The Contemporary Gardens

See a cow-tail pine up close and personal. What's a cow-tail pine you ask?

Reeves-Reed Arboretum's many garden rooms, beds, and environments offer a diversity of old and new, from the bold plant combinations along the Welcome Walk to the more traditional Perennial Border, with its echoes of richly planted English beds.

The Perennial Border
The Perennial Border began its life as a barberry hedge, supposedly planted to discourage Wisner and Reeves children from sledding down the hill into the glacial bowl. Susan Graham Reeves removed the barberries and used it as a trial bed for daffodils, which were subsequently moved down into the bowl. Later, it became a two-level perennial border, a configuration in which it persists to this day. A serpentine concrete pathway makes the Perennial Border one of the easiest gardens for visitors with mobility issues to enjoy.

The Island Garden
No, it's not a tropical paradise – it's an island in the Reeves-Reed parking lot that has been landscaped to allow visitors access to a collection of charming and unusual plants. A number of interesting specimens also line the perimeter of the parking lot, including paperbark maple (Acer griseum), witch hazel relative Parrottia persica, and a large Cephalotaxus harringtonii, one of the common names for which is "cow-tail pine," for reasons that become obvious when you see it.