Cornell Botanic Gardens — Attraction in Town of Ithaca

Love the botanic gardens. Grateful to have them in town. The welcome center/gift shop is very nice, with quality horticulture-related gifts, and cool gifts for kids. The wisteria pathway leading to the herb garden… it’s beautiful.

When I was in the arboretum the other day (next to the Botanic Gardens), I had a thought. I'm from Long Island, where there are multiple botanic gardens/arboretums. I realized I am not very impressed by the maintenance of some areas of the arboretum.

It seems like it’s not a priority for the school. Which is a shame, because it’s not all just about academia, research, and making money. Don't get me wrong, it is still very enjoyable, and a great community resource. I know there are people who work very hard on both areas every day and I do not mean to discredit their work. I just think Cornell has the resources to make it even better.

There are so. many. people. at the school...students, professors, staff. What if, each semester, horticulture students chose one small area of the arboretum to take care of. For instance, there is an area that has boulders from an Andy Goldsworthy art installation (an environmental artist who uses natural materials). There’s a little plaque, but other than that, it feels like no one has touched the display for 20 years. I just don't understand why the school wouldn't want to make the most of this beautiful land that...

Formerly known as the Cornell Plantations and consisting of 25 acres, Cornell Botanic Gardens is one of the most popular attractions around Ithaca and has something for everyone, which is why my partner, his family, and I came for a visit on this beautiful Saturday.

Located in the center of the Cornell University campus, but also including the adjoining F.R. Newman Arboretum and over 3,500 acres of natural areas, there were hiking trails, nature walks, gardens, ponds, woodlands, meadows, glens, waterfalls, fens, bogs, and, of course, “gorges.”

The well-kept gardens were easy to access, easy to walk around, and were extremely quiet. It’s very kid- and pet-friendly. The historic core revolves around the herb and perennial garden. Admission is FREE, but one does need to pay a parking fee to enter the park on weekdays. It runs you $1.50 per hour, so it's exceptionally reasonable, but it's free on weekends.

We enjoyed our drive through the campus to get to the botanic garden, which we...

Two adults visited the Cornell Botanic Gardens on a Tuesday in mid-August and were thoroughly impressed especially with the Flower Garden area. There are several main gardens near the Nevin Welcome Center that are well maintained and a joy to walk through such as the Flower Garden, the Herb Garden, the Winter Garden and the Ground Cover Collection. There are others also. Our only disappointment was with the “Pocketsights” app for our cellphone with text and audio descriptions of some of the areas. Just not impressive nor very thorough. Parking costs $1.50 per hour for a maximum of three hours with the first hour free. We also visited the adjoining Cornell Newman Arboretum and would rate that at no more than 4 stars. Again, the “Pocketsights” app was disappointing plus there is very little signage in the arboretum to correspond to the app descriptions. Of course, the plants there were impressive and it is a large area to cover so we drove to...