Exhibits
Guided Tours
Plan Your Visit
As a lead-up to our Haunted Botany performance piece about the colonial histories of Eastern White Pine, join Materials Science Professor Lorna Gibson for a Tree Mob on tree species that were used to build colonial ships. From dense oak hulls designed to withstand cannonballs, to tall, straight masts made out of towering pine trees, each tree species was selected for its own unique strengths– both in the forest and at sea.
Long before this landscape had ever dreamed of becoming an Arboretum, a white oak grew quietly on the slopes of Peters Hill. Years passed and Arboretum staff eventually incorporated this very old tree into our official collections, making it possibly the oldest accessioned tree in the landscape. Join Assistant Curator Miles Sax for a Tree Mob to learn about this oak, what the landscape looked like before it was an Arboretum, the science of tree age, and how the Arboretum manages those trees that we never chose to plant but which are a treasured part of our collections nonetheless.
The pussy willows on Meadow Road are blooming, with brilliant red and yellow flowers emerging from the classic fuzzy buds. Join Manager of Horticulture Rachel Brinkman for a Tree Mob celebrating this unique plant.
The Arboretum’s Forsythia collection is not only a beautiful display of yellow every spring, but it is also one of the most significant of its kind on the planet. Such is its importance that it is one of the eight Nationally Accredited Collections at the Arnold Arboretum. Some of these accessions were collected from the wild in Asia (including North Korea) while others are cultivars introduced by Arboretum scientists and others to improve the ornamental merits of the genus. Join Keeper of the Living Collections Michael Dosmann on a stroll to learn more about Forsythia and some the storied plants that grow here.