Garden Holiday
August 29 – September 3, 2021
FEATURED EVENTS FROM PAST YEARS
Join us in celebrating 86 Years of Garden Holiday—featured in Flower Magazine.
Dig in to the history of Mohonk’s Garden and property with garden walks, live music, and fascinating talks and demonstrations led by a variety of expert hosts. In Mohonk’s 151st year, the show gardens will feature solid blocks of color highlighting plants you would find in a classic Victorian garden such as begonias, geraniums, marigolds, coleus, and more.
2019 marked the 150th anniversary of the Mountain House. And Head Gardener Clinton Claussen sees our 2020 garden as a progression: “As for a theme, I’ve been calling it ‘151.’ As in, this is the first year of the next 150 years. My idea is to build on the past, and to look to the future.”
Listed below are some of the events from the past years.
Availability is limited. For reservations, please call .
Welcome and Garden Tour
Meet our Garden Holiday team, pick up your welcome packet and annual themed pin, and have a cup of tea. Join Mohonk’s Head Gardener Clinton Claussen for a guided stroll into the gardens to begin your stay.
Planning a Dye Garden
Leaders Poliana Danila, Melissa Hewitt, and Mirabai Trent will lead this informative lecture. You’ll leave with the information required to plant a rainbow of natural dye plants in your own garden at home!
Forest Bathing through Mohonk’s Gardens
Join Nina Smiley, our Director of Mindfulness Programming, as she takes you on a gentle and mindful walk through Mohonk’s exceptional gardens. You will focus on your senses as you take in the abundance of beautiful sights and scents that surround you.
Macramé Plant Hangers Workshop
Join the wonderful Circle Creative Collective team to learn how to create one of the beautiful macramé plant hangers you’ve been coveting! This event is for guests attending Garden Holiday. Supplies are limited.
Juggler Bryson Lang
Marvel at his mastery as Bryson Lang performs captivating routines mixing audience participation with comedy, ball bouncing and spinning, juggling, giant beach balls, improv, glow-in-the-dark objects, and always a few surprises!
Behind the Scenes with Mohonk’s Rustic Carpenters
Have you ever wondered who constructs our gorgeous summerhouses? Meet the craftsmen who make it all happen. We are going on a little trip to see the latest projects undertaken by this very talented crew. Today, they will take you up to Garden Eyrie to view Mohonk’s only triple level summerhouse. Prepare to be amazed!
Gardens in the British Empire: An Anecdotal History
With the might of the British Empire, horticulture would be radically changed for the rest of history. Join Clinton Claussen, Head Gardener, as he explores how the British expansion led to new botanical discoveries for the western world.
Our Traditional Tea in the Garden
Enjoy a classic Victorian teatime in our award-winning show garden, featuring live flute and harp music and baked delicacies. Be sure to wear your favorite garden party hat!
Open to overnight resort guests only.
Live Music with The Blue Dahlia
Based in New York City and Paris, The Blue Dahlia is an international project led by Brooklyn-born chanteuse Dahlia Dumont. This quartet mixes chanson française, folk, and lively world grooves with lyrics in French, English, and Spanish creating a warm and soulful sound with a fun and electric energy.
Mohonk Garden Tree Walk
Join Sandra Smiley and Paul Huth on a leisurely walk in the Mohonk Garden to visit historic and unique trees that form part of the living collection at Mohonk. The route will follow that designed by Ruth H. Smiley, who served as resident horticulturist for some 50 years. Sandra and Paul will share decades of their first hand experience with Mohonk history and operations, Shawangunk Mountain’s natural and cultural history, and timely Mohonk reminiscences. Duration: 1.5 hours.
Edible and Medicinal Plants Walk
Have you ever wondered about the uses of wild plants beyond their physical beauty? Mohonk’s Naturalist Michael Ridolfo will lead this educational walk showcasing how a foundational plant knowledge means access to food and medicine wherever we go. Here we will cover 20-25 edible and medicinal plants and learn their uses. All are welcome on this 1 mile, easy-paced walk.
Mindful “Mocktail” Mixology
Join Nina Smiley, our Director of Mindulness Programming, and learn how to shake things up as she shows you how to mindfully create garden-inspired “mocktails.” Use this opportunity to get in touch with your senses and have a sensational drink made with herbs you can grow in your garden at home!
Live Music with John Kirk & Trish Miller
John and Trish will present “Fiddle Tunes, Folk Songs, and Fancy Footwork” in a concert of folk ballads from the Catskills, sentimental favorites, funny songs, sing alongs, and some singer-songwriter gems.
Garden Tour
Take a morning stroll with a member of Mohonk’s garden staff for an official tour around this season’s colorful garden. We’ll cover the complex techniques required to create our garden year after year.
“Magic Meadow”
Come along with Mohonk’s Parks and Ground Superintendent Tim Hetrick for a walk into the field, focusing on prairie grasses which comprise the contemporary lawn.
Forest Bathing with Nina Smiley
The term forest bathing or “shinrin-yoku” has been used in Japanese writings and research to describe the sense of well-being that comes from being outdoors immersed in nature. This Mindfulness in Nature walk with Nina guides you through wooded trails and alongside timeless cliffs and our crystal-clear lake. Embrace your senses with this unique walk!
Live Music with the Raina Sokolov-Gonzalez Trio
This Brooklyn-based rising singer/song-writer’s soulful sound infuses Jazz and R&B with emotional depth and a fresh edge. Raina invites us into her sonic world with harmonic nuance and lyrical ferocity.
Behind the Scenes with Mohonk’s Rustic Carpenters
Go on another adventure with this very talented crew, responsible for the creation and upkeep of our classic summerhouses. On this walk, our Rustic team will lead you out to scenic Eagle Cliff to view Bert’s Overlook summerhouse, one of their most recent (and most impressive) undertakings, built in honor of the late Bert Smiley, the longtime president and CEO of Mohonk Mountain House.
Availability is limited. For reservations, please call .
PAST PROGRAM LEADERS/PERFORMERS
Clinton Claussen
Clinton Claussen is the head gardener at Mohonk Mountain House. In 2017 he started with the Rustic carpenters and transitioned to the garden staff that winter. He is an avid outdoorsman who has an enormous wealth of knowledge on the region’s flora and fauna. He majored in Philosophy and Literature at the University of Iowa.
Circle Creative Collective
Circle Creative Collective is a local community organization of artists and makers that aims to connect and inspire diverse groups by sharing and preserving traditional crafts and skills. With a specific focus on promoting crafts, skills, events, and transformative ideas to honor unique heritages and shared exeriences, this collective pursues a more inclusive, creative, and joyous world. Their repertoire includes hands-on social multigenerational workshops drawing on traditional, multi-cultural, and sustainably-sourced crafts including papermaking, weaving, soap-making, felting, gardening, beekeeping, foraging, and more! For more information, visit www.circlecreativecollective.org.
Poliana Danila
Poliana Danila has harbored a love for gardening since she was a young girl growing up in Romania. She graduated from the University of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture in Romania and, after graduation, moved to the United States. While taking the landscape design program at the New York Botanical Garden, Poliana designed roof top gardens in Manhattan and later taught “how to design gardens” in Wilton, CT at a Continuing Education program. In 2013 she started to work with different fibers such as hemp, nettle, linen, cotton, and ramie. Her first fiber inspiration was her grandmother, Ioana, an avid weaver who used a big floor loom to make unique tapestries such as blankets, wall hangings, rugs, and floors rugs. Poliana joined Circle Creative team in March 2019, after a solo career in fibers with plant dyed fibers exhibitions and workshops. She currently works with Circle Creative teaching group and private workshops in weaving, knotting, plant dyeing, book binding, cooking and gardening consulting.
Nina Smiley, Ph.D.
Nina Smiley, Ph.D., graduated from Vassar College and earned a doctoral degree in psychology from Princeton University. She is co-author of The Three Minute Meditator, now in its fifth edition and translated into seven languages, and Mindfulness in Nature, along with the CD Mini-Meditations That Will Enhance Your Life. Nina taught psychology at the University of Maryland and worked at the American Psychological Association. She has studied mindfulness with Jack Kornfield (founder of Spirit Rock Meditation Center), Sharon Salzberg (co-founder of Insight Meditation Society), and others. Nina’s work has been featured in The New York Times, O, the Oprah Magazine, Real Simple, Shape and Prevention. She delights in sharing insights about mindfulness meditation and well-being.
Bryson Lang
Bryson Lang has entertained thousands around the world with his creative, high energy, family-friendly act. He specializes in everything from comedy and ball bouncing to juggling and improv.
Dahlia Dumont
Dahlia Dumont is a vocalist, ukulele-player, and singer-songwriter. A Brooklyn-girl, but a nomad at heart, Dahlia Dumont traveled the world from an early age, always absorbing the cultural and musical influences in her path. Her Eastern European heritage and her years as an anthropology student and teacher in France and Senegal shaped her musical palette, and in 2012 she created her project The Blue Dahlia. The Blue Dahlia blends French and Mexican accordion, klezmer violin, the warm and joyous rhythms of reggae, ska and Latin America, and the sensual voice of jazz and French chanson. Their music can be heard as an acoustic trio in the intimate bistros of New York and Paris, and as an electric big band in venues and festivals around the world.
John Kirk & Trish Miller
John Kirk & Trish Miller are dance callers and musicians from Saratoga Springs, New York. They present acoustic tunes with fiddle, guitar, mandolin, and banjo, featuring energetic live music with a timeless atmosphere.
Raina Sokolov-Gonzalez
Raina Sokolov-Gonzalez is a singer/composer based in Brooklyn, NY. Rooted in Jazz and R&B, Raina invites us into her unique sonic world with harmonic nuance and lyrical poetry. Releasing her four debut singles in 2018, Raina has over 300k streams on Spotify and a budding global audience. Touring locally, her trio has appeared on stage at venues such as Mohonk Mountain House, The Falcon, Unison Arts Center, and has a standing residency at NYC’s famous Rockwood Music Hall.
When you visit during Garden Holiday, your overnight package includes:
- Three meals daily featuring fresh, locally sourced ingredients from our farm-to-table partners. See our full list of dining options>
- Access to more than 85 miles of scenic hiking trails
- Yoga, Meditation, and Fitness classes
- Afternoon tea and cookies in our historic Lake Lounge
- Make an appointment to visit our Greenhouse
- Indoor heated pool with underwater music
- Guided hikes and outdoor activities with our Recreation team
- Nightly evening entertainment, special events, and more! See activities schedule>
Seasonal Activities
- Access to more than 85 miles of scenic hiking trails
- Boating, fishing, and swimming on Lake Mohonk
- Guided nature hikes with stunning views of the Catskill Mountains
- Rock scrambling our iconic Labyrinth and Lemon Squeeze trail
- Guided archery and tomahawk throwing sessions
- Complimentary court time on our Har-Tru and red clay tennis courts
- Complimentary greens fees on our historic 9- hole golf course
À la carte experiences available to overnight guests:
- The Carriage Lounge, featuring a full bar and handcrafted cocktails as well as hyper local draft beer and hard cider, now offering beverages to-go
- An award-winning wine list in our dining venues
- Guided rock climbing with Alpine Endeavors
- Private fitness, yoga, meditation, and mindfulness sessions
- Private tennis lessons, golf lessons, archery lessons and tomahawk throwing lessons with our pros
- Mountain bike rental to explore our single track trails
- Fishing pole rental, and bait for purchase
- Disc golf discs available for purchase (weather permitting)