The State Arboretum of Virginia (also known as the Orland E. White Arboretum) occupies the central 172 acres of Blandy Experimental Farm. Started in the 1930s, it now contains over 5000 woody trees and shrubs from around the world. It is a reference garden for the Southeast Region of the American Conifer Society and includes the American Boxwood Society's Memorial Garden.

Notable Collections
  • Boxwood: 162 kinds
  • A 300-tree ginkgo grove
  • A 36-tree Cedar of Lebanon allee
Search our database and create your own map to plants in the arboretum.
Image of the Native Plant Trail
Visit the Native Plant Trail
Image of the Herb Garden
Visit the Herbaceous Gardens
visitor map
Visitor map to The Arboretum

News From The Arboretum

School Groups and Volunteers Plant Trees at The State Arboretum of Virginia. The arboretum received a grant from the Virginia Department of Forestry's Urban & Community Forestry Program to improve and extend the forest at the front entrance. By spring of 2013, volunteers and school groups will have planted 150 trees that will provide wildlife habitat for many years to come. Participating groups include The Nysmith School for the Gifted, Rappahannock High School, Saplings, Inc. (a non profit tree planting group), the Front Royal Tree Stewards, and the Master Naturalists. 

The Nysmith School for the Gifted 
Nysmith students plant trees
Students pull a tree out of its pot.

Hands dirty from planting
Dirty hands for a good cause. 

chestnut oak just planted
A chestnut oak settles into its new home.

tree planting demonstration
Lisa Green and Emily Ford of the Blandy education team demonstrate how to plant trees.
everyone busy planting trees
The whole group busy at once planting 20 oaks, tulip poplars, and sweet gums.
Saplings, Inc. 
Saplings Inc finishes planting pawpaw seeds
John Wu, Jill Brown, and Maulik Patel finishing planting pawpaw seeds.

transplanting a pawpaw seedling
Zi-Heng Zhu plants a pawpaw seedling reaches the ground.

digging for pawpaws
Maulik Patel and Edward Kurkowski dig out the grass in preparation for trees. and put in tree saplings. Zi-Heng Zhu and Anoop Kumar (back) help curator T'ai Roulston organize materials. In two hours,  47 trees were planted at The Arboretum.

Securing the cage to keep deer from eating the trees
Nick Ganig pounds in a stake to secure the deer cage that will allow trees to get tall enough and strong enough to withstand browsing.
photo of conifer trail trunks