Our open season is April-October, with events and programs year round. Stay updated with what’s going on through our Facebook, newsletter, and our calendar!

During our open season, The Gardens are open 7 days a week. Monday - Thursday 10am-7pm, and you must enter by 5:30pm. Friday- Sunday 10am - 4pm, last entry at 3pm. Some days we close early for private events, you can see a full list of early closing days here.

Admission is $14 for adults, $5 for Youth 3-17 years old, and free for children 2 years and under. Members get in free. Learn more here.

General Admission excludes special events, festivals and ticket add-ons.

Yes, there are! There are men's, women's, and a gender-neutral bathroom. They are located in the Education Building.

We do not allow pets in The Gardens.

You must schedule a session in order to take professional photos in the Garden. To find out more information, please visit this page. 

We have 13 different landscaped gardens. You can find out more information about each individual garden here.

We are located at 900 Washington Street, Wellesley, MA 02482. You can get directions here. 

Yes! To find out more information and schedule a tour, fill out the form on this page.

Please see this statement:

FOR RELEASE – Monday December 23, 2024

Statement from James Hearsum, Executive Director of Massachusetts Horticultural Society regarding Garden Festivals and Fencing at the Garden at Elm Bank.

Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s charitable mission is to help people live heathier, happier and more fulfilling lives through horticulture. At Elm Bank, this takes the form of the creation of a Botanic Garden and a rich program of horticultural events, education and activities for youth and adults. Over the past five years, we have experienced tremendous growth in the number of garden visitors and program participants, with over 50,000 members of our community joining us this year. As a result, our programs have grown as well.

Our Tulip and Sunflower festivals alone were enjoyed by over 10,000 community members, welcoming many first-time participants in our programming, and introducing our mission to a new generation of gardeners. These events are planted and hosted for the first time this past summer in what we call the ‘lower field’ where 100,000 tulip bulbs were again planted this fall in anticipation of our spring event. To protect these year-round plantings, deer fencing is necessary and safely defines and manages the new garden area. This fencing was installed this summer, only where essential, and is within the garden’s existing boundary.

We recognize this represents a loss of access to one of our area’s locally enjoyed hills that sledders have come to expect on snowy days. We encourage people to spend time outside and we have always fenced only the areas of our garden that are in active use or for safety reasons. Our primary purpose at Elm Bank is to serve our growing community through the development of the garden, and we look forward to discovering new ways to support our community as we do this.

We have been in contact with our elected officials and DCR regarding fencing since August and again this week. We look forward to working with them further to collaboratively support the many community interests present at Elm Bank.

James Hearsum
Massachusetts Horticultural Society

There are many ways to support MHS! You can donate with a credit or debit card here, or you can mail a check payable to Massachusetts Horticultural Society and sent to Massachusetts Horticultural Society 900 Washington Street Wellesley, MA 02482. For more information on additional honor and memorial giving opportunities, please contact Elaine Lawrence, Director of Development, at 617-933-4945 or elawrence@masshort.org. Thank you for your donation!

You can see all of our membership levels, benefits, and cost here. 

You can request a new membership card by calling our Membership Associate at 617-933-4961.