Exhibits
Guided Tours
Plan Your Visit
Woodturning is the art of fashioning wood into various forms and shapes by means of a lathe. Returning to the Arnold Arboretum for the tenth year, The Art of the Woodturner will again offer visitors the chance to see an amazing variety of woodturned pieces: large and small, functional and sculptural.
This event for the Young Friends of the Arnold Arboretum features an enchanting evening of food, drinks, live music, and content tables in our Weld Hill Research Building —a state-of-the-art facility that is typically closed to the visiting public. Designed to appeal to those 21-45 or who are young at heart, this event is a premier opportunity to immerse yourself in the plants, purpose, and passion of the Arnold Arboretum with other metropolitan nature enthusiasts. Come learn about the research that the Arboretum is doing in the face of climate change as we maintain our 281-acre “museum of trees.” Please note that this is a 21 and older event.
Discover the story of James Arnold, for whom the Arboretum is named, and others whose legacy gifts helped secure its future. In celebration of nearly 154 years of plants and […]
*Rescheduled from March 21* W.S. Merwin was famed for his poetry, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry twice and named the United States Poet Laureate in 2010. But he was also a nature enthusiast with a deep concern for conservation. Merwin bought a plot of former agricultural land in Maui in 1977 and spent 40 years revitalizing the land, planting nearly 3,000 species of palm trees, and the estate is now recognized as one of the most important collections of palms in the world. Join us for a talk and poetry reading celebrating Merwin’s legacy.
Gather at the magnolias for a one-of-a-kind concert celebrating this beautiful collection in peak bloom. Chloe DeSteno and Ariana Mascari, graduate students at the New England Conservatory, have assembled a collection of musical pieces about the magnolias, their cultural and historical impact, as well as plants and the Arboretum more broadly–including one original piece composed for the Arboretum’s magnolia collection itself. The concert will feature a small orchestra playing genres from Renaissance to jazz, all rooted in classical music.
Come celebrate Japanese culture amongst the Arboretum’s beautiful cherry blossoms with taiko drumming, traditional Japanese dance, Japanese games and calligraphy, family activities, and the inside scoop on the Arboretum’s own cherry collection.
Stop by the Hunnewell lawn to experience the sounds of the Arboretum in a new way. Work with a birder to learn how to identify birds from their unique calls, listen to the sounds of a tree or soil amplified through specially designed microphones, participate in a “listening launchpad” activity to find sounds around the Arboretum landscape, engage in conversation prompts about the sounds of the landscape, and enjoy a guided soundscape meditation.
Gather at the cherry blossoms for a one-of-a-kind concert celebrating this beautiful collection in peak bloom. Chloe DeSteno and Ariana Mascari, graduate students at the New England Conservatory, have assembled a collection of musical pieces about the cherries, their cultural and historical impact, as well as plants and the Arboretum more broadly–including one original piece composed for the Arboretum’s cherry collection itself. The concert will feature a small orchestra playing genres from Renaissance to jazz, all rooted in classical music.
*Rescheduled to May 3 due to rain* Gather at Peters Hill Summit for a one-of-a-kind concert celebrating the beautiful crabapple collection in peak bloom. Chloe DeSteno and Ariana Mascari, graduate students at the New England Conservatory, have assembled a collection of musical pieces about the crabapples and Peters Hill, as well as plants and the Arboretum more broadly–including one original piece composed specifically for this part of the Arboretum. The concert will feature a small orchestra playing genres from Renaissance to jazz, all rooted in classical music.
Experience the springtime bloom of our renowned lilac collection with Lilac Sunday, offering fun, free explorations for the entire family. The event features ongoing tours of the Arboretum’s lilacs as well as art, family activities, and picnicking on this day only. Visitors may also enjoy a host of self-guided tours, including a lilac tour, via the Arboretum website and its Expeditions app.
*Rescheduled from May 14 due to rain.* As the Leventritt Shrub and Vine Garden nears its 25th birthday, join the garden’s original architect and our own Keeper of the Living Collections to learn about the garden’s history, its design goals and principles, and how it has evolved in the past two decades. This program will begin with a short talk in the Hunnewell Lecture Hall, then move outdoors for a tour of the garden itself with Michael Dosmann and architect Gary Hilderbrand.
Stop by the Hunnewell Lawn while supplies last to create beautiful nature-based cyanotype prints. Participants will arrange flowers, leaves, and seeds and expose them in sunlight to create a deep blue print with bright, ghost-white silhouettes.
Join us for an interactive look at all the tiny critters that crawl, fly, or slither through the Arboretum landscape. We will have sweep nets and bug boxes to catch bugs in Kent Field, digital microscopes to get a closer look, and entomologists to help us identify everything we find. This is an all-ages, interactive program: come prepared to move around and get up close with some bugs and insects!
*Rescheduled to August 30 due to rain* Many of the plants grown at the Arboretum have been used as natural dyes for centuries: goldenrod for yellow, stinging nettle for green, madder or bloodroot for pink. Join fiber artist Maggie Ruth Haaland on the Hunnewell Lawn to learn about some of these natural dyeing methods and get a chance to try some of your own.
Join the Arnold Arboretum for our inaugural event, Afterglow! An evening of discovery under the stars with food, drinks, and learning opportunities. This event is designed to celebrate the Arboretum’s work: a free and open public park in the City of Boston, an academic “museum of trees,” a conservation and research institution, and a place of outdoor education for all people. The event will be hosted in the Arnold Arboretum’s Explorers Garden, where we care for plants from around the world, exemplifying our global collaboration and conservation work. Guests will engage with Arboretum experts while enjoying cocktails and passed food in the living collections, followed by music and dancing under a tent.
Woodturning is the art or process of fashioning wood into various forms and shapes by means of a lathe. Returning to the Arnold Arboretum for the 11th year, The Art of the Woodturner will again offer visitors the chance to see an amazing variety of woodturned pieces: large and small, functional and sculptural.
Woodturning is the art or process of fashioning wood into various forms and shapes by means of a lathe. Returning to the Arnold Arboretum for the 11th year, The Art of the Woodturner will again offer visitors the chance to see an amazing variety of woodturned pieces: large and small, functional and sculptural.
Members get a special sneak preview of the new exhibit in the Hunnewell Building, titled Living Connections: The Arnold Arboretum and Korea. For more than a century, the Arnold Arboretum has been connected to Korea through plants, exploration, and scientific exchange. The exhibit brings together rare archival images, living collections, plant records, and contemporary partnerships to explore Korea’s botanical heritage and the evolving relationship between the Arboretum and Korean institutions.
For more than a century, the Arnold Arboretum has been connected to Korea through plants and scientific exchange. The new Living Connections exhibit brings together rare archival images, living collections, and contemporary partnerships to explore Korea’s botanical heritage and the evolving relationship between the Arboretum and Korean institutions. Living Connections traces a story from early plant exploration to modern collaboration, showing how historic collections continue to support research, conservation, and cultural understanding today.
On the afternoon of Halloween, stop by the Hunnewell Lawn to learn about the most sinister plants in the Arboretum’s collections. Armed with spiky thorns, sticky latex, and chemical warfare, these plant species defend themselves from hungry herbivores, other plants—and sometimes from humans who wander too close. Others try to poison their neighbors, practice explosive seed dispersal, or even glow under black light. Drop by for this family friendly event and experience Halloween, Arboretum-style.