The 40-acre New Canaan Nature Center is a botanical garden, arboretum and nature preserve.
The site includes wet and dry meadows, two ponds, wet and dry woodlands, dense thickets, an old orchard, and a cattail marsh, as well as a 4,000-square-foot greenhouse. Azaleas, rhododendrons and a stand of mountain laurel also feature.
Landscaped areas of the site include a wildflower garden (which won the 1997 Homer Lucas Landscape Award from the New England Wild Flower Society), a herb garden and a perennial border. About 90% of the plant specimens in the wildflower garden are native species, including bloodroot, columbine, mayapple, jack-in-the-pulpit, wild geranium, Solomon's plume, starflower, and trillium. Shade-loving perennials include bleeding heart, crested iris, Jacob's ladder, hepatica, European ginger and Virginia bluebells.
The site also includes a small arboretum with Umbrella Pines, Cypress, Beech, Redbuds, Stone Pines and Weeping Norway Spruce.