Parker Arboretum

John Claudius Loudon in 1806 defined an arboretum as a site where trees and other woody plants are deliberately cultivated for scientific, educational, and aesthetic purposes. The Town of Parker has recently opened the first phase of a new arboretum at East Bank Park (on the northwest corner of Parker Road and Indian Pipe Lane). This project began in April of 2002 with an Arbor Day planting of 34 trees. An additional 109 trees have been added the past two Arbor Days, bringing our total Arboretum population to 143 trees of 51 different varieties. Our goal in the next 15 years is to plant over 1200 trees along the Cherry Creek Trail, representing 200 to 300 different tree varieties. Various “pocket arboretums” will anchor this project, with East Bank Park being one of the focal points.

The Parker Arboretum is envisioned as an educational area, where residents can come and see the wide range of trees that can be grown in Colorado. Here you will find all trees clearly labeled with both common and scientific names.

The trees planted so far represent commonly used species (Amur Maple, Scotch Pine, Concolor Fir and Serviceberry, for example) and the unusual (Yellowwood, Dawn Redwood, Katsura Tree, Turkish Filbert and Lacebark Pine, among others). The collection represented in the Arboretum reflects the diversity that the Town is striving to promote in residential and commercial plantings.

We encourage you to enjoy a stroll through our newly established Arboretum, and take pleasure in the wide range of tree species represented here. For more information, contact Craig Miller at 303.840.9546.

Click here to view the descriptions of the trees currently in the Arboretum. Click here to view a full key map of the aboretum. You'll need a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it, which is available free of charge from the link below.