Arboretum Plant Collections

General Info | Native Plants | Wild Flower Garden
Caroline Black Garden | Connecticut College Campus | Greenhouse

The Caroline Black Garden is distinctive among the Arboretum plant collections. It includes native and exotic species as well as some very unusual cultivars. It currently contains 187 different woody taxa,which makes visiting the garden a rewarding

	experience throughout the year. In autumn, the entry beds are striking with their ornamental grasses and late blooming plants. Many mature evergreen specimens make it lovely in winter, and the garden is literally ablaze with flowers in spring. Summer blooming plants include colorful Azaleas and the Sourwood (Oxydendrum arborea) tree
Summer 1997

Click here to view a checklist of the woody
species in The Caroline Black Garden as
well as a map of their locations.

Irises in the Caroline Black Garden, c. 1940

The garden was established in the mid 1920's by Dr. Caroline Black, first chairperson of the Connecticut College Botany Department, as a teaching facility for botany students. Following Dr. Black's untimely death in 1930, the College named the garden in her honor. Many of the mature specimens we appreciate today are a result of donations

Students enjoy a late summer day, 1953

made in Dr. Black's memory. The garden began in the northern portion of its present location, and featured many perennial plants, especially Iris. Due to the increasing size of many of the trees and shrubs most perennials were phased out by the 1960's.

The Caroline Black Garden is designed with four distinct "rooms".This creates the effect of a number of smaller gardens within the whole. At right, is the small stream surrounded by Azaleas in the eastern portion of the garden. The southern border is lined with some unusual conifers including mature specimens of C. lawsoniana 'Triomf Van Boskoop' and C. pisifera 'Squarossa' and others. The central portion of the garden includes a

A room with a view, 1983

large Copper Beech (Fagus sylvatica 'Atropurpurea'), Carolina Silverbell (Halesia tetraptera) and Japanese Flowering Cherry (Prunus serrulata) The northern portion includes a Hiba False Arborvitae (Thujopsis dolobrata), Korean Azalea (Rhododendron mucronulatum), and Threadleaved Sawara Falsecypress (Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Filifera').

On May 4, 2001, The Caroline Black Garden was dedicated as a member garden in the international organization, Gardens for Peace. This not-for-profit organization seeks to promote and achieve peace in the world "through the universal language of gardens.

Please Click on this Map to view some

of the more interesting specimens.

How to Visit the Gardens