Fort Ticonderoga’s King’s Garden opens for the season on May 24 with a stunning display of annuals and perennials! As the largest public garden in the Adirondack-Lake Champlain region and one of the oldest gardens in America, the King’s Garden offers daily guided tours and self-guided activities for adults and children throughout the season.

The King’s Garden is open from 9:30 am until 5 pm daily, May 24 through October 13, 2014. Admission to the King’s Garden is included with a general admission ticket to Fort Ticonderoga.

For additional information on the King’s Garden’s and its 2014 programs visit www.fortticonderoga.org or call 518-585-2821.

New this year!

“The new ‘Breaking Ground: A Tour of the Historic Garden’ highlights Fort Ticonderoga’s horticulture story that spans centuries,” said Beth Hill, President and CEO of Fort Ticonderoga. “The tour, led by Fort Ticonderoga’s historic interpreters, will be offered daily and explores the horticulture history of the Ticonderoga peninsula including the story of the garrison gardens and the Colonial Revival walled garden.”

“Guest can roll up their sleeves and dig into Fort Ticonderoga’s centuries of horticulture in the formal garden along with the Discovery Gardens – the Garrison Garden, Children’s Garden, and Three Sisters Garden,” said Hill. “Special programs, such as Hands-on Horticulture, will allow guests to discover the techniques used to keep the King’s Garden thriving.”

Also new this year is an interactive 1776 Garrison Garden which will bring this vibrant, living garden space to life and highlight the vital vocation of gardening that was an important part of soldiers’ duties at Fort Ticonderoga as troops raised vegetables to feed the sick soldiers in the Northern Department of the Continental Army.

From Garden to Table!

Vegetables and edible flowers grown in the King’s Garden are served daily at Fort Ticonderoga’s America’s Fort Café. King’s Garden vegetables are also included in the Soldier’s Dinner program presented each mid-day by interpretive staff.

About the King’s Garden

The walled colonial revival King’s Garden was originally designed in 1921 by leading landscape architect Marian Coffin. The formal elements – a reflecting pool, manicured lawn and hedges, and brick walls and walkways – are softened by a profusion of annuals and perennials, carefully arranged by color and form. Heirloom flowers and modern cultivars are used to recreate the historic planting scheme. Guest’s favorites include the lavender border, towering hollyhocks, bearded irises, dinner plate dahlias and many types of phlox.

Outside of the nine-foot brick walls of the Colonial Revival King’s Garden, the Discovery Gardens include a children’s garden, an interactive 18th-century American Garrison Garden, and Three Sisters Garden. The restored Lord and Burnham greenhouse, charming gazebo, sweeping lawns and shady picnic spots invite visitors to explore the landscape at one of America’s oldest gardens dating to the French occupation of the Fort in the mid-18th century.