Highland Park, Rochester, New York

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Stairway in the north-eastern side of Highland Park

The Highland Botanical Park is an arboretum, or tree garden. The Administrative Park Office is located at 171 Reservoir Avenue Rochester, New York, USA.

1 History
2 Features
3 Events
4 See also
5 References

[edit] History

In 1888, nurserymen George Ellwanger and Patrick Barry endowed the Rochester community with 20 acres (81,000 m²) of land which would become Highland Park, one of the nation's first municipal arboretums. Highland Park is one of many parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. This meticulously planned park was designed with the purpose of retaining a very natural appearance. Horticulturist John Dunbar started the park's famous lilac collection in 1892; some of the 20 varieties he installed were descendants of native Balkan Mountain flowers brought to North America by early colonists.

[edit] Features

The park occupies most of a glacial moraine, although it does share the hill with a water reservoir and Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School.

Today, Highland Park covers over 155 acres (0.63 km²) and features over 1,200 lilac shrubs (over 500 varieties), Japanese Maples, 35 varieties of sweet-smelling magnolias, a barberry collection, a rock garden with dwarf evergreens, 700 varieties of rhododendron, azaleas, mountain laurel, andromeda, spring bulbs and wildflowers and a large number of unusual tree species. The park's pansy bed features 10,000 plants, designed into an oval floral "carpet" with a new pattern each year. Highland Park also has a natural amphitheater, sunken garden, a Gothic-style edifice (known as the "Warner Castle"), and a conservatory greenhouse. A statue of Frederick Douglass overlooks the amphitheater.

[edit] Events

The Highland Park hosts Rochester's annual Lilac Festival in May, which is the largest festival of its kind in North America and draws spectators from all over the globe. The Rochester Civic Garden Center, housed in Warner Castle, offers public access to a horticultural and botanical library of over 4,000 volumes and sponsors an on-going series of educational courses.