Arboretum at The Barnes Foundation: An Exquisite Piece of Nature and a Professional Training Centre for Horticulturists

Volume 2 Number 2 - July 2005

Dr Jacob Thomas

The eastern coast of United States, particularly Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley area, often described as the ‘gateway to America’s gardens,’ possesses the largest concentration of botanical gardens and arboreta in the nation. Among them, the Arboretum at The Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania, presents a unique assemblage of mature specimens of rare and unusual trees and other woody plants of aesthetic interest that is visited by about 40,000 people annually. The plants are cultivated in a fine landscape and garden setting that reflects concepts from the unique arrangement of art works in the Gallery* rooms. The Arboretum and the attached School have served as a training ground for the horticultural movement among eastern Pennsylvania communities for more than sixty years.

The Arboretum was established on a 13-acre plot of land previously owned by Captain Joseph Lapsley Wilson, a Philadelphia attorney, who planted a number of different trees as early as the 1880s. When Dr. Albert Barnes purchased the property in 1922, he agreed to preserve Wilson's trees, which became the nucleus of the Arboretum of The Barnes Foundation. Dr. Barnes made Wilson the first director of the Arboretum and later entrusted its development to his wife, Laura Leggett Barnes. Several of Wilson’s original trees still stand around the Gallery, including an unusual fern-leaf beech (Fagus sylvatica ‘Laciniata’), a Japanese raisin tree (Hovenia dulcis), and a very large honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos).

With the support of E.H. Wilson from Arnold Arboretum and Dr. John Fogg Jr. from the University of Pennsylvania, Laura Barnes enhanced the living collections. Mr. Frank A. Schrepfer, a landscape architect, also from the University of Pennsylvania, prepared the plan for the grounds including a series of formal terraces crowned with a rose garden. Special emphases were given to broad-leaved evergreens for this area and for groups like lilacs and peonies. Representative species in each genus of the conifers were introduced including the monkey-puzzle tree, Californian redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) and Dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides).

Here, most cultivated plants serve a dual purpose: to exist as a part of the general display/teaching collection and of the aesthetic scheme developed by experiment and careful observation. In 1933, Laura Barnes testified her purpose in developing an area behind the gallery building as, ”…to obtain a compositional effect that would be beautiful in it and also a unit that would harmonize with other units and form a composition of all parts of the Arboretum. In doing this, I followed the same instinct as the painter does in organizing his canvas. … It takes time to find rare trees and to find out by experiment the particular arrangement of masses, colors, graceful lines and spatial intervals that gives the most beautiful effect.” She experimented boldly and successfully with plants usually grown south of Washington, DC, and in other countries that were not supposed to be hardy in the frigid Pennsylvania winter, including southern magnolias, camellias and mimosas and most continue to survive and flourish today. Specimens of different teaching collections, like Japanese maples, Hollies, Stewartias, Magnolias, Phellodendrons, Crabapples etc., are placed in close proximity for the convenience of comparison. Plant names like Ilex aquifolium cv.‘Laura L. Barnes,’ Syringa vulgaris cv. ‘Laura L. Barnes,’ S. vulgaris cv. ‘The Barnes Foundation,’ Picea orientalis cv.’Barnes.’ reflects her in-depth involvement in breeding and naming new cultivars/varieties of decorative plants.

French architect Paul Cret, who designed the gallery building, also created a stone teahouse in a small remnant of indigenous woodland covered by an enchanting forest of trees, native plants and water. This woodland serves as the setting for the collections of wild flowers and many species and varieties of hardy native ornamental ferns including a number of English varieties, arranged in masses and drifts. As early as the 1930s this collection was described by fern authorities as unmatched in range and in display value in the United States. Over the years, Mrs. Barnes continued to demonstrate a concern for the environment and extended her hospitality to everyone with an interest in gardening, opening the gates of the Arboretum to the community.

No account of this Arboretum would be complete without reference to the Arboretum School that Laura Barnes organized in 1940. It was the first of its kind in the region, conceived to address the lack of opportunity in this part of the country for serious students to study horticulture under professional guidance. Her mission to guide students to better appreciate the aesthetic appeal of plants and gardens, while providing a sound scientific and practical base in botany, horticulture and landscape design, was soon realized. She developed an interesting program for training a well-informed horticultural practitioner, which is unique even today in this region. Students gain required practical knowledge and experience by working in the Arboretum and greenhouse. Started with a faculty of three and five courses, this program now in its seventh decade, has a college-level faculty of thirteen or more and offers 17 courses over a three-year period. Recently, the American Council on Education recommended the courses for college credit transfer. This school has changed many lives during its existence; many have gone on to careers/businesses in horticulture or became volunteer gardeners in their communities; many of the area public gardens have Barnes graduates as volunteers, as board members or as paid staff.

Dr. John M. Fogg Jr., director of the Arboretum after Laura Barnes, created and developed a herbarium of about 10,000 specimens. It houses voucher specimens of almost every species, variety, form and cultivars, growing in the Arboretum as well as specimens from Dr. Fogg’s exploration trips to different parts of the world. The herbarium serves as an important teaching aid and a resource for the study of critical groups of woody plants. A checklist of the woody collections was periodically published and disseminated among other gardens and students. Laura Barnes documented relevant information about each specimen on index cards as they were procured, which is still regarded as the authentic accession record. Detailed location maps were also prepared for the woody collections, and separate maps for the lilacs and peonies. This information and the voucher specimens in the herbarium serve as the reference resource for curatorial and research projects.

Recently, several creative steps were initiated including hiring professional staff and development of a collections policy, to renovate and upgrade the Arboretum and its features. The old greenhouse was rebuilt during 2000-02 with climate controls and is being used for classes, and for propagation and display of plants, including tropicals. Individual plant tags, descriptive labels and directional signs were installed. Replanting of lost or dead plants has been initiated along with selected new introductions. The fern collection is being renovated for its historic and conservation values.

A Children’s Garden is being developed with vegetables, annuals and a butterfly garden. School students who visit The Foundation under the K-12 curriculum and learning program are making use of the Arboretum and related facilities for their exercises. Special horticultural programs are being developed with selected schools and introduced to the students in the community. A small but active group of volunteers, mostly graduates from the Arboretum School, render many hours of service to maintain and develop the gardens, for plant sales and as tour guides.

In the coming years, we intend to present the Arboretum as a good public garden with better amenities and access to various collections, especially for the disabled. Living collections of germplasm value, like lilacs and peonies constituting hundreds of predominant varieties and cultivars of those periods, are being evaluated for research and conservation. Also under consideration is a plan to participate in the conservation of native and local flora using the ‘Ker-Feal’ grounds, 137 acres of natural woodlands in Chester County, Pennsylvania. The greenhouse will also be used for continuing experiments with unusual plants, a practice initiated by Laura Barnes. Plant records, presently on index cards and registers, need to be updated and computerized. Fifty year’s comprehensive data on the flowering records of the plants of the Arboretum-an invaluable reference document- is awaiting publication. It is hoped that the Arboretum at The Barnes Foundation will continue to serve its aesthetic and educational mission as envisaged by its founders.

Dr. Jacob Thomas
Arboretum Director
The Barnes Foundation
300 North Latch’s Lane
Merion, PA 19066, U. S. A.
Tel: 610 664 2937 Fax: 610 664 4026
E-mail: jthomasput@juno.com
Internet: http://www.barnesfoundation.org

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Arboretum at The Barnes Foundation: An Exquisite Piece of Nature and a Professional Training Centre for Horticulturists

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