Baird Field Flower Meadow

Cornell Botanic Gardens staff envision a meadow "garden" here, with beautiful season-long displays of native and naturalized flowers. These include our native New England asters and black-eyed Susans, as well as non-native species, such as dame's rocket, oxeye daisy, and yarrow. The meadow also features a variety of native and naturalized grasses, including big bluestem, Indian grass, and switch grass; these shades of green make a lovely backdrop for the flowers, and provide good habitat for ground-nesting birds in the arboretum.


Left unmanaged, most fields in our area will revert to forest. The aim of Baird Meadow is to showcase the use of low-maintenance management techniques to modify succession and maintain visually open landscapes. The site also displays the use of successful seeding mixes, and meadow establishment and management techniques, such as mowing and brush clearing.