Check out four good local gardens open this weekend

• Rare yellow magnolias, thousands of spring bulbs
• Stonecrop in Cold Spring will be open on Sunday
• A pair of good gardens in Chappaqua

The Garden Conservancy's Open Days Program is a wonderful way to play tourist in your own town, or county. You can make a whole day of it, or just visit a local garden or two and maybe combine it with a lunch place you've been dying to try. The conservancy tries to group gardens together geographically to make it a little easier.

That's the case this weekend when two fun gardens in Chappaqua will be open on Saturday: Henriette Suhr's Rocky Hills and the in-town garden of Shobha Vanchiswar and Murali Mani.

Rocky Hills is considered one of the premier private gardens in the county (it's my favorite), and if you haven't seen it yet you really should. "Everything is in bloom," Suhr says. "It is spectacular!" Can't go on Saturday? She'll have another Open Day on May 24, when her thousands of azaleas and rhododendrons should be in full glory.

At Rocky Hills, look for the carpet of tulips, ferns and pale blue forget-me-nots throughout the 13-acre property this time of year — and don't miss her collection of rare yellow magnolias. The thousands of self-sown primula along the natural brook that serves as the heart of the garden are in full flower, too.

Vanchiswar and Mani's tiny jewel of a garden is certainly worth a stop, too. If you've got a typical suburban lot with not much going on, you'll pick up good ideas here. Their garden won the 2007 Golden Trowel award from Garden Design magazine. Don't miss the espaliered fruit trees and the new vertical garden of mostly ferns.

For lunch in Chappaqua, you can't beat the patio of Le Jardin du Roi in nice weather, though the bistro setting is quite comfortable if it's raining or chilly. Try the classic croque monsieur or the salmon salad, which comes with both poached and smoked fish. There's also a nice breakfast menu.

If you're in the mood to make a day of it (and you fancy native plants), head south to see Pru and Clark Montgomery's New World Garden in Hastings-on-Hudson. Ten years ago, they hired native plants guru Larry Weaner to strip out all of the lawn and invasive plants and replant the entire property with hundreds of plants indigenous to the Northeast. They are in the process of selling their house, a classic Arts and Crafts-style home from 1906, so Pru says she really hasn't had much time for gardening. So keep that in mind if you're planning a long drive to see it. But that's the beauty of native plants — they don't require as much fussing over as many of the ornamentals from Asia and Europe.

Busy all day Saturday? On Sunday in Cold Spring, Stonecrop Gardens, the former home of the Conservancy's founder, Frank Cabot, will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Stonecrop became a public garden in 1992 under the direction of Caroline Burgess. The display gardens at Stonecrop cover an area of about 12 acres and should be waking up nicely from the long winter. The stonework here is magnificent. There are also woodland and water gardens, a grass garden, raised alpine stone beds, a cliff rock garden, and an enclosed English-style flower garden.

Stonecrop has five more Open Days this year, so skip this one if you're pressed for time this weekend.

Follow Bill Cary's In the Garden blog at gardening.lohudblogs.com. Twitter: BillCaryNY

IF YOU GO

• Rocky Hills: The Garden of William and Henriette Suhr, 95 Old Roaring Brook Road, Chappaqua, will be open from 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday.

• The Garden of Shobha Vanchiswar and Murali Mani, 76 Castle Road, Chappaqua, will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.

• New World Garden: The Garden of Pru and Clark Montgomery, 31 Sheldon Place, Hastings-on-Hudson, will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.

• Stonecrop Gardens, 81 Stonecrop Lane, Cold Spring, 845-265-2000, www.stonecrop.org; open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Open Days are rain or shine and no advance reservations are needed. Admission for each of these gardens in $5. For more information, including driving directions and descriptions of the gardens by their owners, visit www.gardenconservancy.org/opendays or call 888-842-2442 weekdays.