Celebrate a special occasion or create a permanent tribute for a family member, friend, or colleague. Your tribute gift supports our mission to inspire people—through cultivation, conservation and education—to understand, appreciate, and nurture plants and the cultures they sustain.
Tribute Tree: A Living Honor
Cornell Botanic Gardens will designate and name one of the trees in the F. R. Newman Arboretum in accordance with your wishes. A special tag is placed on the tree with the commemorative language that you provide. We collect, plant, and nurture trees with a purpose. Our goal is to create as diverse a collection as possible, featuring a wide range of both native and cultivated varieties of trees and shrubs that are hardy in New York State. Special collections include oaks, maples, conifers, crabapples, and urban trees.
The minimum gift for a tribute tree is $5,000, for a 25-year tribute designation. If the tree is damaged, fails, or must be removed for any reason within 25 years, another tree will be designated in as close to the original location as possible. At the end of the original term, we will contact the donor or next-of-kin to discuss options for renewing the tribute.
Tribute Bench: A Place to Relax & Remember
Benches are made of wood or stone, and are placed at strategic sites selected by our landscape designer and staff in the gardens, arboretum, or natural areas. Donors provide the wording for a bronze commemorative plaque on the bench.
The minimum gift to designate a tribute bench is $25,000, for a 25-year tribute designation. A larger gift may be required for bench sites that require special landscape design and site preparation work. If the bench is damaged or must be removed for any reason within 25 years, it will be replaced in as close to the original location as possible. At the end of the original term, we will contact the donor or next-of-kin to discuss options for renewing the tribute.
How We Use Tribute Gifts
A portion of each gift for a tribute tree or bench is used to pay the expenses associated with establishing the new designation.
Search Tribute Benches and Plaques
Search and locate your loved ones’ tribute bench or plaque using the off-site portal Garden Explorer, which draws the information directly from our records (capability to search tribute trees coming soon!).
Contact Us
For more information about establishing a memorial or tribute at Cornell Botanic Gardens, please contact Susan Doney at 607-254-6511.