Saturday Afternoons at Old Westbury Gardens ∙ Westbury, NY
Westbury Gardens has always been high on my list of pretty places to visit on Long Island and in my opinion the best time to go is in the spring. Even though this is not exactly down the block from where we live, it’s still totally worth the drive out there, especially if you love flowers like I do. You’ll be in all your glory at this place. The 200 acres of gardens surround a gorgeous Charles II-style mansion that used to be owned by a lawyer named John Schaffer Phipps and his wife. The mansion’s interior is stunning and is opened to the public. The house has countless crystal chandeliers, enormous fireplaces and beautifully detailed woodwork on pretty much every wall and ceiling. It is evident that a lot of thought went into every single room as each one is it’s own work of art. Also, one of the best parts about this mansion is that you are allowed to walk through freely and take photos without having someone hover over you telling you to please put your camera away. Yay! Definitely a big plus!
Once you’ve walked through the mansion you can take a large staircase that leads down into my favorite part, the garden! Here you can stroll through neatly planted rows of daffodils, pansies and hyacinth and sit underneath beautiful weeping cherry trees as they sway in the breeze. Just about everywhere you look there are little bursts of color and if it were up to me I would have sat underneath those weeping cherries all day long. Aside from the beauty of all the flowers, this garden also has lovely brick walls covered in ivy, intricate cast iron gates, various lakes, ponds and sculptures. Beauty is not hard to find here and in my opinion this is the perfect place to spend a warm spring afternoon.
“The earth laughs in flowers. ”