The Frederick W. Vanderbilt Garden Association, Inc. began in 1984 as a small group of gardeners who wanted to bring some life back to the long-neglected formal gardens on the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site in Hyde Park, NY. They started with almost no funding and only a few beds of annuals, but a big dream.  Since then, many others have shared that dream and helped to make it a reality. The formal gardens were reborn. Now, they consist yearly of over 6,000 annuals, thousands of perennials, and hundreds of roses. Volunteers of the FWVGA contribute, on average, over 5,500 hours of work each year – as you can imagine, the cumulative total is impressive!  And, we’re still counting!

Our Mission:

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• To rehabilitate and maintain the formal gardens at the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site to the landscape defined by the National Park Service;

• To establish a sound funding program for the ongoing rehabilitation and maintenance of the gardens;

• To work with the National Park Service to establish a program of interpretation and education opportunities for Association members and the general public.

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