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Gardens
This section provides a snapshot of the various gardens and spaces associated with QBG’s collections. Both public and non-public areas—those behind-the-scenes places maintained by staff and volunteers and frequently glimpsed by visitors from garden paths—are included here.
From thematic gardens and historic plantings recalling QBG’s World’s Fair origins to new gardens under way showcasing native species and sustainable landscape practices, the collections represent the expert horticultural knowledge, artistry, and commitment to environmental education and public service that have been hallmarks of QBG for more than 60 years.
We hope your visit to these garden areas will inspire you to support our efforts by becoming a member or adopting a tree or garden in honor of family and friends. We invite you to return again and again in the coming months to see progress made to date, as the new gardens highlighted here reach completion and come into their first bloom.
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Photo: © Betsy Pinover Schiff | All-America Trial Garden
A display of award-winning annual flowers and vegetables from All-America Selections. |
Backyard Gardens
Attractive, small-scale gardening and landscaping solutions for Queens backyards, originally designed and planted by member nurseries of the Long Island Nurserymen’s Association, Inc. in the 1980s. Pergola, Seaside, Fountain, Patio, and Rock Gardens are the original settings that have been modified since its inception. |
Bee Garden
A collection of plants and trees that attract bees or flavor honey. The beehives house Caucasian or Italian bees. This teaching garden is popular with education classes. |
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Bioswales
Planted depressions that collect stormwater that runs off surrounding areas. The plant species in bioswales are selected for their ability to tolerate both wet and dry conditions. Rainwater that falls on or flows into a bioswale is retained in the soil (a special soil mixture is used to maximize retention), evaporated, absorbed by plants, and allowed to infiltrate back into the water table. |
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Booth Hill
A collection of predominantly native trees and shrubs that will succeed in a windy full-sun location and act as a block for snow drifts throughout the winter. |
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 Cherry Circle
(read about its new design!)
Cherry Trees surround a garden path and boxwood hedge. Bordering the hedge and lawn, clusters of attractively designed woody shrubs, perennials, ornamental grass, bulbs, and annual plants will provide beauty, texture, and color through all seasons of the year.
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Children’s Garden
(open to program participants only)
A private garden of vegetables, herbs, and annual flowers tended by children enrolled in the QBG’s spring, summer, and fall Children’s Garden sessions. The Children’s Garden is enjoying lead support from HSBC in 2007. |
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 Circle Garden
Original site of a circular fountain. The center ring of this bed is planted with very tall sun-loving perennials. The outer circle features plants significant in Korean culture.
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Cleansing Biotope
An area planted with selected native wetland species that filter rainwater collected from roofs and other surfaces. The water is pumped to the entry plaza fountain. From there it continues to flow through channels back to the Visitor & Administration Center, where the cleansing cycle begins again. |
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Compost Demonstration Gardens
Presents alternatives to traditional front and backyard lawns, displaying ground covers, eco and Buffalo grass, perennials, wildflower beds, and a shrub border, as well as compost bins and a patio made from recycled plastic lumber. |
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Constructed Wetlands
A functioning plant exhibit, providing habitat for plants, insects, and birds while recycling gray water from the Visitor & Administration Center. This landscape evokes the wetland plant communities that once existed throughout our region. |
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Craft Bed
(not open to the public)
Dry flower annuals grown by QBG’s Craft Group for arrangements, potpourri, and pressed flower art. |
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 Fragrance Walk
A collection of shrubs, perennials, and bulbs that are especially fragrant during the growing season. Essential oils found in flowers, leaves, seeds, bark, and roots give these plants their strong scent.
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Green Roof Plant Collection
A semi-intensive, 8,000-square-foot green roof with six inches of growing medium, planted with mostly native species that require minimal artificial watering and provide much-needed habitat for humans, birds, and insects. At the base of the Green Roof is a collection of native woodland plants featuring ferns, shrubs, sedges, and wildflowers, among others. |
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 Herb Garden
A collection of woody, annual, and perennial plants grouped by use: aromatic, culinary, medicinal, and plants for dye. Throughout history, people have relied on herbs for cooking, healing, and fragrance, and have used them in sacred cultural ceremonies and traditions.
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Meadow
Perennial wildflowers and grasses allowed to grow to mature height. Flowering throughout the growing season, they provide habitat for birds, butterflies, and beneficial insects as planters of seed and pollinators, and allow biodiversity to continue in Queens County. |
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Photo: © Betsy Pinover Schiff | Perennial Garden
A colorful succession of spring-to-fall bloom from herbaceous, flowering plants that go dormant each winter and return every year. Special attention is given to plant heights, bloom time, color of flower, and foliage. |
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The Charles H. Perkins Memorial Rose Garden
A display of floribunda, hybrid tea, shrub, and miniature roses in attractively designed beds, blooming from late May until October. |
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Pinetum
A collection of cone-bearing trees originally planted in groups by genus. |
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Plants in Community
A collection organized by plant family, featuring native plants in a garden setting. More than 15 plant families are highlighted. |
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Propagation Greenhouse
(not open to the public)
Open to tours by appointment. Seeds and young plants are nurtured here throughout the winter and spring by the horticulture staff. Tender plants, small trees, and shrubs from warmer zones overwinter in the greenhouse in preparation for summer display. |
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Queens Rose Garden
Planted by the Queens Rose Society. The garden consists of four arbors of climbing roses and old English and David Austin roses. |
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Senior Garden
(open to program participants only)
More than 60 vegetable and flower gardens planted, cultivated, and maintained by persons age 60 and over in this designated space. |
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Photo: © Joseph De Sciose | Staff Vegetable Plots
Vegetables and berry bushes intertwined with topiary from a former day, tended by staff and volunteers. |
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Photo: © Joseph De Sciose | Wedding Garden
(open by appointment only)
A Victorian-style garden with a gazebo, footbridge, and stream, featuring beds of ornamental trees, shrubs, perennials, daffodils, tulips, and annuals in bloom from late April through October. The garden is closed to the public and rented for weddings by appointment.
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 Wetland Garden
A collection highlighting wetland environments. Marsh, swamp, and bog environments are disappearing in the wild; this garden serves as a demonstration of a natural habitat that attracts birds, fish, and wildlife.
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 Woodland Garden
A forest setting of trees, shrubs, and ferns complemented by flowering perennials and bulbs in spring and summer. This garden’s walking trails and high canopy replicate a woodland space within a city setting.
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