This beautiful 100-acre arboretum holds nine collections of trees including maples, oaks, crabapples, dogwoods, urban trees, nut trees, and more. Some are concentrated in one area, and others are spread throughout the arboretum. The arboretum also includes specialty gardens including a shrub collection, streamside garden, and many “pocket” gardens.
Showy flowers and fruit, rich fall colors, and ornamental bark make the Palmer-Kinne Dogwood Collection a fascinating garden to visit in all seasons.
Houston and Grossman ponds, located in the heart of the arboretum, were created in the early 1980’s to add an aquatic ecosystem to our collections.
This intimately-scaled, hemlock-shaded, streamside garden displays moisture-loving plants that cannot be grown well elsewhere at Cornell Botanic Gardens.
The arboretum’s bowl-shaped hills and valleys were carved by Fall Creek following the last ice-age over 10,000 years ago. Overlooks and benches provide visitors with panoramic views, including popular Newman Overlook.
Use your mobile phone to learn about the arboretum’s diverse tree collections and specialty gardens. Signs in sixteen different locations provide a phone number to hear a two-minute story about the nearby collection or garden.
The arboretum has developed steadily over time into what it is today, but the final push to transform the landscape into an arboretum was made possible from a generous donation given by Floyd R. “Flood” Newman, class of 1912 in the 1980’s.