2018 Coker Arboretum


UNC’s Campus Garden

In the heart of UNC’s bustling campus, surrounded by a screen of trees, congested sidewalks, and streets, winding pathways lead you into the Arcadia that is the Coker Arboretum. Walking through this five-acre collection of North Carolina natives, East Asian trees, and shrubs is a sublimely tranquil idyll in any season. In springtime you will find the garden filled with an array of glorious blooms. Whether strolling the paths, or resting on a bench in a shaded nook or by a sunny lawn, the music of birdsong and babbling brook provide sweet, lyrical accompaniment to your visit.

Managed by the North Carolina Botanical Garden, this 100-year old botanical garden is one of the NCBG’s oldest tracts. In 1903, Dr. William Chambers Coker, the University’s first Professor of Botany and the first chair of the University Buildings and Grounds Committee, began developing the Coker Arboretum. Today the collection consists of a wide variety of plantings including flowering trees and shrubs as well as bulb and perennial displays for you to enjoy. In addition to contributing to UNC’s deserved reputation as one of the most beautiful university campuses in the nation, the Coker Arboretum has been an outdoor classroom for generations of UNC faculty and students. For more than a century, UNC‘s Coker Arboretum has offered sweet sanctuary to students, professors, administrators and townspeople amid the hustle and bustle of their lives.

Terrain: Easy