SUNDAY DEC 10 - Today's Festival of Trees event is on!  Tickets can be purchased at the gate. We have made every effort to move as many of the activities indoors or under a tent.  There are 22 beautiful trees decorated by local families, business, scouts and not for profits; please come support them and the Arboretum!

Blog

Wet & Wild

Orchids, birds of paradise, a huge (3 feet in diameter!) water lily and a modernistic multi-level 25 foot bamboo waterfall amid a lush rain forest, await at this year’s annual Philadelphia Flower Show.  Celebrating its 189th year as the country’s longest-running horticultural event, this year’s show is sure to impress with its celebration of water, entitled, “Wonders of Water.” Tropical jungles, temperate forests, native woodlands and arid landscapes will abound.

...

Read More

A Kid’ll Eat Ivy, Too

This Iranian jar is almost 6,000 years old. It depicts the Persian, or Bezoar, Ibex – the ancestor of our domesticated goat. While our modern goats have horns, the bezoar ibex has the largest horns, considered in proportion to body weight, of any animal in the world. The enormous horns, and the characteristic beard (from which we get the word "goatee"), are beautifully represented. The ibex's distinctive form and trophy-worthy horns have made it the object of hunters for millennia. Today, t...

Read More

Scents and Sense-Ability

One of the reasons I love public horticulture is the opportunity for new experiences. This past Saturday afforded me just that. We had a booking for a private tour for a group with visual impairments. I did my best to prepare for this unusual engagement, but in the end I was left surprised and pleased while wholly out of my depth.  They taught me that bright colors are best. To say "look at your 12 o'clock" instead of "look ahead"  .

Read More