The Edgerton and Stengel Wildflower Garden
The Edgerton-Stengel Wildflower Garden showcases the wide variety of spring ephemerals native to New England woodlands.
The Edgerton and Stengel Wildflower Garden provides an area of exploration and discovery in which the Connecticut College Arboretum has complemented its collection of native woody plants with a display of woodland wildflowers native to eastern North America. Many of these flowers are ephemeral, blooming only for a short time in the spring.
In the New England forests, dozens of species of spring blooming ephemeral wildflowers find a niche in the woodlands. They store enough energy in their roots and tubers to grow at amazing rates as soon as the soil warms. Some of these flowers are so small you would barely notice them; others are large and showy. These wildflowers usually finish blooming in April or May as the leaves emerge from the tree branches and ferns begin to unfurl from fiddleheads. By this point in the year, the amount of light reaching the forest floor is minimal, and the spring ephemerals have gone to seed, after capturing all of the energy they’ll need to repeat the cycle next year.
This garden is located across Williams Street, within the Native Plant Collection. If you're coming from campus, you can reach it by going halfway down the Laurel Walk, then turning left.
Need help finding it? Expanding this map will show a navigation circle which will show your location in relation to the area.