Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Reimagining the Cemetery as Museum | Page 4

A Living Museum of Trees
By Stephen Jackson, Plant Records & GIS Manager

The natural features of Mount Auburn Cemetery
have always set it apart from other cemeteries. One of
the most striking of these features is the incredible plant
diversity across our 175 acres. Over 17,000 plants are
recorded on the grounds, with nearly 5,000 trees, a similar
number of shrubs, and over 7,000 herbaceous groundcovers
making up an enviable plant collection. We are a museum
of living plants, the first historic cemetery to be certified as
an arboretum.
As an arboretum, we are required to follow curatorial
best practices. Just as the Museum of Fine Arts has a
Curator of Contemporary Art, we have a Horticultural
Curator, Dennis Collins, who oversees the planning,

What is an Arboretum?
“A place where trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants
are cultivated for scientific and education purposes”
— Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Mount Auburn Cemetery was certified a Level III arboretum in
2012 by ArbNet.org, a program supported by the Morton
Arboretum in Lisle, IL. As a member of ArbNet, we are part of
a growing community of arboreta across the world that share
knowledge, resources, and expertise to further plant science
and education. We are also a member of the multi-institutional
oak collection of the North American Plant Collections Consortium (NAPCC), holding a portion of the reference collection
and germplasm for the genus Quercus in North America.
2 | Sweet Auburn

development, preservation, and use of our plant collections.
He designs new plantings and guides the growth of the
plant collections, often looking 20–30 years into the future
when considering a seedling newly planted in the nursery.
The Curator needs to wear many hats and consider
many factors when deciding how best to manage the plant
collection. Mount Auburn’s Plant Collections Policy, first
approved in 2006, includes “Guidelines for Making Planting/
Removal Decisions” with a list of questions reflecting an
inter-related framework of considerations aligned with our
Horticultural Mission Statement:
The Horticultural Mission of Mount Auburn Cemetery is to
improve and maintain the landscape’s diversity, inspirational
qualities and historic significance with responsible stewardship
while serving the needs of lot owners.
Questions are categorized under topics such as
“Collections” (diversity, historic significance, number of
specimens), “Design/Aesthetic” (character zone, vistas,
spatial relationships, seasonal interest), “Management”
(maintenance impacts, cemetery development plans, impact
on monuments and structures), and “Wildlife Habitat Value.”
With these guidelines in mind, the Curator has to
prepare for storm damage, manage destructive pests such as
the Emerald Ash Borer, and anticipate future space needs,
for both the arboretum and the active cemetery. Curators
need to keep abreast of new plant introductions as well
as the day-to-day work of plant identification, labeling,
mapping, and design.