North Carolina Arboretum

The North Carolina Arboretum (434 acres (176 ha)) is an arboretum and botanical garden located within the Bent Creek Experimental Forest of the Pisgah National Forest at 20 Frederick Law Olmsted Way, southwest of Asheville, North Carolina near the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is open daily except for Christmas Day. There is no admission charge, but some parking fees do apply. Although the idea for the arboretum stretches back to landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted in 1898, who wished to create an arboretum at the nearby Biltmore Estate, today's arboretum was established by the General Assembly in 1986, as a facility of the University of North Carolina. In 1989 the site was officially designated the North Carolina Arboretum. The arboretum is still under active development. It includes many hiking and bicycling trails, a bonsai collection, a holly garden, and a stream garden. Its tree collection includes a fine set of Metasequoias planted in 1950, and now said to be the tallest in the south (over 100 feet (30 m) in height). In 2016, a certification from Bee Campus USA recognized the arboretum's efforts to teach about and support pollinators.