‘A living museum’: Coker Arboretum provides tranquility, history

At the intersection of East Cameron Avenue and Raleigh Street lies the Coker Arboretum, a lush green escape from the rest of UNC’s bustling campus. Now that spring is in full bloom, tall trees reach toward the sky, their sprawling branches casting shadows over the patches of daffodils and hyacinths below. Under the trees, students study on benches or chat with one another on picnic blankets.

This five-acre patch of land is maintained by the North Carolina Botanical Garden. The garden features a variety of plants native to regions such as the United States, Europe, China and Japan.

Geoffrey Neal is the arboretum’s current curator. He helps decide what to plant and maintains it through weed-picking and mulching.

“We're called curators because, much like the Ackland down the street, we are a museum,” he said. “Whereas the things in Ackland — the art — is housed, cased, hung on walls, displayed and interpreted in that way, our specimens are living things.”

According to Neal, the arboretum is very colorful this time of year, which draws visitors to the space. He noted that the daffodils, Asian magnolias, quinces and spring flowering shrubs were particularly delightful this year.

UNC senior Iris Chang came to the arboretum on Friday afternoon with her camera in hand, photographing the different flowers in bloom. She said the arboretum is a place she visits often. 

“I live on North campus, so it’s a really convenient place to decompress, and I just like seeing what the different seasons have to bring,” she said.

Faith Duggins, a sophomore English and comparative literature major, also said she visits the arboretum nearly every day. On Friday, she sat on a bench near the East Cameron Avenue end of the arboretum.

“If anyone wants some recommendation or anything, [the arboretum] is the place you should go to,” she said. “It’s so quiet, you always hear the sounds of nature. It’s a good place to find some peace.”

The arboretum contains a mix of old and young plants. Some are over one hundred years old, like the looming overcup oak tree in the arboretum’s central field.

Many of the arboretum’s larger trees were planted by William Chambers Coker, a UNC botany professor in the early twentieth century. Coker founded the arboretum in 1903 after university president Francis Venable suggested he transform the boggy pasture. Before it became the arboretum, professors used this pasture to keep their mules while they taught their classes. The mules munched on the overgrown grasses while they waited. 

Coker focused on collecting plants native to the southeastern United States, wanting each addition to have a story behind it. He worked toward this goal until he retired in 1945. UNC Grounds Services cared for the arboretum until the NC Botanical Garden took over in 1982.

Today, the arboretum focuses on collecting plants that are commonly found in southern gardens, such as azaleas and quinces. They also focus on growing sets of closely-related plant species. These “sister” species were once the same, but evolved differently due to geographic separation — a phenomenon called vicariance.

The arboretum is also undergoing renovations to the arbor on its East Cameron Avenue end, replacing the deteriorating wood and creating a walkway that is more accessible. Most of the construction is expected to be done by August 2025.

When planning what to add to the arboretum, Neal not only thinks about the arboretum in the current moment, but also what it may look like over the next several decades.

This, he said, is one of the best parts of his job.

“I think it's a really delightful thing to think about the lives that I interact with outliving the buildings around them, and I have every confidence that the bald cypresses in here will outlive the dormitories next to them,” he said.

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