The Cornell Botanic Gardens is a botanical garden located adjacent to the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, New York. The Botanic Gardens proper consist of of botanical gardens and of the F. R. Newman Arboretum. The greater Botanic Gardens includes 40 different nature areas around Cornell and Ithaca, covering .
The origin of the Botanic Gardens dates back to Cornell's beginning in the mid-19th century and are part of the university's longtime interest in agriculture, forestry, and the natural sciences. The Botanic Gardens saw a major planting effort during the 1930s and assumed the name Cornell Plantations in 1944. Gardens and facilities have continually expanded, including a construction program at the start of the 21st century. The Botanic Gardens also maintains four gardens on Cornell's central campus. The Botanic Gardens offers three courses for academic credit, are used as a resource by other classes, host a number of informal lectures and tours, and have played a part in many scholarly papers. , the Botanic Gardens had a $5.2 million annual operating budget. The name was changed to the current form in 2016.
The gardens specialize in trees and shrubs native to New York State. The themed herb garden is especially noted. The Botanic Gardens have been the subject of several books and films over the years, are open daily without charge, and have been recommended as a visitation site by a number of travel books and newspaper travel sections.
History
Prior to the founding of Cornell University, Ezra Cornell had a large farm on the East Hill above Ithaca, New York. As part of locating New York State's land-grant college in Ithaca, Cornell offered to donate the farm for use as a campus. In 1862, Cornell's first president, Andrew Dickson White, wrote a colleague that a great university should include a botanical garden: “It must have the best of Libraries – collections in different departments – Laboratory – Observatory – Botanical Garden perhaps…” At the university's opening ceremony in 1868, Louis Agassiz, an internationally known naturalist, remarked that no other area could compete with Cornell's surroundings in the opportunities offered for the study of natural history. From its inception, Cornell formed a reputation for creative means of research into the natural sciences, including the establishment of the pioneering College of Agriculture.
When the university built its first women's dormitory in 1875, it included a conservatory for growing plants and a specimen tree collection. Separately, the College of Veterinary Medicine started a specialized garden of plants that are poisonous to livestock. Cornell's farm included two deep gorges which flanked both sides of the early campus, and as the campus developed the gorges remained undeveloped and filled with native plants and wildlife. These became the start of the on-campus gardens and arboretum. A goal of creating an explicit arboretum was proposed in various university reports to trustees and other publications in 1877, 1883, 1908, and 1914.
Cornell's acquisition of off-campus forest land dates to 1898 and the founding of the New York State College of Forestry, which was the first forestry college in North America. As a part of establishing that school, Cornell acquired a demonstration forest near Saranac Lake in the Adirondack Mountains. The harvesting of trees from that forest drew heated opposition from neighboring land owners. Although political opposition caused Cornell to transfer the forest lands under the "forever wild" protection of the Adirondack Forest Preserve and to transfer Cornell's forestry education programs to its College of Agriculture, Cornell continued to acquire forest land remote from its main campus. In 1935, the decision to create an arboretum was finally made and the university established the Arboretum as a separate department. From 1935 to 1940, the federal government's Civilian Conservation Corps Camp SP 48 devoted 170 to 200 workers to planting trees, constructing dikes, and building trails in order to develop the Arboretum.
In 1944, Liberty Hyde Bailey, the Dean emeritus of the College of Agriculture and a horticulturalist highly regarded around the world, proposed the name Cornell Plantations for an expanded department in a report that reflected the work of a number of botany and horticulture professors. By 1948, the Plantations numbered and the first Director was named, John F. Cornman. During a 1949 broadcast on widely heard radio station WGY, Cornell emeritus professor Bristow Adams reflected upon the now five-year-old Plantations, and stated that the relationship between humans and things that grow were of utmost importance and that gardens, forests, and parks were everlasting collections that "have the care and trusteeships of generation after generation."
In the mid-1960s, the sculpture garden was constructed in the middle of the Arboretum as a project of the College of Architecture Art and Planning. By 1965, the Plantations consisted of . By 1970, the university was issuing a publication called The Cornell Plantations, which contained general articles on nature and environmental topics. Beginning in the early 1970s, the Arboretum was upgraded with new roads and plantings funded by major gifts from oil industry figure Floyd R. Newman, and in 1982 the Arboretum was formally named in his honor (as were several other buildings and facilities at Cornell over the years).
During the 1980s, the Plantations experienced people stealing pines and firs for Christmas trees, with in some cases trees being taken that were worth several thousand dollars. A successful countermeasure created by Gerardo Sciarra at the Plantations was covering the trees with a harmless yet visually unpleasant "Ugly Mix" spray that included hydrated limestone, an anti-desiccant, and water. The technique was subsequently recommended to others worried about tree theft. In 2009, the Plantations suffered from a series of thefts of new or rare plants. A director at the Plantations, which had no security in place, said that the thieves must have been experienced horticulturalists and that the loss of research and species had been a demoralizing experience.
At the start of the 21st century, the Plantations embarked on a construction program which included: Arboretum Center (2000), Horticultural Center (2001), Mullestein Winter Garden (2002), Ramin Administration Building (2003), Rowley Carpenter Shop (2004), Plant Production Facility (2007), and Lewis Education Center (2008). The $7.5 million Brian C. Nevin Welcome Center was dedicated on October 28, 2010. Five years in the designing and building, the new facility was built to LEED gold standards and won a 2010 Award of Excellence from Canadian Architect magazine.
By the 2010s, the name Cornell Plantations was proving problematic, due to the association of the word with plantations in the American South and slavery in the United States. In 2015 the university's Black Students United organization demanded that Cornell "change the name of [it] as soon as possible." The name was technically inaccurate as well, with plantations usually being a large-scale monocultural for commercial purposes, which this was not. A change of the name was under consideration for the better part of ten years, and then during 2014–16 there were focus groups, surveys, and polls taken to determine a favorite among nine possible different names for the Plantations, and Cornell Botanic Gardens was chosen as the new name in 2016.
Current extent
F.R. Newman Arboretum
The F.R. Newman arboretum contains the following collections on :
Chestnut Collection Established in 2000 with 5 transplanted, grafted chestnut trees for each of 5 cultivars. At present 4 trees remain, representing 3 of the 5 cultivars. Eventually 25 cultivars will be represented. American Chestnut: Mundy Wildflower Garden, Schnee Oak Collection, Bald Hill and Caroline Pinnacles, Cayuta Lake, Ringwood Ponds, South Hill Swamp. Source of plant: The American Chestnut Foundation, Allen Nichols, Stanley Scharf
Conifer Collection Several sites with 21 taxa of firs (excluding dwarf forms), 39 of pines, and 25 of spruces. Flowering Crabapple Collection 83 cultivars in a new collection; many trees are quite small. Maple Collection One of the core collections. One site contains red maple (Acer rubrum), Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum), Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum), and Striped Maple (Acer pensylvanicum). Another contains an overstory of Acer × freemanii with an understory of shade-loving maples, including snakebark maples (Acer davidii and Acer tegmentosum) and small trees similar to the Japanese maple, such as Acer shirasawanum and Acer pseudosieboldianum. A third site consists primarily of small Asian Maples. Oak Collection 50 oak taxa in a fairly young collection, with a goal of acquiring all species hardy in Zone 5. Urban Tree Collection Planted throughout the arboretum. Walnut Collection The oldest collection, planted in the early 1960s. 20 cultivars, representing Black Walnut (Juglans nigra), Butternut (Juglans cinerea) and Heartnut (Juglans ailanthifolia).
In addition, the arboretum features an extensive set of trails.
Botanical gardens The botanical gardens specialize in trees and shrubs native to New York State. Overall, they contain a wide variety of ornamental, useful, and native plants on , arranged into gardens as follows:
Container Gardens Ornamental plants suitable for growing in containers, such as Agastache foeniculum, Agave, Alocasia esculenta, Amaranthus, Canna × generalis, Celosia, Coleus, Colocasia, Cordyline, Cuphea, Cycad, Duranta erecta, Eucalyptus cinerea, Fuchsia, Hibiscus acetosella, Iresine, Lantana camara, Melianthus major, Perilla frutescens, Phormium tenax, Salpiglossis sinuata, and Solenostemon scutellarioides.
Deans Garden Herbaceous and woody plants, many uncommon in the Ithaca area, such as Vancouveria hexanra and Stuartia pseudocamellia.
Decorative Arts Flower Garden A wide variety of flowers including sunflower, carnation, rose, poppy, peony, iris, lily, chrysanthemum, daisy, and tulip.
Flowering Shrub and Ornamental Grass Garden Flowering shrubs, ornamental grasses, and perennials including daylillies. Shrubs include Hypericum, Hydrangea, and Potentilla; grasses include Calamagrostis, Chasmanthium latifolium, Festuca, Miscanthus, Molinia, Panicum virgatum, Pennisetum alopecuroides, and Saccharum ravennae.
Groundcover Garden Groundcovers including Asarum, Athyrium, Cyclamen hederifolium, Dryopteris, Helleborus orientalis, Hosta, Lysimachia, Marrubium, and Pachysandra.
Robison Herb Garden Opened in 1974 after 20 years of being envisioned and 2 years of construction, it consists of 17 raised beds of herbs, arranged by theme as follows: Ornamental Herbs; Herbs of the Ancients; Herbs in Literature; Bee Herbs; Salads and Potherbs; Edible flowers; Herbs of the Native Americans; Medicinal Herbs; Culinary Herbs; Economic Herbs; Dye Herbs; Tea Herbs; Fragrant Herbs; Sacred Herbs; Scented Geraniums; Savory Seed Herbs; and Tussie-Mussies and Nosegays. The sources to begin the garden came from around the world, with some species linked to cultures from antiquity. More than 500 plants are included. The design inspired plans for a similar herb garden in New London, Connecticut in 1980.
Heritage Vegetable Garden Four beds, representing typical vegetables grown in the northeastern United States in the 18th century, the late 19th century, World Wars I and II, and today's gardens. Such gardens are not common. The gardener in charge of it has been mentioned in newspaper columns as an expert in growing tomatoes.
International Crop and Weed Garden