Massachusetts hides some of the most enchanting English-style cottage gardens in America, tucked away in unexpected corners of the Bay State.
These living tapestries blend the wild beauty of cottage plantings with New England’s distinct character and history.
For garden lovers seeking a touch of the English countryside without crossing the Atlantic, these Massachusetts gems offer peaceful retreats where roses climb stone walls and herbs mingle freely with flowers.
1. The Secret Garden At Maudslay State Park
Nestled within the larger landscape of Maudslay State Park in Newburyport, this hidden garden captures English cottage style with its informal plantings and stone pathways.
Old-fashioned roses and foxgloves create a feeling of stepping back in time. The garden’s sheltered location creates a microclimate perfect for tender perennials that wouldn’t survive elsewhere in Massachusetts.
Volunteer gardeners maintain the traditional cottage mix of ornamentals and herbs, preserving historical planting methods that early English settlers brought to New England shores.
2. Hollyhock Haven In Salem
Behind a historic Salem home stands a garden where hollyhocks reach skyward against weathered wooden fences, creating a quintessential cottage garden backdrop.
Family-owned for generations, this private garden opens to visitors only during select summer weekends. The current gardener maintains heritage plant varieties documented in journals dating to the 1800s.
Salem’s maritime history influenced this garden’s unique character—sailors once brought back exotic seeds that found their way into this cottage plot, creating an unusual blend of traditional English and global plantings.
3. Lavender Lodge In The Berkshires
Morning mist often blankets this hillside garden in the Berkshires where lavender borders frame cottage-style plantings. The garden’s designer studied traditional English gardens before creating this Massachusetts interpretation.
Stone walls salvaged from abandoned local farms provide structure while allowing plants to spill naturally between garden rooms. Visitors remark on the garden’s distinctive fragrance—a blend of lavender, roses, and herbs that perfumes the air.
Local bees produce honey from the garden’s flowering plants, available for purchase in the small garden shop that helps fund ongoing preservation efforts.
4. The Gardener’s Cottage At Naumkeag
Away from Naumkeag’s famous Blue Steps lies a less-visited gardener’s cottage surrounded by a textbook example of English cottage gardening principles adapted to Massachusetts conditions.
Climbing roses frame doorways while self-seeding annuals like poppies and nigella create the delightful surprise element characteristic of true cottage gardens. The garden changes dramatically with seasons—spring bulbs give way to summer perennials and fall asters.
Originally designed as the head gardener’s practical kitchen garden, it evolved into a showcase for how working gardens can blend beauty with utility, just as traditional English cottage gardens did.
5. The Herb Enthusiast’s Haven In Concord
Literary history and gardening tradition merge in this Concord cottage garden where herbs take center stage among flowering perennials. The garden’s design draws inspiration from both English tradition and the transcendentalist philosophy that once flourished in this Massachusetts town.
Thyme and lavender spill over pathways, releasing fragrance with each footstep. Medicinal herbs grow alongside culinary varieties, reflecting the practical roots of cottage gardening.
Hand-lettered plant markers share both botanical information and historical medicinal uses, connecting visitors to the garden wisdom that English colonists brought to Massachusetts centuries ago.
6. Rose Retreat At Tyringham
Tucked behind stone walls in the tiny Berkshire town of Tyringham lies a garden where roses reign supreme. Unlike formal rose gardens, this cottage-style planting allows roses to mingle freely with companions like catmint and lady’s mantle.
The garden’s microclimate, created by surrounding stone walls, protects tender English rose varieties that struggle elsewhere in Massachusetts. Some specimens trace their lineage to cuttings brought from England in the early 1900s.
Summer weekends bring local artists who set up easels to capture the garden’s romantic atmosphere, continuing a tradition started by the Berkshire art colonies of the early 20th century.
7. The Woodland Cottage Garden In Petersham
Massachusetts woodland meets English cottage tradition in this unique garden where native ferns and wildflowers blend with traditional cottage plants. The gardener spent decades developing techniques to adapt English cottage style to the challenging woodland conditions.
Paths of pine needles wind through areas where shade-loving cottage plants like foxgloves and columbines thrive alongside native Massachusetts woodland plants. Spring brings a spectacular display of naturalized bulbs before the tree canopy leafs out.
Visiting British garden experts have praised this garden as a masterful adaptation of cottage garden principles to New England’s distinct growing conditions and native flora.
8. The Painter’s Palette In Rockport
Sea air influences this coastal cottage garden where a former artist’s home is surrounded by plantings arranged with a painter’s eye for color. Salt-tolerant varieties adapted from traditional English cottage plants thrive despite challenging maritime conditions.
Blue delphiniums and white foxgloves stand tall against the weathered cedar shingles of the Massachusetts seaside cottage. The garden demonstrates how English cottage principles can work even in exposed coastal settings.
Rockport’s artist colony history continues in this garden where painting workshops are held during summer months, allowing artists to capture the same cottage garden beauty that inspired generations of painters before them.
9. The History Keeper’s Garden In Deerfield
Historical accuracy guides this remarkable recreation of an 18th-century cottage garden in Historic Deerfield. Heirloom plants documented in early Massachusetts records grow in traditional patterns around a restored colonial home.
Garden volunteers use only tools and techniques available to colonial gardeners, avoiding modern shortcuts. Careful research informs every plant choice, with emphasis on varieties English settlers would have treasured in their Massachusetts gardens.
Seed-saving programs preserve rare historical varieties, allowing visitors to purchase descendants of plants that have grown in Massachusetts since colonial times—living connections to the English garden traditions that took root in New England soil.
10. The Four-Season Cottage In Ipswich
Most Massachusetts gardens sleep through winter, but this Ipswich cottage garden was designed to showcase English garden structure in every season. Carefully planned evergreen bones provide winter interest when flowers disappear.
Summer’s riot of cottage flowers gives way to autumn’s seedheads and berries, deliberately left standing for winter texture. The gardener’s background in English garden design informs thoughtful plant selection for year-round appeal.
Garden journals documenting twenty years of seasonal changes are available for visitors to browse, offering rare insight into how English cottage garden principles can be adapted to New England’s dramatic seasonal shifts.