Educational Tours for Gardeners
Each spring, the Arboretum offers a series of free, informational tours for gardeners featuring Longenecker Gardens and the Wisconsin Native Plant Garden. Summer tours take place Wednesday at 7pm and fall tours are held on Saturday afternoons. Tours are open to the public and begin at the Arboretum Visitor Center. They are intended for adults.
With more than 2,000 types of plants on display, Longenecker Gardens features an internationally recognized collection of trees, shrubs, and vines and is a major resource for the study of landscape plants by educators, the public and the nursery trade. The gardens hold major displays of lilacs, flowering crabapples, viburnums, conifers and many other plant groups.
The 4-acre Wisconsin Native Plant Garden surrounds the Visitor Center with several hundred species native to Wisconsin. The gardens serve as an introduction to ecological restoration and the restored and managed plant communities in the Arboretum; they also demonstrate how to incorporate native plants into home landscapes.
Longenecker Gardens tours will be led by Ed Hasselkus, curator, and other local experts. Wisconsin Native Plant Gardener Susan Carpenter will lead the Wisconsin Native Plant Garden tours.
Tours take place rain or shine, except in the case of severe weather. While every effort will be made to keep to the following schedule, information about schedule changes will be available during office hours at the Arboretum’s reception desk at (608) 263-7888.
2013 GARDEN TOURS AND TOPICS
April 24 — Native Plant Garden Tour: Early Signs of Spring
As trees and shrubs begin to leaf out, Dutchman's breeches, anemones and rue-anemones might be blooming in the woodland gardens. In our prairie gardens, we may find Pasque flower, prairie smoke and bird's-foot violet.
May 1 — Longenecker Horticultural Gardens Tour: Early spring flowering woody ornamentals
This tour, led by Dr. Laura Jull, UW- Madison professor of horticulture, will include the yellow and Little Girl Series magnolias, early lilacs and rhododendrons, and other spring flowering plants.
May 8 — Longenecker Horticultural Gardens Tour: Flowering Crabapples and Lilacs
Emeritus Professor of Horticulture Ed Hasselkus, curator of the Longenecker Gardens, will concentrate on flowering crabapples, and present highlights in the Gardens' large lilac collection.
May 15 — Longenecker Horticultural Gardens Tour: Azaleas and Rhododendrons
On this tour, Dr. Hasselkus will discuss growing and caring for azaleas and rhododendrons in the Madison area.
May 22 — Longenecker Horticultural Gardens Tour: Small Ornamental Trees
Ed Lyon, Director of Allen Centennial Gardens, will highlight some of the Arboretum’s interesting, and unusual, ornamental small trees.
May 29 — Longenecker Horticultural Gardens Tour: Conifers
If you are confused about telling a spruce from a fir, join Dr. Hasselkus on a walk through the Garden's spectacular conifer collection. On this tour you will learn about "garden-sized" conifers of many types.
June 5 — Longenecker Horticultural Gardens Tour: Shade Trees
Laura Wyatt, WDNR Urban Forestry, will lead the group through the Gardens' extensive collection of larger trees while discussing strategies for growing healthy trees in urban/suburban conditions.
June 12 — Native Plant Garden Tour: Woodland, Savanna and Prairie Gardens
Celebrate the beginning of summer by visiting our woodland, savanna and prairie gardens. This tour provides an overview of the Wisconsin Native Plant Garden.
June 19 — Native Plant Garden Tour: What's Blooming?
Find, compare and learn about flowers on native trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants, and see what's blooming in our collection of plants native to southern Wisconsin.
July 17 — Native Plant Garden Tour: Native Gardens for Pollinators
This tour will feature many summer-blooming species in our diverse native plant garden. We will highlight plants and gardening practices that support essential pollinators in urban/suburban landscapes.
August 14 — Native Plant Garden Tour: Native Grasses
In this summer tour, we will take a closer look at color, size and features of native grasses, from tiny mustache grass to big bluestem.
FALL GARDEN TOURS ARE HELD ON SATURDAY AFTERNOONS, 1-3 pm.
September 21 — Native Plant Garden Tour: Fall in the Native Plant Garden
Color, fruits, seeds, late blooming plants, late-season insects—we will find these and more in the varied native plant gardens around the Visitor Center.
October 12 — Longenecker Horticultural Gardens Tour: Featuring Fall
Don't miss the lovely range of fall color in our woody plant collection. Leaves, fruits and form will be highlighted in this tour, led by Laura Wyatt, WDNR Urban Forestry.