About this Event
The Arboretum of the University of South Carolina
Everyone is invited to Open House the 3rd Sunday of every month, 1 - 4 p.m. Always free admission. Tickets and registration are not required.
Rain or shine unless conditions are stormy. We'll update here if storms force us to cancel.
Weekly Open Hours:
Wednesdays and Saturdays 9 am - 12 pm
Thursdays: Winter 3 - 5
OPEN HOUSE November 15, 2026, 1 - 4 pm
Growing Up Gardening with Arlene Marturano at 1:30 pm
Meet in the Outdoor Classroom
Arlene Marturano will present concepts and demonstrate activities from her new book, Growing Up Gardening: Gateways to Gardening with Children.
A longtime friend of the arboretum, Arlene is a passionate, knowledgeable teacher educator and garden writer. She directs the South Carolina Garden-based Learning Network, a teaching garden consulting firm that guides families, informal educators, pre-service and in-service teachers in methods to utilize gardens to develop reading skills (Reading the Environment), to develop healthy eating habits (Fresh Fast Fun Food Gardens to Go), to restore habitats for native plants and animals (Gardening is For the Birds, Monarch Waystations) to care for houseplants (The Plant Hospital, Budding Botanists Trick Winter by Forcing Blooms), and to participate in citizen science (Project FeederWatch, Budburst).
She wrote a Kids Gardening column in The State newspaper for thirteen years and continues to write the weekly garden column in The Columbia Star for over twenty-five years. Her publications on reading the environment, environmental and outdoor education, and gardening with children appear in many journals.
Her USC students planted a Monarch Waystation at the Carolina Community Garden, and in 2025 she installed a Monarch Waystation at the Lourie Center. Each fall she gives demonstrations how to tag and release monarch butterflies enroute to Mexico.
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Visit the botanic garden horseshoe, pollinator display gardens, and walk through 10 biomes of South Carolina along a 1/3 mile trail.
Special stops are at the longleaf pines atop a bluff of fossilized sand dunes, the boardwalk overlooking a creeek and bald cypress swamp, a grove of Atlantic white cypress in the central wetland, and the allee of ancient tulip trees in the ravine. Pause at the waterfall or other scenic stops and take in the gifts of nature, here in the middle of town.
* Pets are not permitted in this wildlife sanctuary.
* Note that pathways are natural and pass through hilly terrain.
* Restroom facilities are available.
Event venue & nearby stays
W. Gordon Belser Arboretum, 4080 Bloomwood Road, Columbia, United States
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