River Junction on the way to Massachusetts. Our first visit is the beautiful New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill. Upon arrival enjoy boxed lunch provided by Farmer and the Fork before exploring the gardens.
The Worcester County Horticultural Society, founded in 1842, established New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill in Boylston as a horticultural resource where people can experience the wonder of plants and learn about the natural world. Opened in 1986, the garden sits on 200 acres and includes conservatories, formal and naturalistic gardens, a café, Garden Shop, walking trails, accessible pathways, and expansive views of the Wachusett Reservoir. After the botanical garden visit, depart for Boston and check in to the Colonnade Hotel Back Bay. Enjoy dinner at one of the many fine restaurants in Boston (dinner paid individually).
On Wednesday after breakfast at the hotel, board the bus with your bags and transfer to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum for a private tour. Isabella Gardner chose to site her Museum on the edge of the newly built Back Bay Fens, a part of Frederick Law Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace, because she saw the potential for this new landscape to enable, inform, and enhance the city of Boston. Today the museum continues to recognize the importance of landscape architecture through its landscape department, landscape lectures, and landscape exhibitions. The gardens, both interior and exterior, are an integral part of the Gardner Museum experience today. She created an experience that was as much about flowers and plants, artfully arranged, as it was about masterpieces of art. The culmination of that vision is the Courtyard but botanical images can be found throughout the Museum.
After the tour explore the outside gardens at your leisure. Enjoy a snack or a light lunch (paid individually) at the museum cafe before boarding the coach back to Vermont.
ACTIVITY LEVEL IS MODERATE TO HIGH: There is a fair amount of walking on this tour, especially in the New England Botanical Gardens. It has a 1.1-mile loop trail that’s good for walking and hiking.
$619 per person. Register at https://www.vermontfgcv.com/2025-boston-nebotanical-garden
PLEASE NOTE: Goodspeed Tours LTD reserves the right to alter the order of events or to make changes in the itinerary deemed necessary for the comfort, convenience, and safety of the participants. Every effort will be made to adhere to the printed itinerary, but weather conditions and transportation difficulties may arise beyond the control of Goodspeed Tours LTD and local suppliers could force the cancellation or substitution of events or specific services.
