Founded in 1934 by the Lenox Garden Club as the Berkshire Garden Center, the grounds for the Berkshire Botanical Garden were donated by Bernhard and Irene Hoffman. Two years later the site expanded to its present fifteen acres which also incorporated a farmhouse built in 1790.
Shortly after its establishment, the New York Botanical Garden donated a group of daylilies to the garden. Many other horticultural gifts followed, bolstering the garden’s collection to more than 3,000 plants species, many of which are native to the Berkshires. Kenneth Simpson, a local horticulturalist, was retained to design the site plan for 25 display gardens, including a 100-foot long perennial border, a rose garden, a rock garden, a pond garden, a children's garden, and a productive vegetable garden. A terraced herb garden was designed in 1937 by landscape architect Edward Belcher to showcase a wide variety of ornamental and functional herbs. A Victory Garden was installed during World War II, which later won a National Victory Garden Institute Award in 1946 for its involvement with the war effort. Since then the garden has continued to evolve, showcasing the work of local landscape architects and nationally known designers such as Martha Stewart. The garden, which serves as a center for horticultural education and landscape preservation in the Berkshires also contains an arboretum and interpretive woodland trails.
