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.
Visitors to the Harvard Museum of Natural History are dazzled by the Mineral Gallery’s beautiful specimens, yet the gallery displays only a fraction of the entire collection.
While each of the collection’s 300,000+ specimens has great scientific value, a subset also has significant commercial value. Join Curator Raquel Alonso-Perez for a virtual behind the-scenes visit to view specimens that, for security reasons, are not typically on display. You’ll see a rare opal in matrix from Mexico, tourmalines from the first pegmatitic discovery in the U.S., and crystalline gold, among...
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.
Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
The Arnold Arboretum provides both extensively documented collections for research and the facilities for the researchers—labs, greenhouses, and growing chambers. From around the world, scientists come to use the trees and shrubs in the Arboretum landscape, studying climate change, plant evolution, natural selection, and species adaptation. Join docent Esther Miller to hear about the science of the Arboretum.
Take a guided tour of the Arnold Arboretum's state-of-the-art Weld Hill Research and Administration Building. Learn about some of the cutting-edge plant research and explore the “green” building design.
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.
Centre Street Gate, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
What better place to look for the differences between angiosperms (plants that flower and have enclosed seeds), and gymnosperms (plants with "naked seeds," including conifers, ginkgos and others), than in the Arnold Arboretum landscape, where over 15,000 plants reside in a living museum. Join the Arboretum's guide, Florrie Wescoat, as she points out trees in both groups and describes the characteristics of each.
Bonsai and Penjing Pavillion, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
Did you know that almost all of the plants in the Arboretum begin their lives in the Dana Greenhouses? Get a behind-the-scenes look of the greenhouse growing process, from seed to sprout to seedling to tree.
Edison and Newman Room, Houghton Library, Harvard Yard, Cambridge
Join curator John Overholt for a guided tour of the exhibition Small Steps, Giant Leaps to learn about the ways early modern science inspired and made possible the historic Apollo 11 moon landing.
What better place to look for the differences between angiosperms (plants that flower and have enclosed seeds), and gymnosperms (plants with "naked seeds," including conifers, ginkgos, and others), than in the Arnold Arboretum landscape, where over 15,000 plants reside in a living museum. Join our guide as she points out trees in both groups and describes the characteristics of each.
Edison and Newman Room, Houghton Library, Harvard Yard, Cambridge
Join curator John Overholt for a guided tour of the exhibition Small Steps, Giant Leaps to learn about the ways early modern science inspired and made possible the historic Apollo 11 moon landing.
Tours are free and open to the public. No reservation is required.
Exhibition Tours are also offered on the following dates:
Houghton Library, Edison and Newman Room, Harvard Yard, Cambridge
Join curator John Overholt for a guided tour of the exhibition to learn about the ways early modern science inspired and made possible the historic Apollo 11 moon landing.
Edison and Newman Room, Houghton Library, Harvard Yard, Cambridge
Join curator John Overholt for a guided tour of the exhibition Small Steps, Giant Leaps to learn about the ways early modern science inspired and made possible the historic Apollo 11 moon landing.
Tours are free and open to the public. No reservation is required.
Edison and Newman Room, Houghton Library, Harvard Yard, Cambridge
Join curator John Overholt for a guided tour of the exhibition Small Steps, Giant Leaps to learn about the ways early modern science inspired and made possible the historic Apollo 11 moon landing.
Following this tour will be a a screening of The Right Stuff (1983) at the Harvard Film Archive at 5:30pm
Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
The Leventritt Shrub and Vine Garden contains a multitude of cultivated plants with culturally significant medicinal properties. However, on a casual stroll along Linden Path to the Leventritt, you will pass dozens of other plants that are often looked upon as simple weeds. Many of these plants have rich ethnobotanical histories of their own that tie us closer to our environment. Your guides will explain how these "weedy" plants came to colonize this area while touching on cultural contexts and botanical identification of these wild species—as well as the cultivated medicinal species in...
Houghton Library, Edison and Newman Room, Harvard Yard, Cambridge
Join curator John Overholt for a guided tour of the exhibition to learn about the ways early modern science inspired and made possible the historic Apollo 11 moon landing.
Take a guided tour of the state-of-the-art Weld Hill Research and Administration Building! You will learn about some of the cutting edge plant research taking place there, and explore the “green” building design.
Bussey Street Gate, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
Docent Robbie Apfel leads this winter walk in an exploration of the Arboretum's conifer collection. Beginning from the Bussey Street Gate, you will be introduced to the Arboretum's grand gymnosperms, learn the botany of conifers, and hear about Hemlock Hill's evolving ecosystem. This tour will also introduce you to native and non-native conifers in the winter landscape.
Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
Many plants that we consider to be weeds have rich ethnobotanical histories of their own that tie us closer to our environment. Your guides will explain how these "weedy" plants came to colonize this area while touching on cultural contexts and botanical identification of these wild species—as well as the cultivated medicinal species in the Leventritt Shrub and Vine Garden. Guides: John de la Parra, Associate, Harvard University Herbaria; Ernest Anemone, Co-Guide;...
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).
