Celebrating 100 Years of Laura’s Lilacs at the Barnes Arboretum

Laura Barnes began the lilac collection at the Barnes Arboretum in 1926 with a single order of 150 assorted lilacs from Adolf Müller's Dekalb Nurseries in nearby Norristown, PA. This collection remains one of the few extensive collections from the early 1900s in the Mid-Atlantic region. After peaking in the 1960s with over 200 specimens, the current collection has over 150 taxa, including Syringa 'Laura L. Barnes.' Beyond the common lilac (Syringa vulgaris) Laura's collection features many other uncommon Syringa species, hybrids and their cultivated varieties. On this celebratory tour, we'll stroll through the collection and speak to the history and future of these scentastic specimens. The tour will be led by Head Gardener, Katie Jacoby, and Bill Rein, Assistant Director, Living Collections & Horticulture Programs.

The Barnes Arboretum at Saint Joseph’s University, a 12-acre arboretum astonishingly diverse for its size, is home to more than 2,500 taxa of woody and herbaceous plants, many rare. The peony, lilac, and fern collections, which date from the early 1900s, are important genetic resources for conservation and study, and an herbarium contains more than 10,000 specimens that supplement teaching and research.

In 1922, when Dr. Albert C. Barnes and his wife, Laura Leggett Barnes, purchased the property, it already housed a collection of specimen trees that its previous owner, Captain Joseph Lapsley Wilson, had started assembling in the 1880s. While Dr. Barnes concentrated on his art collection, Laura Barnes devoted herself to the arboretum. Laura Barnes' legacy lives on in the beauty of the landscape and in the horticulture school* that she founded in 1940.

*As you may already know, many of our very knowledgeable HPS members have completed the Barnes Horticulture Certificate Program, while others have been, or currently are, instructors in this program.

Learn more about the Barnes Arboretum at https://www.sju.edu/barnesarboretum

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