The 25-acre Arboretum at the Reading Public Museum has been a gem of Berks County since the current Museum building opened to the public in 1928. John Nolen, a prominent landscape architect from Harvard, developed the long-range plans for the Arboretum. It still offers a peaceful environment where people come to sit, relax, or take a stroll along the footpaths. The grounds also offer an educational experience to observers due to the large amount of exotic and indigenous trees and shrubs. Many of these specimens were donated from Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum and Mr. Bertrand Farr who contributed generously from his superb collection of botanical specimens.

The Foundation Board’s Building and Grounds Committee’s goal is to renew the Arboretum, to have it become more educational and stimulating, and to become a true recreational destination for the community. They have begun this effort with the 2003 Spring Clean Up Day, which was created to not only gain support and help from the community, but to also start achieving the long-term goal of returning the grounds to its former glory. A Fall Clean Up Day is planned.

Currently, there is a strong corps of volunteers from the Garden Club of Reading who tend the award winning perennial gardens and a small group of devoted Master Gardeners who volunteer in the Arboretum. The grounds-keeping staff comes from the Berks County Community Service Office, which allots the Museum two supervisors. These supervisors oversee individuals who fulfill community service hours by helping with basic grooming and lawn care.

The Garden Club of Reading

Congratulations to the Garden Club of Reading for Winning "The Suburban Greening Maintenance Award 2004" for their Friendship Garden for Continuoous Excellence in the Greening of a Public Space!

The Garden Club of Reading has been planting and maintaining the Museum’s Garden of Friendship since 1984 and the Garden of Remembrance since 1996. They have donated not only their time, but the plants, soil and fertilizer for these gardens. Approximately 10–15 members donate over 150 hours at the Museum during the months of March through October. Their efforts were recognized in October of 2000 when they received the Pennsylvania Horticulture Society’s Community Greening Award.

The Garden Club of Reading is a charitable organization that supports itself through various fundraising efforts, namely their Greens Sale at the Stone House in Wyomissing. Their club is associated with the Garden Club Federation of Pennsylvania and the National Council of State Garden Clubs. In addition to maintaining the Museum gardens, this 30-member club plants and maintains trees, monitors a junior garden group at Lauer’s Park Elementary School and sponsors monthly programs for seniors at the Horizon Center.

They also offer training schools to their members and the public. Classes include landscaping, flower show design, and judging. Most who take these classes become club members and put their newly acquired skills to use with the various horticultural projects and flower design events sponsored by The Garden Club of Reading.

Master Gardeners & Arboretum Assistants
For over nine years the Penn State Master Gardeners of Berks County have donated countless service hours to planting and maintaining the majority of the Museum’s gardens, specifically the wildflower garden, flower beds, rock garden and oval bed. In one year the Masters Gardeners can donate 250 hours of service to the Museum.

The Penn State Master Gardeners of Berks County are a service organization. They are required to complete 39 hours of training given by the Berks County Agriculture Center that includes propagation (learning to grow plants from seeds or cuttings), vegetable and flower gardens, turf grass, pesticide handling, trees, soil and composting. After this training and required course certification test, the Master Gardeners are asked to give 50 volunteer service hours in return for their training. Other volunteer service opportunities for the Master Gardeners besides the Reading Public Museum are the Women in Prison Program, 4H Meet the Plants and Berks Urban Greening.

With the help of the Penn State Master Gardeners, the Museum has created an Arboretum Assistant Program, a community horticultural education program. This program allows gardeners to volunteer their time working on the grounds of the Museum. The Master Gardeners will train the volunteers. Arboretum Assistants will be asked to volunteer three hours of their time, twice a month, from April to October. A substantial increase in volunteer gardeners will make a large impact upon the beauty of the Museum’s Arboretum.