DESCRIPTION:
The University of Kentucky Arboretum (Also known as The State Botanical Garden of Kentucky or Lexington Arboretum), 40 hectares or 100 acres (0.40 km2), is located at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky, USA. It is open to the public from dawn to dusk every day of the year.
It contains a Home Demonstration Garden, Vegetable Garden, Herb Garden, Home Fruit and Nuts Garden (including Black, Persian and Japanese Walnuts, Pecan, Shellbark and Shagbark Hickory, Chinese Chestnut as well as dwarf apple cultivars, an American Persimmon and native Pawpaw trees), the All America Selection Trials Garden, Perennial Collection, Ground Cover Demonstration, Woody Plant Collection, and a "Walk Across Kentucky" that simulates Kentucky's seven regional landscapes: Bluegrass, Knobs, Appalachian Plateaus, Cumberland Mountains, Mississippian Plateaus and Outer Nashville Basin (Pennyroyal), Shawnee Hills, Mississippi Embayment and Alluvial Basin (Jackson Purchase).
The Arboretum was created in 1991, at which time it was overrun with non-native invasive plants such as honeysuckle and euonymus. The removal of such invasive plants has been and continues to be a major goal of Arboretum staff and volunteers.