Hosta Glade & Fern Walk

The Pauline Whitney MacMillan Hosta Glade and Charles & Dorothy Howard Fern Walk offer visitors a calming respite from summer heat in a serene and shaded wood. It's one of the coolest places at the Arboretum on a hot summer day.  

The MacMillan Hosta Glade is one of the finest public displays of hostas in the upper Midwest. The collection features a wide variety of plants including hostas with blue-hued leaves, fragrant flowers and miniature varieties along with beds of classic hosta and a “landscape bed” of hosta mixed with other perennials.

The Charles & Dorothy Howard Fern Walk leads visitors from the Woodland Azalea Garden to a sheltered pond in the woods. The shaded walk meanders through a collection of hardy ferns and woodland wildflowers and features a circular raised bed of wild ginger surrounding the sculpture Vertical Planes by artist Katherine Nash. In the summer months, visitors will also spy a lush fern on display in the larger-than-life Plant Stand, commissioned by the Arboretum and designed by Herb Baldwin.