Cornell Botanic Gardens' Vision: A world in which the interdependence of biological and cultural diversity is respected, sustained, and celebrated.
Mission: Inspiring people - through cultivation, conservation, and education - to understand, appreciate, and nurture plants and the cultures they sustain.
By size, Cornell Botanic Gardens is in the top five gardens in North America. More than 50,000 plants are found in the 150 acres of cultivated gardens, which include world-class collections of herbs, rhododendrons, conifers, maples, oaks and flowering trees. The Cornell Botanic Gardens also stewards 3,400 acres of natural area preserves on campus and throughout Tompkins County. These holdings along with educational outreach efforts support teaching and research at Cornell and learning opportunities for all ages.
In 2015 the Botanic Gardens' F.R. Newman Arboretum was ranked the most beautiful college arboretum in the country. The organization's stewardship of natural areas that are home to rare species helped the university earn full points for biodiversity conservation and, for a fourth consecutive year, attain gold status in the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating (STAR) System, a national framework for colleges and universities to track sustainability efforts.