Description
The Destination
Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Hosted by Paul Meyer, The F. Otto Haas Executive Director
The Experience
Your visit for up to four includes:
- A personalized golf cart tour of the Morris Arboretum and Bloomfield Farm
- Refreshments in the garden with Executive Director Paul Meyer, 2014 winner of the American Horticultural Society’s prestigious Liberty Hyde Bailey Award
- Admission to the Arboretum for up to four
The Morris Arboretum’s 92-acre public garden is an ever-changing horticultural display featuring a spectacular collection of rare and mature trees in a Victorian landscape. The Arboretum boasts many exceptional features such as a formal rose garden, a swan pond, open vistas, wetlands, sculptures, garden architecture, and an elegant Fernery -- the only restored free-standing fernery in North America. The iconic Out on a Limb canopy walk takes visitors 50 feet up into the treetops for a bird’s eye view of the canopy. Bloomfield Farm is an adjacent, non-public, 74-acre research and support site. Its Horticulture Center is certified as Platinum LEED®, illustrating the Arboretum’s commitment to the highest level of sustainability.
During your tour, Paul will discuss the origins, development, recent restoration and adaptive reuse of the historic gardens. The Morris Arboretum was founded in 1887 as a private estate, and established in 1932 as an arboretum and public garden. Paul will also focus on his favorite plants in the Arboretum’s living collection, which contains over 12,000 trees and shrubs. He will share insights about the attributes of those species, and how these individual plants became part of the Arboretum’s collection
Paul Meyer has been the F. Otto Haas Executive Director of the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania since 1991, and has played a major role in the restoration of its late-Victorian gardens. He is a leader in the field of plant exploration and evaluation, having completed twelve expeditions to countries including China, Korea, Taiwan, Armenia and the Republic of Georgia.
- Best times to visit: the Arboretum is a year-round destination and the gardens offer four seasons of interest
Item Special Note
Conditions/limitations for this item: Tour to be arranged at a mutually agreeable time subject to host’s availability by October 31, 2016; this personalized tour is available only on weekday mornings, afternoons, or early evenings.
To check on dates and to make arrangements for this offering, the winner should contact Patrice Sutton at the Morris Arboretum, psutton4@upenn.edu or 215-247-5777 x119.