The Bike Stop Cafe Gardens: 148 Boon Street,
Narragansett, RI 02882 (401)284-1414.
-
This cafe extends the bicycle theme into the flower gardens surrounding the parking lot.
Blithewold Mansion, Gardens
and Arboretum: 101 Ferry Road (Rte. 114),
Bristol, RI 02809 (401)253-2707.
- This lavish 45 room stone English Country Manor style mansion, a former summer
home, displays 33 acres of beautifully landscaped grounds. A 10 acre lawn down
to Narragansett Bay is edged with more than 1500 trees and shrubs representing
250 native and exotic species and varieties. The North Garden (or Sunken Garden)
is formal, but the rest of the recreated gardens are more naturalistic,
including a rose garden, a Japanese water garden, a 30 foot tall bamboo stand,
the Bosquet (woodland planted with 50,000 daffodils), a rock garden, display
gardens and a giant redwood.
The Breakers:
401Ochre Point Avenue,
Newport, RI 02840 (401)847-6543 or (401)847-1000.
- This
former summer home of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, a 70 room Italian Renaissance
style palazzo, includes parterre borders on two sides of the house plus
greenhouses and their 2 acre summer gardens providing plants and cut flowers.
The Elms:
367 Bellevue Avenue,
Newport, RI 02840 (401)847-0478 or(401)847-1000.
- This
French Chateau style summer residence of a coal magnate offers Classical Revival
gardens featuring terraces with marble and bronze sculpture, a park of specimen
trees and a lower garden with marble tea houses, fountains, a sunken garden and
carriage house and garage.
Green Animals
Topiary Garden: 380 Cory's Lane,
Portsmouth, RI 02871-1324 (401)683-1267 or
(401)847-1000.
- This 7 acre estate offers a Victorian house overlooking
Narragansett Bay plus formal topiaries, vegetable and herb gardens, and
orchards. The fabulous and whimsical 80 pieces of topiary, including 21 birds
and animals, are sculpted from privet, yew and English boxwood.
Hunter House:
54 Washington Street,
Newport, RI 02840 (401)847-7516 or (401)847-1000.
- This
historic Georgian house offers beds of perennials and annuals enclosed by
boxwood and a wisteria covered pergola.
JAYCEE Arboretum and Roch Riverwalk: 110 Hay Street,
W. Warwick, RI 02893 (401)828-9191
-
The award-winning JAYCEE Arboretum and Corridor include the welcoming
Esplanade filled with attractive flowers, mini-trees, seasonal plants
and 72 species of shrubs. Features include communal monuments, manicured
playing fields and historic artifacts that form the portal entrance to
the beautiful state Senator Roch Riverwalk, a 1.3 mile wilderness trail
of native vegetation, waterfowl and forest wildlife along Rhode Island's
longest waterway, the Pawtuxet River and Watershed.
Marble House:
596 Bellevue Avenue,
Newport, RI 02840 (401)847-2445 or (401)847-1000.
- This
extravagant summer home, built by William Vanderbilt, with formal grounds,
includes a Chinese Tea House on the cliffs used for entertaining and suffrage
rallies.
Roger Williams
Park Botanical Center: 950 Elmwood Avenue,
Providence, RI 02900
(401)785-9450.
- Visitors can enjoy 2 greenhouses, a Japanese Garden and a Rose
Garden. The Rhode Island Rose Society is helping to renovate the rose garden by
replanting Canadian and Brownell hardy roses, English Roses, Old Garden Roses,
and more modern varieties.
Roger
Williams Park Zoo: 950 Elmwood Avenue,
Providence, RI 02907-3655
(401)467-0150.
- This 40 acre zoo is home to over 1000 animals representing 150
species. Extensive plantings are chosen to resemble those in the animals' native
habitats. (A horticultural map is available.) Currently under construction is
Habitat, RI, a permanent 2000 square foot interactive, multi-sensory complex,
displaying the plants and animals of nine diverse Rhode Island habitats.
Rosecliff:
548 Bellevue Avenue,
Newport, RI 02840 (401)847-5793 or (401)847-1000.
- Rosecliff, a truly grand mansion, was named in honor of the "American Beauty"
rose which was developed by the owner of the previous cottage on the site. The
rose garden, dating back to the previous owner, and features is a sizable
planting of "America," a climbing rose. Beds of begonias ornament the entrance
and a central path and fountain.
Slater
Mill Historic Site: 67 Roosevelt Avenue,
Pawtucket, RI 02860-0696
(401)725-8638.
- The 5.5 acre site of the first water powered cotton spinning mill
is now a museum complex with three buildings, a dam, a power canal and a
riverside park.
Smith's Castle: 55
Richard Smith Drive,
North Kingstown, RI 02853 (401)294-3521.
- This 1678
plantation house on the site of a trading center established by Roger Williams
is surrounded by lovely grounds and gardens including an 18th century herb and
flower garden. It was recently declared a National Landmark site for its
archeological discoveries.
Wanton-Lyman-Hazard
House: 17 Broadway,
Newport, RI (401)846-0813.
- This 1675 house, the site of
the Stamp Act Riot, displays a colonial herb garden.
Whitehall Museum House: 311
Berkeley Avenue,
Middletown, RI 02842 (401)846-3116.
- This 1729 house, built by
an Anglican Bishop, is authentically furnished and maintained by the National
Society of the Colonial Dames in Rhode Island.
(Samuel)
Whitehorne House: 416 Thames Street,
Newport, RI 02840-6732 (401)849-7300.
- This 18th century house exhibits hand-made silver, pewter and furniture and
features a traditional colonial manor garden.
Wilcox Park: 44 Broad Street,
Westerly, RI 02891 (401)596-2877.
- This historic 18 acre public park features
specimen trees, shrubs, display flower beds, a koi pond, a dwarf conifer
collection, a fountain, monuments, a daylily collection, a garden of touch,
smell and taste with Braille labels, and perennial borders.