Upcoming Events

Location: Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum
Time: 1:00 - 2:00 p.m.

Dates:
February 18, 2024 
March 24, 2024 
May 5, 2024 (Register)

What can art tell us about the relationship between plants and humans? Join Maeve Bassett, Applied Ethnobotanist and Education Program Director of the Beal Botanical Garden, for an immersive tour unearthing the historical, social, and political narratives growing within works of art from the MSU Broad Art Museum collection.

Image credit: Kim Kauffman, Joy in Repetition, 2001.

Join Beal Botanical Garden to explore the Campus Natural Areas as they come alive for spring!

Dates:
April 5, 2024 from 3:00-4:00 p.m. - Sanford Natural Area
April 12, 2024 from 1:00-2:00 p.m. - Sanford Natural Area
May 4, 2024 (Saturday) from 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. - Sanford Natural Area
May 10, 2024 from 1:00-2:00 p.m. - Baker Woodlot

For Sanford Natural Area, meet at the entrance between Holmes and McDonel Halls. For Baker Woodlot, meet at main entrance on Farm Lane.

10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Join us in the garden to welcome the spring season! Explore the refreshed 2024 Nurture Your Roots rooting station content and celebrate the Campus Arboretum’s 150th Anniversary with some TREE-mendous activities.

• 10:00am-12:00pm
  Join us for a volunteer work day in the garden!

• 12:00-1:00pm
  Spring Garden Opening celebrations begin!
      - Live performances from Nurture Your Roots contributors
      - Self-guided activities
      - Light refreshments
      - Discover what’s new in the garden!

Photo credit: Derrick Turner, MSU University Communications

1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
Location: meet at the Beal Botanical Garden pond

Join artist and Beal Scholar Shreya after the Spring Garden Opening to learn all about drawing with Pastels!

12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. 
Location: Meet at the garden pond

Final exams can be stressful. Reset and relax with us in the garden at noon for a week of wellbeing activities.

April 22 - Weeds for Wellness
Hang out with the Beal Botanical Garden team learning about easy to recognize weeds you can forage while getting your hands into soil and your mind off of finals.

April 23 - Amazing Aromas
Enjoy the sights, sounds, but most of all, the smells of the garden and create a little memory of the garden to smell whenever you need a breath of fresh air.

April 24 - Pressed for Plants
Hangout in the garden with Jennifer Apland from the MSU Herbarium, coloring specimen sheets and making a pressed plant bookmark to take home.

April 25 - Joy in Journaling
Take a break from studying/testing, breathe in the spring air, and explore the garden with facilitated reflection and our Pocket journal.

11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Location: The Rock, planting along the river behind the Auditorium

Join Beal Botanical Garden and IPF Landscape Services as we celebrate Arbor Day and the 150th Anniversary of the Campus Arboretum! Adopt a tree to take home and plant, learn about MSU sustainability resources, and help us plant 150 trees and shrubs along the Red Cedar River. Each planting volunteer will receive a special gift!

Visitor Parking Options (check Parking Services for closures or special events)
- Ramp #1 (Shaw Ln)
- Ramp #6 (Grand River Ave)
- Lot #39 (Shaw Ln)

12:10 - 1:00 p.m. 
Location: Beal Botanical Garden, meet at the shed

Join us for a lunchtime tour of the Beal Botanical Garden to enjoy spring wildflowers, discover what the garden staff are doing to restore native plants and habitat along the Red Cedar River, and see what birds have begun visiting the Botanical Garden. Bring binoculars if you have them!

Instructor: Carolyn Miller, Plant Recorder 

This program is a collaboration with the MSU Library.

Location: Beal Botanical Garden, meet at the pond
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.

Register Here

Turn an ecological problem into a culinary solution with the Beal Botanical Garden and MSU Museum! Garlic mustard is an invasive menace that threatens Michigan-native plants in late-spring. Luckily for us, it is also quite delicious. Come learn how to identify and pull garlic mustard from the banks of the Red Cedar River and turn it into a delectable, sustainable pesto.

This is a free program, but please register in advance for planning purposes.

Image credit: MSU Museum

12:10 - 1:00 p.m. 
Location: Beal Botanical Garden, meet at the shed

Join us at the Beal Botanical Garden for a lunchtime introduction to digital identification tools such as iNaturalist, and their importance in conducting research. This tour will cover methods of plant identification, the Flora of Michigan, how to use dichotomous keys, and how herbarium specimens helped create these resources.

Instructor: Jennifer Apland, Collections Coordinator, MSU Herbarium

This program is a collaboration with the MSU Library.

Location: Beal Botanical Garden
Time: 1:00 - 2:00 p.m.

Dates:
June 16, 2024 (Register)
July 14, 2024 (Register)
August 4, 2024 (Register)

What can art tell us about the relationship between plants and humans? Join us for the summer garden edition of this popular tour series as we gather at the Beal Botanical Garden with Maeve Bassett, Applied Ethnobotanist and Education Program Director. Together, we’ll unearth the historical, social, and political narratives growing within plants in the garden and artworks from the MSU Broad Art Museum’s collection.

12:10 - 1:00 p.m. 
Location: Beal Botanical Garden, meet at the shed

Join us for a lunchtime tour of the Beal Botanical Garden exploring plants helping to solve today’s biggest problems. Learn about plants mitigating pollution, slowing climate change, supporting human health, and fostering food security.

Instructor: Katie Fry, Collections Manager

This program is a collaboration with the MSU Library.

12:10 - 1:00 p.m. 
Location: Beal Botanical Garden, meet at the shed

Join us for a lunchtime tour to explore where plants get their names, including the stories of the good, the potentially problematic, the downright weird, and debate common vs. scientific names!

Instructor: Maeve Bassett, Education Program Director

This program is a collaboration with the MSU Library.

12:10 - 1:00 p.m. 
Location: Beal Botanical Garden, meet at the shed

Join us for a lunchtime tour of the Beal Botanical Garden to hear some of the plant lore created to explain or protect against the shortening days and darker, colder nights of winter. What’s the connection between corn and Dracula, Santa and Mario, which plants will protect you, and which ones to avoid?

Instructor: Maeve Bassett, Education Program Director

This program is a collaboration with the MSU Library.

12:10 - 1:00 p.m. 
Location: Beal Botanical Garden, meet at the shed

Join us for a lunchtime tour of the Beal Botanical Garden to enjoy the signs of fall, vibrant changing leaves, splitting seed pods, and plants getting ready for a cozy Michigan winter.

Instructor: Bethany Troy, Lead Gardener

This program is a collaboration with the MSU Library.