Daffodil Festival At Naumkeag: A Cheerful Welcome And Kickoff To A New Tour Program
Naumkeag's gardens are spilling over with daffodills — and some unexpected delights, too.
Hillside daffodils
“Huge in scale and surprises around every turn,” is how Brian Cruey, director of Naumkeag, describes the first annual Daffodil Festival opening today and running through Sunday, May 12.
If you experienced the Stockbridge, Mass. Trustees historic home and garden during its December Winterlights festival, you know that when the Gilded Age property promotes something as huge, it means spectacular. In December it was more than 120,000 lights spectacular.
But before the Naumkeag staff started preparing the estate for Winterlights, they were busy preparing bulbs of another kind —that of daffodils. And not just a few clusters — 60,000 bulbs. “It was a labor of love for the staff here," Cruey says. The bulbs include an array of multiple daffodil varieties as well as other flowering bulbs such as tulips, Glory of the Snow and grape hyacinths.
In similar fashion to Winterlights, visitors will follow a half-mile, self-guided path through the property’s iconic garden rooms. There will also be activities like a scavenger hunt in search of monarch butterfly clusters and a special Mother’s Day concert.
The celebration of color and nature — the only flower festival of this size and scope in the Berkshires, according to Cruey — ushers in a change in visitor hours and tour schedules when Naumkeag's full season begins on May 16. Admission will allow guests to explore the estate at their leisure, including the first floor, gardens and greenhouses. Concurrently, guests can take part in mini guided tours, horticulture and art demonstrations, lawn games and informative talks.
And because Naumkeag shows itself off best between the magical hours of 5 and 8 p.m. (when the estate has typically been closed), the house and gardens will now be open during those early evening hours seven days a week, June through August. Visitors can stroll the gardens while availing themselves of what may be the best sunset view in the Berkshires on any night they want. The outdoor concessions wagon will be open every evening, serving beverages and cocktails.
Naumkeag at Night, the popular music series, will continue on Thursday evenings with live music throughout the summer.
Daffodil Festival at Naumkeag
5 Prospect Hill Road, Stockbridge, MA
Thursday - Sundays, April 25 - Mother's Day, May 12, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
$9 Trustees members; $15 nonmembers; kids free.
Admission to the festival includes self-guided access to the grounds and the first floor of the house.
Tickets available online.
