Join us for the first Lilac Sunday since 2019! We’ll be celebrating 150 years of Arboretum history and 112 Lilac Sundays.
Experience the springtime bloom of our renowned collection of nearly 400 lilacs. Visit for tours with Arboretum experts, hands-on children’s programming, and more.
Participate in the Arnold Arboretum’s 2021 Tournament of Trees! Get to know this year’s Sweet Sixteen contenders (March 3–9) and cast your votes in this fun bracket style tournament. Let the March Tree Madness games begin.
A plant that generates heat and attracts pollinators with its stink? Learn more about skunk cabbage in the Arnold Arboretum’s newest winter Wonder Spot, at the Arboretum meadow’s edge or online. Free and open to all.
Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
Families need nature at all times of the year! Join the Arboretum for a family hike where you will look for seeds that fly, seeds that float, seeds that get buried away, and seeds that travel through an animal’s stomach.
This event is free and open to all and most suitable for children ages four through ten.
Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
Venture into the Arboretum landscape with caterpillar expert Sam Jaffe. Sam will wander the landscape highlighting host plants and the insects they support, focusing his attention on caterpillars, moths, and butterflies. Bring a camera to document your discoveries and a notebook to record identification tips and plant suggestions for expanding the array of butterflies your garden or park can support.
This event is suitable for adults and children ages 12 and older. Children must be accompanied by an adult at all times.
Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
Join the Arnold Arboretum for a late night learning adventure to discover the nocturnal invertebrates that are flitting about the Arboretum after hours. Naturalist Sam Jaffe will start the evening in the classroom with some introductory information about the life-cycles of moths and other night flyers. He’ll then lead the group outdoors for a moth lighting at which we will admire and study a variety of nocturnal insects. Back in the classroom, microscopes and other field guides will allow us to make clear identifications of these lesser-seen beauties.
Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
The Caterpillar Lab, from Keene, New Hampshire, comes to the Arnold Arboretum for 5 days of astonishing exhibits. Explore the amazing world of caterpillars on a whole new level. There will be live caterpillars, cocoons, hatched eggs, shed skins, and much more. Visitors of all ages will be amazed!
Hunnewell Lawn, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
This is part of the new Science in Our Park Series. Come to the Arnold Arboretum and be a scientist! Get your hands onto scientific tools, use your observation skills, and share your findings with others.
Catch Some Rays! will let you harness the power of the sun. Help to create solar ovens, test the ability of various garden bed coverings to keep roots cool, and plant a sunflower seed that will follow the sun.
Please note: One adult may bring a maximum of three children; suitable for children ages five and up.
Hunnewell Lawn, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
This is part of the new Science in Our Park Series. Come to the Arnold Arboretum and be a scientist! Get your hands onto scientific tools, use your observation skills and share your findings with others.
Get Your Hands Dirty will allow you to stick your hands into the soil and really get to know it. You will have a chance to use digital probes, collect data, and then share that data with other scientists for a day.
One adult may bring a maximum of three children; suitable for children ages five and up.
Hunnewell Lawn, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
This is part of the new Science in Our Park Series. Come to the Arnold Arboretum and be a scientist! Get your hands onto scientific tools, use your observation skills, and share your findings with others.
Dissection Dramatics will give you ample opportunity to fiddle with microscopes, hand lenses and digital scopes. Discover the secrets contained in a flower as you pull it apart piece by piece. Then test your puzzle making abilities as you attempt to put it back together.
One adult may bring a maximum of three children; suitable for children ages...
Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
Learn among the trees and discover the Arboretum on guided hikes for families. Seeds can fly. Find out which ones do and how they do it. One adult may bring a maximum of three children; suitable for children ages five through twelve. Meet in the Hunnewell Visitor Center.
Hunnewell Building and Lawn, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
Discover the Fog with kids in four family drop in activities. At the Arnold Arboretum's own Fog x Hill, you can join us as we celebrate the Emerald Necklace Conservancy's Fog x FLO by artist Fujiko Nakaya. On September 15th, drop in for our Hydrophobic Lab to find out how fog interacts with other elements (ages 8 and up).
Hunnewell Building and Lawn, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
Discover the Fog with kids in four family drop in activities. At the Arnold Arboretum's own Fog x Hill, you can join us as we celebrate the Emerald Necklace Conservancy's Fog x ... Read more about Fog x Kids: Family Drop Ins
Repeats every week on Monday, Thursday until Thu Sep 27 2018 .
10:30am to 12:00pm
10:30am to 12:00pm
10:30am to 12:00pm
10:30am to 12:00pm
10:30am to 12:00pm
10:30am to 12:00pm
10:30am to 12:00pm
10:30am to 12:00pm
Location:
Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
Enjoy a free guided tour of the Arnold Arboretum landscape with a knowledgeable docent. Tours are appropriate for adults and last approximately 90 minutes. History, highlights of the landscape, seasonal interest and more!
Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
"Now is the best season for arborists. Leaves and flowers? That's just a distraction!" Join Andrew Gapinski, the Arnold Arboretum's Manager of... Read more about Tree Architecture
Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
With nearly 4,000 different kinds of plants represented in the Arboretum's living collections, every day presents rich opportunities to see something new. If you enjoy learning about plants and their unique characteristics, you can contribute to science as a participant in our Tree Spotters program. This citizen science project opens a window into the Arboretum's phenology: the timing of natural events, such as the leafing out and flowering of trees in the spring and changing foliage colors in the fall. Your observations will...