Klehm Arboretum & Botanic Garden

Specialties

Garden Tours

Business Meeting Venue

Garden Weddiing Venue

Wedding Reception Venue

History

Established in 1985.

This 155-​acre site begins with landscape architect William Lincoln Taylor, who established the land as Rockford Nursery in 1910. Many of the rare trees on the site are a result of experimental plantings by Mr. Taylor.

The Klehm family bought the nursery in 1968 and maintained the land until 1985. Realizing its value, the Klehm family generously donated the land to the Winnebago County Forest Preserve District with the stipulation it be maintained as an arboretum.

Consulting arborists completed a professional inventory of the site in 1991. They concluded that Klehm Arboretum has an assortment of plant life unlike any other natural area in the United States. The combination of native plants and those from around the world provides a unique botanical resource for study. The site includes many unique species from throughout the United States that normally do not thrive in this region, plus the Midwest’s most vigorous evergreen collection.