• Explore

    The Marsh Botanical Garden is undergoing some exciting changes. We are currently renovating and restoring our gardens and collections. Visitors are welcome to explore the Garden from Monday through Friday between 9 AM - 4 PM. Please come and be inspired by the beauty of mature trees, collections, and floral displays!

  • Marsh Reimagined

    The just completed Master Plan 2022 reveals our exciting vision to transform MBG into a living museum for discovery, learning, and inspiration. Honoring Beatrix Farrand's legacy of cultivating a teaching garden, this new vision will engage audiences in promoting biodiversity conservation; showcasing sustainable landscape; and inspiring the importance of plants to life on earth.

  • Events

    Several educational events including open houses and guided tours take place every month at the garden to highlight important and interesting topics in the plant world. All members of the Yale community and the public are welcome to attend.

  • Science

    A lot of research and learning take place right in the garden. Every semester we have the pleasure of hosting several Yale undergraduate and graduate students in classes and laboratories. Some of the courses taken include plant diversity & evolution, wood structure & function. Students learn about plant clades while enjoying fruits and plant products, they get to dissect wood samples, and they make sketches of the plants they were studying.

Welcome To The Marsh Botanical Garden

Sitting on eight acres, with six greenhouses comprising around a third of an acre under glass, Marsh Botanical Garden offers support for researchers, faculty and students at Yale, as well as an informative and eye-catching experience for visitors.

In the summer, the naturalistic beds and wildflower plantings provide color and attract birds and butterflies. In spring, bulb displays, early flowering shrubs, and trees add color to the season. Our plantings include many woody plants with surprising fall color, both from leaf and fruit display.

Our Collection

Marsh Botanical Garden provides a welcome connection with the natural world. Whether you are a plant enthusiast, teacher, researcher, conservationist, public educator,  new or seasoned gardener, you will find plants of interest in our indoors and outdoor collections from all over the world, including many desert, carnivorous, rare, and endangered  plant species. Our natural areas are open to the public 24/7.
 

News From MBG

Likely Closed!

Marsh hall in winter sunset.
Mon, 01/26/2015
Due to the impending snow storm, we will be sending all personnel home to be safe and sound, at noon on Monday Jan. 25. We anticipate that Tuesday will be even more inclement, so we will be closed from noon Jan. 25 until 8 AM Wednesday Jan. 27. If snowfall exceeds predicted levels, even that...

Not-so-quiet on the Floral/Faunal Front

Koi eggs on water hyacinth (Can you count how many?)
Thu, 06/12/2014
It’s been a lively week here at Marsh Botanical Garden on both the floral and faunal fronts! On the animal side, we rescued a skunk that had gotten trapped in a window well, one of our bee hives swarmed, and the koi fish began spawning. As for the plants, the banana trees have begun flowering...

Irises are IN!

Wed, 05/21/2014
The Irises are just beginning to bloom! Come visit.

Spider feeds the Venus Fly Trap

Wed, 05/08/2013
Check this video of our Venus Fly-trap winning an engagement with a poor spider. Please forgive the cheers as we just couldn’t help ourselves. Good Romans, we, thumbs down at the gladiator fight.  http://vimeo.com/49759658

Plant Class Lab

Our event space is set up for the study of plants., Cassidy Metcalf gets peckish in advance of the class. That's a papaya she's holding., Many students tried something new, while others recognized fruit from their cultural history.
Tue, 04/02/2013
We host several class labs here at Marsh Botanical Garden. This semester EEB 223, Evolution, Functional Traits and the Tree of Life, with Marta Wells is here today, Wednesday and Thursday (April 2, 3 and 4). The flowering plant lab is one of our favorites, with as many of the ‘higher’ orders of...

Bald Cypress and Japanese Maple

Our small grove of Bald Cypress, 6 years old, is just coming into its own., The Three Trowels of Wisenheimer point to the small knee of Bald Cypress, About twenty feet tall and as wide, this Japanese Maple variety has stunning fall color., This close-up highlights the orange and red coloration.
Wed, 12/12/2012
Most of the leaves have fallen, but there are an amazing number of ‘hangers-on,’ including our two plants this week. I was remarking recently about the late leaf drop this year: even Hurricane Sandi didn’t induce as much tree disrobing here.  We have had a rather mild fall, with one frost in mid-...

Visit The Garden

Greenhouses are open between 9 am and 4 pm Monday through Friday. If you are visiting greenhouses, press doorbell at the entrance when you arrive.

Make An Impact

Our Garden could not exist without the generous support of the Yale and New Haven communities. We have several wonderful opportunities for specific projects at the Garden. We use the Master Plan that was completed in 2022 as a resource in identifying those projects, both large and small, that will help our Garden move forward in the direction of our mission statement.