Photo of the Day: ‘Cherry Brandy’ (Black-Eyed Susan), Berkshire Botanical Garden, MA

Though I visited the Berkshire Botanical Garden in late August three years ago, I have found this Stockbridge, MA institution a continuing visual feast ever since.

The formal name of this wildflower is Rudbeckia hirta. But most people (myself very much included) know it as a “black-eyed Susan.” The hues giving rise to the name “Cherry Brandy” led me to take this photograph.

Photo of the Day: Pond Garden, Berkshire Botanical Garden, Stockbridge, MA

I took this photo three years ago, as part of a visit to Berkshire Botanical Garden, a 24-acre site even more picturesque than the town in which it’s located: Stockbridge, MA.

This man-made pond with a waterproof liner sustains all kinds of life: frogs, toads, dragonflies, salamanders, and water beetles. But, for anyone not particularly interested in observing these creatures at close range, the pond garden is simply a good spot to catch one’s breath amid the noise and haste of the world.

Photo of the Day: ‘Burgundy Lace’ Dyckia, Berkshire Botanical Garden

I photographed this plant and many others while visiting Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge, MA in late August three years ago. 

Dyckia plants like the one in this picture like sun and tolerate drought. These colorful flower spikes lure bees and hummingbirds.

Photo of the Day: Korean Tetradium, Berkshire Botanical Garden, Stockbridge, MA

In the picturesque Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts, the Berkshire Botanical Garden is a particular delight—a bounty of beauty that is nature’s counterpart to the Daniel Chester French and Norman Rockwell Museums that are also in the town of Stockbridge.

Among the many items in this garden that caught my eye when I visited in late August 2017 was the Tetradium daniellii, or more commonly known as the Korean Tetradium. This rounded, dome shaped, tree, which can grow to 50 feet, is native to mountain woodlands of western China and Korea.

Photo of the Day: Wishing Tree, Children’s Discovery Garden, Berkshire Botanical Garden, MA

This “wishing tree”—which I photographed a year and a half ago in late summer, while visiting Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge, MA—is part of a children’s discovery garden. This tree, containing four different kinds of cherries grafted onto it, features a mailbox and supplies that children used to leave dozens of messages.

Photo of the Day: Russian Sage, Berkshire Botanical Garden, Stockbridge, MA

Like my blog post from the other day on the Japanese stone pine, I took this image about a year and a half ago at the Berkshire Botanical Garden. 

Blooming from late spring to autumn, the Russian sage catches the eye immediately, as it does here, with its lavender flowers. The plant grows best under very dry conditions. 

Photo of the Day: Japanese Stone Pine, Berkshire Botanical Garden, Stockbridge MA

I took the attached photo nearly a year and a half ago at the Berkshire Botanical Garden. It took me several tries over the years before I got around to this longtime institution in Western Massachusetts, but I’m thankful that I finally had a chance to experience its beauty on a late summer afternoon.

The Japanese stone pine is a shrubby, evergreen conifer that, at maturity, can grow to 20 feet. As its name indicates, it is native to Japan, as well as to North Korea, northern Mongolia, Siberia (east from Yenisey River); and China.

Photo of the Day: Pond Garden, Berkshire Botanical Garden, Stockbridge, MA

I know that I posted about the “snow-in-summer” plant at the Berkshire Botanical Garden a week ago, but I couldn’t resist returning to this special place in Western Massachusetts. The area surrounding the pond pictured here, which I also photographed late last August, is one of 26 display gardens illustrating design concepts and plant collections.

This woodland spot features plants that thrive in moist, shady conditions—as lovely to walk by as it is peaceful to behold.