The Botanic Garden of Smith College

The mission of the Botanic Garden of Smith College is to foster education about the science, beauty, and importance of the plant kingdom through the use of outdoor and conservatory plant collections, gardens, displays, and exhibitions, and to preserve and maintain the historic Olmsted campus landscape.

The entire campus of Smith College was originally planned and planted over one hundred years ago as a botanic garden and arboretum, designed by the landscape architecture firm of Frederick Law Olmsted. Today, the Botanic Garden encompasses the 125 contiguous acre college campus. The Lyman Plant House features an Exhibition Gallery and the Lyman Conservatory which consists of 12,000 square feet under glass, housing tropical collections. Two special shows are featured annually in the Conservatory: the Spring Bulb Show in March and the Fall Chrysanthemum Show in November. The campus arboretum and specialty gardens on campus contain over of 7000 labelled and mapped plants. Adjacent to the Lyman Conservatory are the Rock Garden, one of the oldest in America , and the Systematics Garden. Other gardens include a Japanese Garden, an herb garden, and a formal knot and gazebo garden. The resources of the Botanic Garden include a herbarium, teaching facilities for horticulture and botany, and an international seed exchange program. Guided tours are available for school groups and adult groups.