Road Trips Gardeners driving through middle Georgia should put the Lockerly Arboretum on their agenda.

The 50-acre public garden, 1534 Irwinton Road, Milledgeville, Georgia (map), was founded in 1965.

Admission to the Arboretum is free of charge. The grounds are open frim 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday (closed Sunday).

The historic home on the site was built in 1852 after the original house (Rose Hill) burned. In 1928, after it was purchased by Reginald R. Hatcher, the house was named Lockerley for an estate in Hampshire, England, that was said to be the ancestral home of Mrs. Hatcher’s family. In 1963, the house and grounds were sold to Edward J. Grassmann of Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Mr. Grassmann established the Lockerly Arboretum Foundation in 1965 (the spelling of the name was changed at that time). The Lockerly grounds, about 26 acres at the time, were set aside as a public garden and horticultural education facility. After a major restoration of Lockerly Hall, it served as a guest house for Mr. Grassmann’s American Industrial Clay Company. In 1998, the Greek Revival house was acquired from English China Clays PLC by the arboretum and was opened to the public as a house museum.

(Photo courtesy of Lockerly Arboretum)