Arnold Arboretum

The Arnold Arboretum is 281 acres of Frederick Law Olmsted's Emerald Necklace — a living museum of 15,000 trees, shrubs, and vines from around the world, owned by Harvard University and free to the public every day of the year under the terms of a unique 1,000-year lease signed in 1872. That lease — in which the city provides the land and Harvard provides the science — is one of the most remarkable public-private partnerships in American history, and it has kept the Arboretum free, open, and beautifully maintained for over 150 years.

The collection is arranged by taxonomic family, which means walking through the Arboretum is like walking through a living encyclopedia of plants. The lilac collection — 400 plants representing nearly every cultivated variety — blooms in May during Lilac Sunday, the Arboretum's biggest annual event. The bonsai collection, the conifer collection, and the Asian tree collection are all nationally significant. Peters Hill, the Arboretum's highest point, offers a 360-degree view of the Boston skyline that rivals any paid observatory.

Olmsted designed the Arboretum as part of his Emerald Necklace — a seven-mile chain of parks connecting Boston Common to Franklin Park — and the site is simultaneously a research facility for Harvard botanists, a public park for the surrounding Jamaica Plain and Roslindale neighbourhoods, and a designed landscape that demonstrates Olmsted's genius for making science look like nature. Come in May for the lilacs, in October for the foliage, or on any quiet weekday to experience a 281-acre garden that feels more like countryside than city.