Adult Group Tours

Guided Group Tours

Every season offers the opportunity to experience beautiful and interesting areas of The Holden Arboretum.  Trained guides and staff lead the way on tours of breathtaking gardens, special collections and natural areas.

Garden Tours

  • Holden Highlights Walking Tour: April - November – An overview of Holden history, gardens, collections and natural areas with special emphasis on seasonal highlights. (1 ½ hours)
  • Tram Highlights Tour: (1 hour) Tours offer a sampling of Holden's gardens and collection.
  • Arlene and Arthur S. Holden Butterfly Garden Tour: June - September – Enjoy a leisurely 40 minute walk through the Holden Butterfly Garden to observe pollinators in action. Learn about their importance and how easy it is to attract them. Whether you are a beginning or seasoned gardener you will be sure to pick up many ideas.
Tram tours

 

Lantern Court Gardens Tour: April-October – Tour the exquisite gardens of Lantern Court. Delight in the formal English borders, naturalized plantings along the wooded ravines, rock gardens and perennial beds. Pick up ideas for attractive plant combinations to incorporate into your home landscape. (1hour)

 

 

Natural Area Tours

For a more rugged view of nature, take a longer tour of our natural areas. Tours take about three hours. To preserve these fragile areas, tours are open to a limited number of guests each month.

 

Tour of the natural areas

  • Stebbins Gulch
    A wet walk through a tributary of the East Branch of the Chagrin River. Discover geologic formations and plant communities not found anywhere else.
  • Little Mountain
    Once a resort for those escaping summer’s heat, Little Mountain has once again become a woodland retreat. Learn the history of the area while touring geologically fascinating ravines and unique wooded areas.

 

Want to know more about touring Stebbins Gulch? Take the photo tour and see some of the tour's highlights.

 

(New) Treasures of the Rare Book Room Tour

Curious about what is hiding behind the locked doors of the Rare Book Room in the Warren H. Corning Library? There are 600-year-old books, mermaids, life-size paintings painted in the distant past that seem to have been finished yesterday and much more.

 

Let our librarian, Sue Swisher be your guide as you discover the treasures of the Rare Book Room on a guided tour.

 

Tours can accomodated groups of six to 12 people and take about one hour.

 

 

How to Register

Most tours can accomodate groups of 10 or more. For more information and fees contact the Education Department at 440.602.3833 or educ@holdenarb.org three weeks prior to your preferred tour date. Cancellations must be made 48 hours before your tour date or a $15 processing fee will be charged. Facility rentals and catering options are also available.