2025 Iseli Grant Recipient Announcement

The Mary May Binney Wakefield Arboretum is so honored to receive the 2025 Jean Iseli Memorial Grant from the American Conifer Society to continue expanding our conifer collection. As a Reference Garden for the American Conifer Society, we must share our knowledge about conifers and offer our visitors opportunities to see the many variations of these amazing plants. Because of Iseli Nursery's generous offer to match this grant with plant material, we are assembling an incredible list of new plants to be installed in the garden in the spring of 2025. We are also working toward becoming a Level lll Certified Arboretum. In order to attain this certification, we need to have 500 species, varieties or cultivars of trees or woody plants in the collection. With this grant we can attain that goal. This winter The Mary May Binney Wakefield Arboretum is installing a 24-acre deer fence to protect the gardens from the heavy deer pressure in the New England area. Once the fence is installed new gardens will be developed throughout the landscape. These gardens will be greatly improved by additions from Iseli. The arboretum will host an American Conifer Society rendezvous on June 8th to celebrate these new additions to the collection. We hope you can join us!

Debbie Merriam,
Executive Director
Mary May Binney Wakefield Arboretum