Plants

• Plant Inventory
• Hotline
• Order of Bloom
• Featured Plants
  • Current Plant Highlights
  • Bonsai
  • Centenarians
  • Conifers
  • Lilacs
  • Rosaceous Plants
  • Shrub and Vine Garden
  • Tree Basics
• Collections Management
  • Availability of Research and Propagation Materials
  • Plant Labels, Mapping, & Records
  • Landscape and Collections Care
  • Planting Sequence
  • Propagation & Distribution
  • Herbaria
  • Collections Policy
  • Sino-American Botanical Expedition
• Conservation
  • Plant Conservation
  • Threatened Plant Highlights at the Arnold Arboretum
  • Institutional Collaborations for Plant Conservation
  • NAPCC

Propagation

The first propagator of the Arboretum, Jackson Dawson, had the significant challenge of growing seed brought back from distant lands by collectors E.H. Wilson, Joseph Rock, C.S. Sargent, J. G. Jack. His inspired techniques, applied to previously unidentified taxa, led to the successful germination and eventual introduction of many noteworthy plants.

This tradition continues today and during the past two decades, the Arboretum has been growing seed from expeditions to the Caucus region of the former Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Europe, and North Africa.

The Arboretum receives, on an average, 200 accessions of seed a year which represent our primary means of collections development. In addition, plant material from around the world arrives in the form of plants or propagules—softwood and hardwood cuttings, grafts, and seed being the most common. The plants are held in the nursery until they reach an appropriate size for planting in the main collections, a process that on average takes five to seven years.

The greenhouse staff also repropagates plants whose health is threatened by age, storm injury, or damage by insects or disease, thereby ensuring genetic continuity within our collections. Thus, research in applied horticulture and propagation is ongoing.

Plants grown in the greenhouses are also used in horticultural trials and other research at botanical gardens and institutions of higher learning. Greenhouse staff also grows the plants that are distributed to members each year.

In addition to growing plants, the greenhouse staff participates in the educational work of the Arboretum by teaching, by advising members of the education department, and by lecturing to and in other ways interacting with other professional groups.

Click for the availability of research and propagation materials.