The WCBG Collections Policy is hot off the presses!

This document provides an overview of the history and scope of the plant collections, as well as current implementation of the WCBG mission. Click here to download a .pdf version of the document.

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Join the GNats (aka Garden Naturalists), a group of students, faculty, staff, and other naturalists who meet in the Botanic Gardens to get to know the plants, animals, and fungi of the campus.

Participants can train to become official WCBG Docents and lead tours for Spring Open Campus, Earth Day, the Greenhouse Light Show, and other events. Usually meet on Friday afternoons.

Student independent study (BISC or ES 250 or 350) is available for students who want to do in-depth projects in the Botanic Gardens. Contact Kristina Jones x3027 for more info.

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Celebrating the new Educational Garden at Wellesley College 

A beautiful fieldstone wall supports a garden that is truly a living laboratory for botanical and ecological study. Guided by Harriet B. Creighton’s determination that “for students, the scientific value of the botanic gardens continues to be the educational asset that it was intended to be,” Mary D. Coyne designed the Educational Garden with three main elements:

Specimen Conifers – more than 50 conifers are distributed throughout the garden according to their requirements for sun or shade.  These are dwarf (growth 1 – 6” per year) and miniature (less than 1” per year) varieties of many different species. Most have intriguing growth forms, different from “normal” specimens of the represented species.  Typical (full sized) specimens of twenty of these species are found in the Botanic Gardens, enabling comparisons of genetics, physiology and ecology with these fascinating miniatures.

Rock/Scree Garden – rocks in the landscape create a variety of microenvironments, particularly on slopes, where they may provide shelter, thermal mass, and pockets that retain organic matter.  Several species of small, tough plants that inhabit rocky slopes are planted in the scree soil area, in different orientations with respect to the rocks. 

Butterfly Garden – this garden is designed to meet the needs of the butterflies that live in or migrate through Wellesley.  Here the butterflies will find flowers providing the nectar that adult butterflies need for energy, and the host plants that their offspring develop on (often much more specific than the nectar plants – for example, Great Spangled Fritillary caterpillars feed exclusively on violets).  Watch for butterflies laying eggs!
       

       
In the beginning (Mary Coyne with Tim Ward)      Harriet B.Creighton (1909-2004)                   

Funding provided by the Harriet B. Creighton Botanic Gardens Fund, with additional support from the Mona M. Lacy and Clive W. Lacy Trusts.  Grateful acknowledgement to Gertrude K. Dever, whose steady advocacy and support for the garden turned a vision into reality.

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Special display in the Greenhouses: CAUDICIFORMS!

November through February, in the Seasonal Display House

These very unusual plants are interesting novelties, and many have a sculptural quality. They are also a great example of convergent evolution, as plants from many different families and a variety of continents have come up with similar ways of dealing with seasonal drought stress. Some look as though they're trying to climb out of the pot!

Come check them out! There's a handout with descriptions of the species in the display - pick one up in the Greenhouse Visitor Center or download a pdf here.

The greenhouses are open every day of the year, from 8am to 4pm.