Jenkins Arboretum

The interns and I took a field trip over to Jenkins Arboretum a couple weeks ago to see their late spring display. 

The Rhododendron collection is the reason most people come to Jenkins in the spring. I couldn’t believe how many varieties we saw - apparently over 5,000 rhododendrons, azaleas, and hybrids from around the world!

Other plants of interest included a great old specimen of Buttonbush down by the pond - covered in moss and contorted like some lurking swamp creature. Jenkins has beautiful stands of native plants - huge swaths of wild ginger, tiarella, golden ragwort (Packera aurea), mayapple, maidenhair fern, cedaline poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum), and native pachysandra. Plus, they’re all meticulously labeled, so it’s a great learning library of plants.