New Gardens on the Horizon

Building on the success of the opening of the Brian C. Nevin Welcome Center, Cornell Plantations is now moving forward in the next phase of an ambitious plan to reimagine the Botanical Garden. In the most significant horticultural development since the F. R. Newman Arboretum was created in 1981, the broad expanse of lawn in front of the Nevin Center will be transformed into a beautiful series of new Peony and Perennial Gardens, while the plateau on Comstock Knoll will become a dramatic East Asian Garden.

Peony & Perennial Gardens

Designed with meandering pathways that reflect the topography of the site, the new gardens will showcase Plantations’ beloved and much-missed peony collection, as well as other perennials, shrubs, and small-statured trees to provide color, texture, and interest during the growing season. Since they were removed for the Nevin Center construction project, the peonies have been carefully tended at our Plant Production Facility. In the meantime, our horticulture director has been acquiring new specimens to enhance the original American Peony Society collection given by Marjorie Cornell, Class of 1939.

The project will comprise 44,000 sq. ft. of new infrastructure, including stone and gravel pathways, a new bridge over the Bioswale Garden at the east end of the parking area, water and electric lines, stone walls, benches, and interpretive and way-finding signage.

Gift opportunities to fund and name individual gardens range from $200,000 to $850,000. For more information about how you can support the Peony and Perennial Gardens project, contact Beth Anderson or call 607-254-4727.

Garden Renderings

Click on the image below to view garden renderings online, or click here to download a printable version (pdf). (Renderings prepared by Trowbridge Wolf Michaels Landscape Architects)

"Six Friends" East Asian Garden

Renowned landscape architect Marc Peter Keane ’79 has designed a new East Asian Garden to be built on the plateau of Comstock Knoll, adjacent to the Nevin Welcome Center. The Six Friends Garden will have six distinct areas, each defined by a symbolic element that has deep cultural meaning in China, Japan, or Korea. There will be an entry court with two pine trees; a more intimate courtyard flanked by three weeping willows; a bamboo teahouse; a walkway through a glade of Japanese maples; a lotus courtyard with an underground water harp; and a dramatic wave sculpted in stone, backed by an earthen wall with a "painting" formed by the varied tones of its densely compacted layers of soil.

The design phase has been funded by gifts from members of the Cornell Asian Alumni Association. Gift opportunities to name the six garden features have been set at $400,000 and $500,000. For more information about how you can support the Six Friends East Asian Garden project, contact Beth Anderson or call 607-254-4727.

Garden Renderings

Click on the image below to view garden renderings online, or click here to download a printable version. (Prepared by Marc P. Keane)