Mary Flagler Cary Arboretum
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The Mary Flagler Cary Arboretum (1,924 acres; 7.7 km²) is a nonprofit arboretum and botanical garden located on New York 44A near Millbrook, New York. It is operated by the Institute of Ecosystem Studies, and open to the public daily (except holidays) without admission fee.
The arboretum was established by Mary Flagler Cary (1901-1967), a granddaughter of Henry Morrison Flagler and heir to part of the Standard Oil fortune, and her husband Melbert Cary. After her husband's death in 1941, Mrs. Cary maintained the property, with a special interest in its maples. Following her death in 1967, she left the estate to a trust. In 1971 its trustees asked the New York Botanical Garden to oversee the property, which was then named the Mary Flagler Cary Arboretum. In the 1980s the Institute for Ecosystem Studies was founded, and in the 1990s it became an independent, nonprofit corporation.
The arboretum contains meadow, forest, swamp, hills, and trout streams. Its perennial garden contains over 4,500 varieties of flowering plants, and its greenhouses (14,700 square feet; 1,323 m²) contain over 1,000 species of plants, including unusual ferns, tropical fruit trees, and many types of herbs and flowers.
