Fuel Your Curiosity

Every season. Something new to explore.

Reeves-Reed Arboretum offers 13.5 acres of natural beauty, including historic and contemporary gardens and six acres of woodland forest. Whether you are interested in gardening, hiking, art, bird watching, community involvement, or a place for quiet contemplation, the Arboretum has something for you. Photo courtesy of Stephen Harris, sph-photo.com.

What's in Bloom

Plants are growing at the arboretum! Please scroll through our sliders below to see what is in bloom now!

Horticulture

Reeves-Reed Arboretum is dedicated to preserving the past and imagining the future of American gardening. Our landscapes include natural woodlands, open vistas that owe much to 19th century visionaries like Andrew Downing and Frederick Law Olmsted (Olmsted's partner Calvert Vaux actually produced the first design for the property), and more formal gardens that exemplify the Country Place movement of the early 20th century.

History

Reeves-Reed Arboretum is listed on the National and State Registers of Historic Places. Its estate and gardens represent design trends by prominent landscape architects of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Lenni Lenape Native Americans passed through the property on their route from the coastal areas near Elizabeth, NJ to Schooley's Mountain, further inland. During the Revolutionary period, the area was adjacent to the Old Sow Revolutionary War Cannon and the Signal Beacon atop Beacon Hill. Learn more about these early eras, as well as the Wisners, the founding family of "The Clearing" (as the Arboretum was originally called) and the Reeves and Reed families.

Efflorescence: Artwork by Kelly Moeykens

Reeves-Reed Arboretum is pleased to announce its newest art exhibition, Efflorescence. The show encompasses a collection of works by artist Kelly Moeykens of Midcoastal Maine. Twenty-six floral compositions made from hand-cut, folded, and painted recycled paper adorn the walls of the Wisner House Gallery, reflecting the abundant blooms currently opening throughout the Arboretum grounds.

In botany, efflorescence refers to the state of blossoming, the unfolding of petals to reveal the full flower.  Once we see the beautiful blossom unfurled in its full glory, it has already gone through an entire series of forms, as a seed then a germinated plant; a bud is produced, and a flower opens. In a similar way, Kelly Moeykens’ artwork is about process. The final product speaks to the journey it took to get there. Moeykens’ artist statement describes her creative workflow as such: “She manipulates material over and over again, to see what it is capable of becoming, where it might lead, and how it will migrate from an object to something surreal or sublime.”

By using recycled materials, Moeykens’ artwork gives new life to what might otherwise become discarded paper. Her work then becomes part of a cycle of renewal similar to the lifecycle of a flower itself. The old life of her materials is hard to conceive when looking at the complexity and detail of the final artwork. Not technically origami, Moeykens’ folded paper works fall somewhere between a sculpture and a collage. Each piece of art is like a mosaic garden neatly contained within its shadow-box frame, with texture and depth you can get truly lost in. The artist states, “I want to use art as a form of environmental activism and raise awareness of our biodiversity crisis. I want each individual viewer to have a unique emotional response and my work to give rise to their own memories and connections.”  

Efflorescence is on display in the Wisner House Gallery through September 17, 2023. All artwork is for sale, and the artist will generously donate 30% of sales to the Arboretum. The gallery is open Tuesday-Sunday 10 am- 4pm, unless closed for a private event. Please visit reeves-reedarboretum.org/visit/ to confirm gallery hours. 

Questions about this exhibition? Call 908-273-8787 ext. 1010 or email m.foehrenbach@reeves-reedarboretum.org. 

Efflorescence: Artwork by Kelly Moeykens

Twenty-six floral compositions made from hand-cut, folded, and painted recycled paper adorn the walls of the Wisner House Gallery.

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