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The John F. Kennedy Arboretum, on the Hook Head peninsula near New Ross, County Wexford, Ireland, is a park under public administration (owned by the Office of Public Works, managed by the National Botanic Gardens of Ireland), and a research collection of more than 5,000 varieties of tree and shrub. It is the largest such collection, by far, in Ireland.
President Kennedy's visit to Ireland in June 1963 was a pivotal moment in modern history and one that ignited the spirit of the nation. A key point of the President's trip was when he visited the family homestead (now JFK Homestead) to have tea with his Irish cousins. Following his untimely death, a number of Irish-American societies wished to establish a memorial forest as a living tribute to him in Ireland. The Irish government suggested this take the form of a national arboretum, and sufficient funds were raised to purchase the lands, close to the Kennedy homestead, outright.
The Irish government undertook to develop and maintain the arboretum. A planning committee was established between the Forestry Division and the National Botanic Gardens to plan the content and layout of the arboretum and the Office of Public Works, which had the responsibility for providing the buildings, roads and services. The committee visited arboreta and botanic gardens in North America and Europe, to study state of the art methods of both arranging and managing such a collection. Twenty-two countries, with which Ireland had diplomatic relations, each sent gifts of trees and shrubs representative of their country to the arboretum. The main source of plants used in the arboretum has been from reputable nurseries that could authenticate the source of their material. Plants, cuttings and seed are also received as gifts or by exchange from other arboreta or botanic gardens.
The JFK Arboretum was opened formally by President de Valera on 29 May 1968.
In 2013 the John F. Kennedy Arboretum came under the management of the National Botanic Gardens of Ireland.
Dedicated to the memory of John Fitzgerald Kennedy (35th President of the United States from 1960 to 1963) the Arboretum is a tree collection of international standing. Located in the southeast corner of Ireland, 12 km (7.5 mi) south of New Ross, it covers 252 ha and rises from 36 m (118 ft) at its southern boundary to 271 m (889 ft) at the summit of Sliabh Coiltir, a prominent hill overlooking the Kennedy ancestral home at Dunganstown. Today the arboretum contains over 5,000 types of trees and shrubs from all temperate regions of the world, planted in botanical sequence. It is the largest collection of catalogued trees in the country. The aim was to maintain a comprehensive, scientifically based and fully documented arboretum, with ancillary collections and information services and ultimately, to become Ireland's National Arboretum.
Conservation and research elements of the arboretum are represented by a set of provenance plots where six species of conifers and various Elm adaptability trials are taking place; forestry plots, where 220 taxa of forest trees are grown in plots and for which growth data is carefully compiled. Collections of special note include an ericaceous garden with over 500 different rhododendrons and azaleas, a plant collection devoted to famed Irish plant hunter Augustine Henry, a slow-growing conifer grove, a phenological garden as well as substantial collections of Acer, Quercus, Prunus, Viburnum, Berberis, and Betula.
Today the arboretum has taken on an even more significant role in providing a sanctuary to threatened tree species. In 2022 over 10 acres of new planting will establish some of the world's most endangered conifers at the arboretum. Consisting of 1300 trees, representing 24 endangered conifer species the planting will be the single largest planted collection of the International Conifer Conservation Programme [1] (ICCP).
Bedgebury National Pinetum at Bedgebury, Kent, in the United Kingdom, is a recreational and conservational arboretum managed by Forestry England that was established as the National Conifer Collection in 1925 and is now recognised as the most complete collection of conifers on one site anywhere in the world. The collection has over 10,000 trees growing across 320 acres (1.3 km2), including rare, endangered and historically important specimens. Bedgebury National Pinetum conducts conservation work, is home to some 56 vulnerable or critically endangered species, and houses five National Plant Collections.
An arboretum is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arboreta are in botanical gardens as living collections of woody plants and is intended at least in part for scientific study.
The United States National Arboretum is an arboretum in northeast Washington, D.C., operated by the United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service. It was established in 1927 by an act of Congress after a campaign by USDA Chief Botanist Frederick Vernon Coville.
The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University is a botanical research institution and free public park, located in the Jamaica Plain and Roslindale neighborhoods of Boston, Massachusetts. Established in 1872, it is the oldest public arboretum in North America. The landscape was designed by Charles Sprague Sargent and Frederick Law Olmsted and is the second largest "link" in the Emerald Necklace. The Arnold Arboretum's collection of temperate trees, shrubs, and vines has an emphasis on the plants of the eastern United States and eastern Asia, where arboretum staff and colleagues are sourcing new material on plant collecting expeditions. The arboretum supports research in its landscape and in its Weld Hill Research Building.
The Viles Arboretum 224 acres is a botanical garden and arboretum located in Augusta, Maine, United States, with 5 miles (8 km) of trails, open year round without charge. The plant collection contains over 300 species or varieties of trees and shrubs. The forested portion of the Arboretum is a certified Tree Farm Demonstration Area containing many of Maine's native trees.
Hidden Lake Gardens colloquially known as Hidden Lake 755 acres (3.06 km2), is a botanical garden and an arboretum operated by Michigan State University situated in the Irish Hills of southeast Michigan. The Gardens are known for their large collection of native and nonnative trees, shrubs and flowers. HLG was given to Michigan State University by Harry Fee in 1945. Today it is visited by nearly 45,000 people annually. One facet of the Hidden Lake Gardens mission is "To preserve an undeveloped area of the scenic Irish Hills, providing a place of beauty and inspiration for public enjoyment."
The Holden Arboretum, in Kirtland, Ohio, is one of the largest arboreta and botanical gardens in the United States, with more than 3,600 acres (1,500 ha), including 600 acres (240 ha) devoted to collections and gardens. Diverse natural areas and ecologically sensitive habitats make up the rest of the holdings. Holden's collections includes 9,400 different kinds of woody plants, representing 79 plant families.
The Arboretum & Botanic Garden at the University of California, Santa Cruz, is located on the campus of the University of California, Santa Cruz, in the United States.
Ulmus laevisPall., variously known as the European white elm, fluttering elm, spreading elm, stately elm and, in the United States, the Russian elm, is a large deciduous tree native to Europe, from France northeast to southern Finland, east beyond the Urals into Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, and southeast to Bulgaria and the Crimea; there are also disjunct populations in the Caucasus and Spain, the latter now considered a relict population rather than an introduction by man, and possibly the origin of the European population. U. laevis is rare in the UK, although its random distribution, together with the absence of any record of its introduction, has led at least one British authority to consider it native. NB: The epithet 'white' elm commonly used by British foresters alluded to the timber of the wych elm.
The University of Idaho Arboretum and Botanical Garden is a major arboretum and botanical garden in the northwestern United States, on the campus of the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. Located within a valley south of the President's Residence on Nez Perce Drive and adjacent to the UI Golf Course, its 63 acres (0.25 km2) are open to the public daily without charge.
Hoyt Arboretum is a public park in Portland, Oregon, which is part of the complex of parks collectively known as Washington Park. The 189-acre (76 ha) arboretum is located atop a ridge in the Tualatin Mountains two miles (3.2 km) west of downtown Portland. Hoyt has 12 miles of hiking trails, two miles of accessible paved trails, and is open free to the public all year. About 350,000 visitors per year visit the arboretum.
The Stanley M. Rowe Arboretum is a public arboretum covering 3.6 hectares in Indian Hill, Ohio. It is owned by the Indian Hill city government and operated by a non-profit organization.
The Cornell Botanic Gardens is a botanical garden located adjacent to the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, New York. The Botanic Gardens proper consist of 25 acres (10 ha) of botanical gardens and 150 acres (61 ha) of the F. R. Newman Arboretum. The greater Botanic Gardens includes 40 different nature areas around Cornell and Ithaca, covering 4,300 acres (1,700 ha).
The Sir Harold Hillier Gardens is an arboretum comprising 72 hectares accommodating over 42,000 trees and shrubs in about 12,000 taxa, notably a collection of oaks, camellia, magnolia and rhododendron.
Eastwoodhill is the national arboretum of New Zealand. It covers 131 hectares (1.31 km2) and is located 35 km northwest of Gisborne, in the hill country of Ngatapa. It was founded in 1910 by William Douglas Cook. Cook's life work would become the creation of a giant collection of Northern Hemisphere temperate climate zone trees in New Zealand – a dream that would eventually cost him all his money – buying and importing thousands of trees from New Zealand and British nurseries.
Robert James Berry was a New Zealand dendrologist who founded Hackfalls Arboretum at his farm in Tiniroto, Gisborne. The arboretum is now known for having one of the largest collections of Mexican oaks in the world. During the 1950s and 1960s he was in regular contact with William Douglas Cook, the founder of Eastwoodhill Arboretum, Ngatapa, Gisborne. Berry made the first catalogues of this arboretum, which is now the National Arboretum of New Zealand.
The Arboretum national des Barres is a national arboretum located in Nogent-sur-Vernisson, Loiret, Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is open daily in the warmer months; an admission fee is charged. Closure is planned for the end of year 2018 because subsidy from local and national government is too short.
Ulmus parvifolia, commonly known as the Chinese elm or lacebark elm, is a species native to eastern Asia, including China, India, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. It has been described as "one of the most splendid elms, having the poise of a graceful Nothofagus".
Arboretum Wespelaar is an arboretum in Wespelaar, Belgium.
The National Botanic Garden of Latvia is a botanical garden in Salaspils, Latvia. It is one of the largest botanical gardens in the Baltic states.
