Can’t Wait For Spring, Check Out These Blooming Greenhouses

Updated March 20, 2013

Greg Cook

Spring arrives today with the region blanketed in snow. But if you’re itching for some green, public greenhouses around Boston have what you’re looking for.

The Margaret C. Ferguson Greenhouses at the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens (pictured here) offer more than 1,000 varieties of plants from the deserts to the tropics around the world. Most of the structure off 106 Central St., Wellesley, was built in 1922 and ’23, but part of the complex dates to 1907. It’s open free, year round.

Historic New England operates the Lyman Estate Greenhouses at  185 Lyman St., Waltham. Admission is free. They’re said to be “among the oldest surviving greenhouses in the United States,” with a grape house dating to 1804.

Tower Hill Botanic Garden at 111 French Drive, Boylston, offers an indoor 18th century style Orangerie greenhouse and citrus plants in the Limonaia (Lemon House) in addition to outdoor gardens. Admission is $12.

The greenhouses at Wellesley College's Botanic Gardens. (Greg Cook)

The desert is the first climate featured in the greenhouses at Wellesley College's Botanic Gardens. (Greg Cook)

Inside the greenhouses at Wellesley College's Botanic Gardens. (Greg Cook)

Tropical pitcher plants grow in the hydrophyte (water) house at Wellesley College's Botanic Gardens. (Greg Cook)

Flowers bloom inside the greenhouses at Wellesley College's Botanic Gardens. (Greg Cook)

This article was originally published on March 20, 2013.

This program aired on March 20, 2013. The audio for this program is not available.

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