Now through September, Cornell Plantations is offering free guided tours through the botanical garden area Saturday afternoons.

Led by Plantations volunteers and student interns, the tours include the following specialty gardens:

• Robison York State Herb Garden, with more than 500 varieties of plants used for flavor, fiber and medicine or valued for their spiritual and cultural associations.
• Ground cover collection, where plants noted for their attractive and interesting foliage are both used individually in small areas and combined with other plants to create low-maintenance gardens.
• Walter C. Heasley Jr. Rock Garden, where layers of native stone perched along the entrance to the Plantations headquarters provide niches for alpine plants and perennials, bulbs, trees, and miniature shrubs.
• Peony garden, where dozens of varieties of tree and herbaceous peonies are combined with perennials, ornamental grasses and flowering shrubs.

"These tours are a first-time effort intended to create a stronger link between Plantations and the people of central New York," says Plantations Director Don Rakow. "We see this as an opportunity for community members to be delighted by the beauty of Plantations' botanical garden."

All tours start at 1 p.m. in front of the Plantations Garden Gift Shop and last

45 minutes to an hour.

Cornell Plantations' grounds are open to the public, free of charge, from dawn to dark each day. For more information, contact Cornell Plantations, One Plantations Road, Ithaca, N.Y. 14850, phone (607) 255-3020. Or visit Cornell Plantations' web site http://www.plantations.cornell.edu to learn "What's Blooming at Plantations." Follow the online guide to the Plantations Path and check schedules of Plantations classes, lectures and special events.