I visited The Arboretum, State Botanical Garden of Kentucky, on a warm, sunny spring day. Even on a weekday afternoon, the Lexington garden hosted women pushing jogging strollers, college students out for power walks, and kids playing on the natural playscape. A couple rested on a blanket; another couple talked quietly on a shady bench.
I headed for the arboretum, a 15-acre remnant of the Inner Bluegrass Woodland, after the visitor center host shared it had a nest of baby owls. I didn’t see the owls, but while passing through the 5-acre pollinator habitat, I heard the melodious song of a field sparrow. Looking up, I spied it just feet over my head in a small tree and watched it sing. I also found a brilliant red blooming trumpet honeysuckle and yellow wood poppies along my walk.
This oasis isn’t the only place to enjoy a cultivated green experience. The Kentucky Garden Trail, a collection of gardens and arboretums across the state, is in its second year and already has created a buzz beyond the bees that visit the blooms. According to organizer Kim Hydes, it is the only garden trail in the country with a passport visitation and reward program.
“It’s bigger than I thought it would be and more popular for different reasons,” Hydes said. “We’ve placed three orders for T-shirts and four orders for the passport stickers.”
Hydes is the tourism director for Oldham County, home of two gardens on the trail. Conversations with managers at Yew Dell Botanical Garden and Creasey Mahan Nature Preserve revealed the need for assistance in promoting these green spaces across the Commonwealth. Most have minimal marketing and no website. To be included in the trail, the gardens must be the main attraction.
The 12 gardens on the trail include those at four universities and gardens old and new. Yew Dell has the largest variety of hellebores, or Lenten roses, in the country. The University of Louisville arboretum contains the only Johnny Appleseed tree left in existence. Most of the plants and shrubs at Liberty Hall in Frankfort are referenced in family papers from the early American period.
“It’s really brought to light public gardens that growers are passionate about, but even community members didn’t know were there,” said Hydes, a gardener herself. “We want to get people out who aren’t gardeners, and there are so many cool things about each stop that have nothing to do with gardening.”
Visitors can take their dogs for a walk, sit under a shady tree and read a book, or feed ducks. Some locations have historic homes, nature centers, outdoor sculptures, natural play areas and onsite cafés. The trail website has a two-day itinerary for each garden with places to stay and eat, plus nearby attractions such as distilleries—especially helpful when planning a trip with a non-gardening friend.
Summer is an excellent time to garden hop. Researchers at the various gardens share information about their studies. Other programs delve into the natural world, with full moon hikes, bird walks, and firefly events. Cooking classes, summer camps, music concert series, crafting workshops, and cocktail hours all take advantage of the serene settings.
The durable passport journal leaves room to jot down reflections on each visit. Visitors who collect six site stickers receive a packet of garden seeds, and those who visit all 12 are eligible for a trail T-shirt. Hydes said garden clubs, church van trips, and girlfriend outings are some of the groups that have completed the trail.
Yew Dell Botanical Gardens
Yew Dell is the legacy of Theodore and Martha Lee Klein, who built a family homestead at the property beginning in 1941. The Kleins’ ornamental plant nursery specialized in yews and hollies, and the growers introduced more than 60 varieties to cultivation. Yew Dell continues to trial new plants in search of the best regional garden varieties that are available to purchase in person or online.
The Kleins built most of the structures onsite, including the iconic castle that served as the family pool house. Specialized gardens include a sunken rock garden, a rain garden, a cottage garden and a cut flower garden. The enchanted Fairy Forest Village is hidden in a group of conifers in the 8-acre arboretum. The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was named by Horticulture Magazine as one of the Top 10 Destination Gardens in the United States in 2010.
Summer brings a profusion of hydrangeas in bloom. A special Fairy Day on June 7 will celebrate the opening of the Fairy Forest for the season. Educational programs include watercolor with botanical dyes, weekend plant walks, and a Children in the Dell program on Saturdays. The Bourbon and Botanicals music series runs July and August.
The Arboretum, State Botanical Garden of Kentucky
This 100-acre public garden has taken root on the University of Kentucky campus since 1991. The forested arboretum has 90 plant species—some rare—and is the setting for university research.
A 2-mile paved walking path curls through 80 acres of wild-collected native plants representing the state’s seven physiographic regions. Their landscape and geologic features determine and influence the variety of plants in each. The Walk Across Kentucky “visits” the Mississippi Embayment, Shawnee Hills, Pennyrile, Knobs, Bluegrass, Appalachian Plateau and Cumberland Mountains.
A natural play area at the Kentucky Children’s Garden welcomes kids ages 2-6. The themed gardens—such as butterflies and transportation—are surrounded by interactive spaces: a wading stream, a pioneer cabin, a sand pit, a music wall and a small cave. Children are invited to pick a flower at the cutting garden or watch the scheduled runs of the garden-scale model trains. Staff offer educational programming every day from 10 a.m.–2 p.m.
In the summer, the 5-acre pollinator habitat blooms with beebalm, milkweed, black-eyed Susans and Joe-Pye weed. Staff lead a monthly bird walk, and on June 13, grandparents can visit the children’s garden for free. An educational workshop on June 6 teaches the basics of assessing stream health.
Mahr Park Arboretum
The historic home of Dr. Merle and Glema Mahr serves as the welcome center at Mahr Park. The couple bequeathed the 265-acre site in 2009 to the city of Madisonville, which developed it into a park that opened in 2016. The community-focused space has recreational and educational opportunities for all ages.
Mahr Park has a Level II Accreditation from the ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program for its arborteum, which boasts more than 100 identified and tagged trees. The 7-acre pollinator garden—designed to attract bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects—has 115 species of native plants. Local gardeners can reserve a plot in the community garden.
Visitors can seek out birds, catch fish in the pond, and try disc golf at both recreational and championships courses. Or they can rent a kayak or bike and explore the sculptures, nature play area and Lake Pee Wee.
In the summer, the pollinator meadow sports orange butterfly weed, red cardinal flower, pink coneflower, yellow coreopsis and lavender wild bergamot. In June, staff offer a summer solstice guided night hike. Look for Madisonville’s illuminated hot air balloon show in August, with food trucks and live music.
More Gardens to Discover
- Louisville: Waterfront Botanical Gardens waterfrontgardens.org This recently transformed landfill in the heart of Louisville has a courtyard display of bonsai trees. The Bear Creek Pathway follows a stream leading to a waterfall.
- Clermont: Bernheim Forest & Arboretum bernheim.org The sprawling 16,000-acre forest has 40 miles of hiking trails. There’s a long history of art in the landscape, including the popular Forest Giants installations.
- Frankfort: Liberty Hall libertyhall.org History reigns at this historic house, where 5 acres of public gardens have flourished for more than two centuries. Original brick pathways wind through the formal gardens.
- Murray: Doran Arboretum at Murray State University murraystate.edu At the Sensory Garden—with its vibrant colors, pungent scents, and lush textures—visitors can explore with their eyes, nose and fingers
- Bowling Green: Baker Arboretum jerryebakerfoundation.org The prestigious American Conifer Society Reference Garden is home to more than 80 species of conifers, including 21 that are threatened. Another section has a collection of more than 100 Asian maple trees.
- Owensboro: Western Kentucky Botanical Garden wkbg.org Something is always in bloom. June brings 800 varieties of daylilies, the region’s largest public display of this flower.
- Louisville: University of Louisville louisville.widen.net Through a self-guided tree tour, visitors can view a sampling of the 1,100 trees on the Belknap Campus, designated a Tree Campus Higher Education by the Arbor Day Foundation.
- Louisville: Cave Hill Cemetery cavehillcemetery.com The landscape has about 600 tree and shrub species among historic graves such as those of Muhammad Ali and Colonel Harland Sanders, and the Cave Hill National Cemetery, a burial ground for 5,500 veterans from the Civil War and other conflicts.
- Goshen: Creasey Mahan Nature Preserve creaseymahannaturepreserve.org Nine miles of trails cross through meadows and a 2-acre woodland garden, verdant with 400 species of native wildflowers and ferns.
For more information, visit kentuckygardentrail.com.