Known for its annual riot of cherry blossoms each spring, Traverse City, Mich., stays green and blooming throughout the summer. Explore the Botanic Garden at Historic Barns Park, where the farmland of a former 19th-century mental hospital has been transformed into a series of expanding healing gardens. Highlights include a walled garden filled with Michigan wildflowers, a contemplative labyrinth, and cascading waterfalls. The park also features an outdoor pavilion and a landscaped visitor center housed in an 1886 granary, connected by an intriguing underground tunnel.
On Old Mission Peninsula, Brys Estate Vineyard and Winery hosts The Secret Garden, a lush lavender sanctuary surrounded by strawberry and blueberry patches and an herb garden. Visitors can enjoy hillside picnics and sample lavender lemonade and five flavors of handcrafted Moomer’s Ice Cream made with the garden’s fruits, all sold in the on-site garden shop.
West of the city, The Iris Farm cultivates more than 1,000 varieties of hybrid German iris across six acres, along with hundreds of hybrid daylily and Asiatic lily varieties that bloom from mid-July through early September. For lovers of decorative, intimate landscapes, Sunnybank on Sixth Street offers a unique experience. This private garden, created by writer-gardener-musician Dee Blair, evokes the Victorian era and is organized into three outdoor “rooms.” Each room is defined by handcrafted walls, doors, door art, and fences made by the Blair family. Guests enter by ringing a bell to announce their arrival, then stroll winding paths, read on secluded benches, or simply relax amid fragrant plantings.