Cylburn Arboretum is a 207 acre urban park administered by the Horticultural Divisionof the Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks. It is located within the city limits, but has the feeling of an estate set in the rolling countryside. Collections of Japanese maples, hollies, conifers, Maryland oaks (begun on Arbor Day 1983) beeches, tree peonies, maples and magnolias stand on spacious lawns and many gardens surround the Victorian Mansion. Trails wind through the woodlands, where rare trees, native plants and wildflowers may be studied.
Cylburn Arboretum Association is a volunteer organization dedicated by its mission to the horticultural and envirionmental education of Cylburn's visitors and to preservation of the Arboretum's unique environmet. There are 2 ways to schedule a guided tour of Cylburn:
1. Telephone Glenda Weber, Cylburn's Naturalist at (410)-396-7839. If necessary, leave a clear message and daytime phone number. Calls are returned in a timely manner.
2. Fill out the Garden Guide Registration Form and mail or FAX (410)-367-8039 your request to the attention of Glenda Weber, City Naturalist.
Cylburn features a variety of gardens. The All America Selections garden, the Vegetable garden, and the Heritage Rose Garden are located behind the Mansion. Several Memorial gardens, the Butterfly garden, and the Formal garden, complement the areas around the Mansion. . The Garden of the Senses is to waist height allowing physically challenged visitors to touch and smell the plants easily. The Children's Garden includes a schoolhouse and bell.
All America Selections Garden (AAS),
grows test annuals and display favorites
Formal Garden,
renovated in a Victorian style, located east of the Mansion, a popular site for weddings.
Vegetable Garden
Garden of the Senses
Stu Kerr Memorial Children's Garden
Heritage Rose Garden
Miniature Rose Garden
Naomi Camper Garden
Small City Backyard Gardens:
Butterfly Garden
Shady Garden
Free State Daylily Garden
Scheffel Low Maintenance Garden
Worthley Garden, featuring alpine plants
Larrabee Habitat Garden
Nathan's Garden
Probst Garden
Julie Smith Garden
Three Sisters Garden
Free State DayLily Memorial Garden
Dahlia Garden
Ed Cooper's Garden
Plantings at the Greenhouses
The Arboretum has an extensive and constantly expanding collection of trees and shrubs based loosely on the original Tyson estate plantings. These include groves of magnolias, hollies, conifers and japanese maples as well as individual specimens of other species. Some of the trees planted by the original owners still stand on the lawns.
Azaleas Bamboo Beeches Boxwoods Chestnuts Dwarf Flowering Shrubs Flowering Shrubs Hollies Japanese Maples Magnolias Maples Conifer Collection Small Tree Collection Viburnum
Two and a half miles of trails wind through the woodlands, where native plants and wildflowers may be studied. As an environmental conservation area, Cylburn's woodland trees, shrubs and native herbacious plants are protected in their natural habitat. Cylburn's woods have been home for generations and generations of wildlife and for native and migrating birds. Birds and wildlife may be observed in this natural habitat. Cylburn offers beauty and serenity to her human visitors in an ever changing seasonal setting.
Wildflowers at Cylburn delight the visitor–especially in spring time. This wildflower list also includes ferns and other plants that grow wild in the Maryland woods. The difference is that in the Cylburn woods, plants on this list have been specially planted, and, particularly in the spring, most of the plants also have signs to identify them so they can be observed as they grow and mature throughout the year.
COMMON NAME BOTANICAL NAME
Skunk cabbage Symplocarpus foetidus
Coltsfoot Tussilago farfara
Marsh marigold Caltha palustris
Yellow iris Iris pseudacorus
Crested dwarf iris Iris cristata
Hepatica, round lobed Hepatica americana
Spring beauty Claytonia virginica
Lesser celandine Ranunculus ficaria
Celandine poppy / Wood poppy Stylophorum diphyllumVirginia bluebell Mertensia virginica
Bloodroot Sanguinaria canadensis
Trout lily / Dogtooth violet Erythromium
americanumFoam flower Tiarella cordifolia
Dutchman's breeches Dicentra curcullaria
Squirrel corn Dicentra canadensis
Bishop's cap / Miterwort Mitella diphylla
Greek valerian Polemonium reptans
Twinleaf Jeffersonia diphylla
Mayapple Podophyllum peltatum
Wild columbine Aquilegia canadensis
Wild geranium Geranium maculatum
Cut-leaved toothwort Dentaria laciniata
Wild ginger Asarum canadense
The greenhouses are glass houses designed and constructed in the late 1960's by Lord & Burnham, who were important 20th century greenhouse builders. The greenhouses are the production facilities for the Horticultural Division, growing thousands of annuals, bulbs, poinsettia and other crops to be used at Cylburn, the Baltimore Conservatory and other city park sites.
Cylburn's greenhouses are not open to the general public, but visitors to Cylburn Market Day, held annually each May and other chosen sales, have the opportunity to buy overstock from the greenhouses on that day and to have a glimpse inside the buildings themseves. Tours for schools or garden clubs can be arranged through s the City of Baltimore Department of Recreation and Parks - Horticultural Division
The Bog at Cylburn is located roughly opposite the Mansion on the Lawn Path at the edge of the woods near the Ornamental Grasses. The upper bog area is home to a variety of wetland plants. A small footbridge crosses the area where the upper bog drains into the lower bog. Approaching from the Circle Trail, there is an artificial beaver dam, which has been built in the lower bog.
