The Arboretum offers free educational tours in Longenecker Horticultural Gardens (LHG) and the Wisconsin Native Plant Garden (WNPG). Tours take place from April through October. They are open to the public and begin at the Arboretum Visitor Center. Garden tour information is suited for adults.
Longenecker Horticultural Gardens features an internationally recognized collection of trees and shrubs – the largest and most diverse in Wisconsin, with more than 2,600 types of plants displayed over 35 acres. The collection contains the third largest public collection of lilacs in the United States, as well as major displays of flowering crabapples, magnolias, and conifers. The gardens are an outdoor living museum that promotes the beauty and importance of trees and other woody plants.
The 4-acre Wisconsin Native Plant Garden surrounds the Visitor Center with several hundred species native to Wisconsin. The garden serves as an introduction to ecological restoration and the restored and managed plant communities in the Arboretum. It also demonstrates how to incorporate native plants into home landscapes.
Tours are led by Arboretum garden staff – including Susan Carpenter, the WNPG curator, and David Stevens, the LHG curator – and other regional experts. Tours are cancelled for severe weather.
Wednesday, July 10, 7 p.m.
Plants for Pollinators. Learn more about summer-blooming native and ornamental species in Arboretum gardens. Susan Carpenter, Native Plant Garden curator, will highlight plants and gardening practices that support essential pollinators in urban/suburban landscapes.