Prepping Your Flower Beds
Led by Jeff Curtis, Director of Gardens & Landscapes, The Preservation Society of Newport County
Jeff Curtis will show participants how he prepares the Preservation Society’s cutting garden for a successful season of growing spectacular dahlias, sunflowers and much more.
Please wear boots or shoes you can get dirty, as this program will take place at the cutting garden. A tour of the greenhouse will follow. This is an outdoor event, rain or shine.
The greenhouse and cutting garden are located off Bateman Avenue, behind The Breakers Stable & Carriage House at 53 Coggeshall Ave., Newport. There is no onsite parking. Parking is available on Bateman Avenue. Please walk up the driveway between the stable building and the garden on your right to the red house behind.
What you need to know
Prepping Your Flower Beds at The Breakers Greenhouse has closed.Jeff Curtis will show participants how he prepares the Preservation Society’s cutting garden for a successful season of growing spectacular dahlias, sunflowers and much more.
Please wear boots or shoes you can get dirty, as this program will take place at the cutting garden. A tour of the greenhouse will follow. This is an outdoor event, rain or shine.
The greenhouse and cutting garden are located off Bateman Avenue, behind The Breakers Stable & Carriage House at 53 Coggeshall Ave., Newport. There is no onsite parking. Parking is available on Bateman Avenue. Please walk up the driveway between the stable building and the garden on your right to the red house behind.
More Tours, Events & Exhibitions
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Jeff Curtis, Director of Gardens & Landscapes, will provide a tour of the greenhouse and discuss how the work done there provides thousands of bedding plants and cut flowers for our historic properties.
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10:00am – 12:00pm
Looking for something new to put on your door this holiday season? The Preservation Society's Holiday Wreath-Making Workshop returns with plenty of unique ideas.
SOLD OUT
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5:30pm – 7:30pm
This program will guide you through designing a paper floral arrangement to fit perfectly into your home for the holidays.
Holiday Dinner Dance 2025
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7:00pm – 12:00am
This elegant gala is set in Newport's grandest mansion dressed in its holiday finest. Tickets go on sale to Preservation Society members starting Wednesday, October 8, and will be available to the general public starting Tuesday, October 14.
The Newport Flower Show: “Pearls of Newport”
June 19 – 21, 2026
"Pearls of Newport" is the perfect theme for the 30th anniversary Newport Flower Show, celebrating the city's coastal identity and maritime history.
Beneath The Breakers Tour
Daily
10 am & 12 pm
Explore the underground systems that made this great house a marvel of technology for its time.
Third Floor Preservation in Progress Tour
Daily
12 pm & 2 pm
For the first time in the 129-year history of The Breakers, the private third-floor family space occupied by generations of Vanderbilts is open for public tours.
Starting November 3, offered at 12 pm only.
Servant Life Tour
Daily
10 am & 2 pm
See and hear how the other half lived. This tour will highlight the stories of some of the men and women who worked to service the social whirl of Newport during the Gilded Age.
Richard Morris Hunt:
In a New Light
May 30 – November 2, 2025
This exhibition examines the mind, ambition and legacy of America’s Dean of Architecture, who shaped Gilded Age America not only through the buildings he created – including The Breakers and Marble House – but also through his ideas.
Inside “The Gilded Age” Tour
August 15 – October 24, 2025
1:00pm – 4:45pm
Fans of HBO’s "The Gilded Age" will love this guide-led tour of locations in four of the Newport Mansions where Julian Fellowes' historical drama series was filmed. Additional dates have been added! Tuesday, October 21 & Friday, October 24 tickets are now available.
Plein Air Watercolor Painting Class
October 16, 2025
9:00am – 4:00pm
Calling all intermediate or above watercolor painters! Join Bill Lane, award-winning local watercolor artist, for an intermediate level day-long workshop on plein air painting at The Elms.
Mars and the Gilded Age Imagination
October 16, 2025
6:00pm – 7:00pm
David Baron, award-winning journalist, broadcaster and author, discusses the Gilded Age's fascination with Mars – a phenomenon that endures today.
Halloween Trick or Treat at The Breakers
October 24 – 25, 2025
5:30 - 6:30 pm & 6:30 - 7:30 pm
Witches and vampires, angels and princesses, skeletons and superheroes, get ready! There’s big Halloween fun for the family at Newport’s biggest mansion.
The Breakers Greenhouse Guided Walk
November 1, 2025
10:00am – 11:00am
Jeff Curtis, Director of Gardens & Landscapes, will provide a tour of the greenhouse and discuss how the work done there provides thousands of bedding plants and cut flowers for our historic properties.
SOLD OUT
The Newport Symposium: The French Influence in Newport
November 6 – 7, 2025
Founded in 1993, the Newport Symposium is an annual convening of fine and decorative arts experts and enthusiasts from across the country and the world. Attendees listen to stimulating lectures, experience behind-the-scenes study opportunities and gather to network and discuss the future of our history.
Songs from Newport
November 13, 2025
6:00pm – 8:00pm
This musical program led by Historic Music of Newport founder Dr. Mark A. Stickney will feature historic songs associated with Newport, spanning from the Civil War era through the Gilded Age.
Sparkling Lights at The Breakers
November 21 – December 28, 2025
This outdoor spectacle of holiday lights will dazzle and delight you! The 13-acre landscape of The Breakers turns into a wonderland of color and light. Includes tour of the lavishly decorated rooms inside the house. Open on select evenings through the season. Includes access to The Breakers interior during the same visit.
Holidays at the Newport Mansions
November 22, 2025 – January 1, 2026
A great Newport tradition! See the magnificent mansions of the Gilded Age dressed in their festive holiday finery. It’s the most spectacular time of the year at these awe-inspiring historic houses.
Behind the Scenes: The Breakers Holiday Decorations
December 4 – 18, 2025
11:00am – 12:00pm
Learn how the magic of holiday decorating comes together at Newport's largest and most popular mansion. Tour will be offered on Thursdays, December 4 (sold out), December 11 (sold out) and December 18.
Holiday Wreath-Making Workshop
December 6, 2025
10:00am – 12:00pm
Looking for something new to put on your door this holiday season? The Preservation Society's Holiday Wreath-Making Workshop returns with plenty of unique ideas.
SOLD OUT
Holiday Paper Flower Arrangement Workshop
December 11, 2025
5:30pm – 7:30pm
This program will guide you through designing a paper floral arrangement to fit perfectly into your home for the holidays.
Holiday Dinner Dance 2025
December 20, 2025
7:00pm – 12:00am
This elegant gala is set in Newport's grandest mansion dressed in its holiday finest. Tickets go on sale to Preservation Society members starting Wednesday, October 8, and will be available to the general public starting Tuesday, October 14.
The Newport Flower Show: “Pearls of Newport”
June 19 – 21, 2026
"Pearls of Newport" is the perfect theme for the 30th anniversary Newport Flower Show, celebrating the city's coastal identity and maritime history.
