Garden Collections
Rutgers Gardens offers visitors the chance to experience the wonders of plants during every season of the year. In wintertime, enjoy a hike along the trails of Helyar Woods, get to know the picturesque holly trees and varieties of evergreens up close, and look for pops of color created by bright yellow witch hazel flowers in bloom. It’s also a great time for bird watching and admiring wildlife (from a safe distance!).
Donald B. Lacy Display Garden
A favorite spot with visitors and pollinators alike, this display garden is designed each year by Rutgers Gardens staff and student horticulturists to feature perennial bulbs emerging in the spring and colorful annuals throughout the summer and fall. The garden was named for the Rutgers Cooperative Extension specialist who helped convert a bed of irises into a demonstration garden of annuals in 1964. In a nod to its history, the garden will be a featured site of the American Iris Society’s 2026 National Convention. Bearded and beardless irises amplify the eye-catching annual variety and the ecological benefits of the surrounding perennial garden beds.
Helyar Woods
Helyar Woods spans nearly 60 acres of old-growth forest comprised mainly of beech, oak, and maple trees. Visitors can enjoy several hiking trails to view a hauntingly beautiful pine forest planted for research purposes, several springs and a stream, a meadow, and a thriving forest ecosystem in action.
Holly Collection
This is one of the largest collections of American hollies in the United States, where some of the mature specimens date back to the 1940s. In addition to American hollies (Ilex opaca), Rutgers Gardens is home to many Winterberry hollies (Ilex verticillata) as well as numerous hybrids. Berries from these trees are an excellent food source for birds and other wildlife. The collection has recently undergone extensive revitalization efforts to remove invasive vines that grow quickly and can threaten the health of these majestic trees.
Edwin J. and Ida M. Otken Memorial Garden
Perhaps most recognized for the iconic oversized Adirondack chairs in the center, the Otken Memorial Garden features a mixed border of shrubs, perennials, and ornamental grasses, along with stone walking paths. The larger-than-life chairs are meant to evoke a sense of childlike wonder and are symbols of health, rejuvenation, and achieving wellness with time spent outdoors. Stay tuned for continued revitalizations in this garden throughout 2026.
Rain Garden
By following a trail from the Rhododendron Garden or the Sun and Shade Garden, visitors are transported to this quiet space to find shade, benches for rest and reflection, a small pond, abundant herbaceous perennials, and stone paths. The Rain Garden is designed as a model to manage stormwater runoff, replenish groundwater supply, and reduce localized flooding. Native plants filter pollutants from the soil and attract a variety of pollinators.
Roy H. DeBoer Evergreen Garden
The Evergreen Garden provides stunning visuals during any season. From the lush green lawn that is a favorite site for study breaks and blanket picnics in warmer weather to the snow-covered weeping white pine, cedars, pines, spruces, and firs in the winter, this garden provides respite from the bustling world outside Rutgers Gardens. Roy H. DeBoer, a professor emeritus and founder of the Rutgers Landscape Architecture Department, designed this area in 1958, and it remains a vital green space for the local and campus communities today.
More to Enjoy
All-America Selections Garden
Installed along the back border of the Donald B. Lacey Display Garden, All-America Selections (AAS) plants are featured annuals and perennials that were grown from seed, rigorously tested, and recognized by AAS as the best in their categories. Look for the AAS Winners signage to denote these plants when the display garden is in bloom.
Art Rudolph Sun and Shade Garden
This garden highlights plants that will provide color and interest in a part-sun and part-shade setting, as is typical of many home gardens. Visitors enjoy the circular stone patio in proximity to the large white oak specimen through many seasons of the year.
Floral Garden
Student horticulturists in the Rutgers Gardens Internship Program plant, maintain, and cut the flowers in this garden to enhance their skills in floral design, pruning techniques, and retail sales when the bouquets they create are sold at the Rutgers Community Farmers Market. The public is invited to enjoy the beauty of this garden, which contains a mixture of annuals and perennials selected for their floral arrangement qualities, but please note that cutting flowers is not permitted for visitors.
Native Tree Collection
Rutgers Gardens was awarded a Trees for Schools grant to plant a variety of native trees, including both straight species as well as cultivars native to the mid-Atlantic region and southeastern United States. Designed in collaboration with the Rutgers Department of Landscape Architecture, one hundred specimens were installed by Rutgers Gardens staff, students, and volunteers to demonstrate trees that might adjust well to New Jersey’s changing climate.
Ornamental Tree Collection
A springtime destination featuring flowering dogwoods, magnolias, cherry trees, and daffodils, the Ornamental Tree Collection highlights smaller specimens that are ideal for the residential landscape. The oldest remaining tree, an Indian Quassiawood (Picrasma quassioides), was planted in 1933. The second oldest, a Shantung maple (Acer truncatum) dates to 1941.
Pollinator Garden
Bordered by Helyar Woods, the Pollinator Garden comes alive with birds, bees, bats, butterflies, and more thanks to the curated installation of plants that provide food and habitats that are beneficial to pollinators. Eagle Scout projects have contributed to the plantings and creative habitat construction efforts in this space.
Rhododendron Garden
With its winding mulched paths and enchanting tree canopy, this garden immerses visitors in a collection of rhododendrons, hellebores, spicebush, dogwoods, and many other unique trees and shrubs while offering benches for quiet moments throughout. Specimens in this collection, which bridges Helyar Woods with more formally designed garden areas, date back to the 1940s.
Shade Tree Collection
Beyond the American hollies and bordering Helyar Woods, visitors and plant enthusiasts can discover an extraordinary collection of mature lindens, oaks, buckeyes, magnolias, and more in this expansive space. Planting in this area began in the late 1930s and the trees have grown to offer extensive shaded areas and beautiful spring bloom displays.
Shrub Garden
Considered the original collection of Rutgers Gardens, the Shrub Garden is one of the first spaces you’ll encounter past the welcome kiosk and across from the Holly Collection. Rutgers Gardens staff and volunteers continue to perform extensive revitalization work to establish pathways through the dense yet beautiful shrubs. This garden also includes the Alice B. Harding Lilac Walk, named for the internationally renowned horticulturist, and featuring many hybrid and species lilacs dating to 1927.
