Rockland Botanical Garden

The Rockland Botanical Garden,

Berks County, Pennsylvania

The Rockland Botanical Garden is the privately owned study garden of
Mr. & Mrs. John D. Scott, Berks County Pennylvania. The Garden was created in 1977 from four acres of old corn field and nine acres of lumbered woodland. Collections currently being developed include over 450 conifers, 200 hardy ferns, and a nine acre native woodland garden with approximately one mile of maintained trails.

The purpose of the Rockland Botanical Garden is to provide systematic and ecological plant collections for study by students in the field. An extensive fern library and an herbarium of the Garden's plants are being developed. Also under development is a computer file of fern literature and fern names.





The property was selected because of the many varied microhabitats. Four acres of old cornfield provide a sunny area for the conifer collection and an organized dicot collection. Artificial habitats include a limestone cobble and a serpentine barrens. There is a small stream and a large spring fed bog. A nine acre woodland contains several hundred indigenous plants native to Berks County. Most notable plants include Botrychium matricariaefolium, Orchis spectabilis, and Habenaria lacera.

The large list of indigenous pteridophytes was made during the first few years of surveying the woods. To that collection has been added native North American ferns. There is a small section of the woods devoted to Japanese wildflowers and ferns. The ferns have been purchased mainly from Fancy Fronds, Foliage Gardens., Siskiyou Gardens, and Wildwood. While the hardiness map places the Garden in Zone 6, most of the purchased ferns listed as Zone 6 do not winter over or send up fronds in June and July. If the hardinesses of the ferns are correct, we have a microclimate of Zone 5.5.

Winter Pictures Spring Pictures in the woods Summer Pictures

Fern Pictures Fern List Article on Christmas Ferns

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The Rockland Botanical Garden is the privately owned study garden of Mr. & Mrs. John D. Scott, Berks County Pennylvania. The Garden was created in 1977 from four acres of old corn field and nine acres of lumbered woodland. Collections currently being developed include over 450 conifers, 200 hardy ferns, and a nine acre native woodland garden with approximately one mile of maintained trails. The purpose of the Rockland Botanical Garden is to provide systematic and ecological plant collections for study by students in the field. An extensive fern library and an herbarium of the Garden's plants are being developed. Also under development is a computer file of fern literature and fern names.		The property was selected because of the many varied microhabitats. Four acres of old cornfield provide a sunny area for the conifer collection and an organized dicot collection. Artificial habitats include a limestone cobble and a serpentine barrens. There is a small stream and a large spring fed bog. A nine acre woodland contains several hundred indigenous plants native to Berks County. Most notable plants include Botrychium matricariaefolium, Orchis spectabilis, and Habenaria lacera. The large list of indigenous pteridophytes was made during the first few years of surveying the woods. To that collection has been added native North American ferns. There is a small section of the woods devoted to Japanese wildflowers and ferns. The ferns have been purchased mainly from Fancy Fronds, Foliage Gardens., Siskiyou Gardens, and Wildwood. While the hardiness map places the Garden in Zone 6, most of the purchased ferns listed as Zone 6 do not winter over or send up fronds in June and July. If the hardinesses of the ferns are correct, we have a microclimate of Zone 5.5.