This garden honors the energetic and visionary leadership of Mary Ann Arthur for her many contributions to expand the programs and operations of the Arboretum. Her efforts will forever remain a legacy at the Ohio State University’s Chadwick Arboretum and Learning Gardens.
The late Mary Ann Arthur (1932-2003) was an active member of the Arboretum’s Development Committee and worked tirelessly at establishing donor relations to build the Arboretum’s plant collections and improve its infrastructure. The expansion of our Arboretum North Site adjacent to SR315 is credited to the relationships that she established with major donors such as DeeDee Glimcher and Jack Havens.
In January 1997 she coordinated a design charrette with artists, landscape architects, and designers from around the nation. The purpose of the charrette was to design memorable garden areas in intimate spaces within the Arboretum. As a result, the Lois B. Small and Gladys B. Hamilton Labyrinth Garden was designed by Jon Carloftis and students during the charrette and given by the Edwin and Nancy Hamilton Family to the Arboretum.
Mary Ann also promoted the Arboretum’s Emanuel Rudolph Collection of Botanical Illustrations and arranged an exhibition at the Columbus Museum of Art in 1998. The botanical illustrations were also exhibited at the OSU Faculty Club in January and February 1999, and at the International Master Gardener’s Conference in June 2003.
In July 2003 former members of the Chadwick Arboretum Development Committee dedicated a memorial bench in her honor. Marilyn Alspach, Betty Evans, Sherry Hawley, Patsy Harmon, Melinda Harmon Macca, and Janet Oberliesen gathered friends and family members to dedicate the bench and pay tribute to her legacy in the Arboretum. In 2005 her husband Bill and children Jane Roslovic, Ann Cook, and Geoffrey Arthur endowed the Mary Ann Arthur Herbaceous Ornamental Scholarship and the Mary Ann Arthur Memorial Shade Garden.
This garden is west of the main entrance to Howlett Hall in the Learning Gardens and provides an extensive collection of herbaceous and woody plants that perform well in shade conditions.