Seasonal Exhibitions
Morris Arboretum & Gardens displays a rotation of innovative exhibitions that enhance the garden experience.
There's always something new to discover at the Morris! Throughout the year, seasonal exhibitions bring together plants, art, history, and hands-on experiences to offer fresh ways to explore the gardens. From interactive family activities to immersive displays and special garden features, each exhibition invites visitors to experience nature from a new perspective.
Current Exhibitions
Garden Railway: Revolutionary Philly
NOW THROUGH SEPTEMBER 30, 2026
Morris Arboretum & Gardens’ beloved Garden Railway returns with a new theme, Garden Railway: Revolutionary Philly, placing this signature attraction at the center of the Morris’s America 250 storytelling. Set within lush garden plantings, the immersive miniature landscape celebrates Philadelphia’s pivotal role in the nation’s founding and brings Revolutionary history vividly to life.
Plants from the Colonial Era
NOW THROUGH SEPTEMBER 30, 2026
Explore the living landscape of eighteenth-century Philadelphia! This self-guided exhibition highlights plants that would have been familiar to area residents during the colonial era. These plants supported daily life in countless ways, providing food, medicine, building materials, and sources of beauty and comfort. From plants found in home gardens to those in Penn’s woods, many of which were long-stewarded by local Indigenous communities, the exhibition reveals how nature shaped civic life, independence, and resilience in early Philadelphia.
Exuberant Blooms
NOW THROUGH SEPTEMBER 30, 2026
This year’s display weaves vibrant seasonal plantings with striking architectural elements created from wood reclaimed through our own arboricultural work—giving pruned limbs a thoughtful second life in the garden. Shaped into striking arches, trellises, and sculptural forms, these natural structures add height and movement, inviting you to explore nature in new ways and celebrating the beauty of responsible stewardship while adding structure and story to the landscape. Vines climb overhead, birds find places to rest, and in some areas, you can wander beneath and around these structures.
Past Exhibitions
Pursuit of Happiness: Finding Joy in Nature
JUNE 13 – AUGUST 31, 2026
As the nation marked 250 years of independence with large parades and public festivities, the Morris Arboretum & Gardens offered a peaceful alternative, a sanctuary where visitors could recharge, reconnect, and rediscover happiness through the restorative power of nature. The exhibition included tree swings, a sensory cottage, wind chimes in the trees, colorful Adirondack chairs, and more.
Bees, Butterflies & Blooms: A Pollinator Paradise
MAY 23 – SEPTEMBER 30, 2025
The Morris became a paradise for bees, butterflies, and other pollinators! Each month brought together people, plants, and pollinators in meaningful ways with fun workshops, engaging programs, and specialty guided tours, making this exhibition a delightful and eye-opening experience for all ages.
Summer of Dinos
MAY 25 – SEPTEMBER 30, 2024
Visitors were invited to discover Plants in the Age of Dinosaurs—a self-guided exhibition featuring plants in our collection with roots that go back to prehistoric times. There was also a brand-new dinosaur exhibition in the Garden Railway, Garden Railway: Dinos! Plus, a pop-up paleontologist’s cottage featuring hands-on “dig stations” and special family programming,
90th Anniversary
MARCH – DECEMBER 2023
We celebrated this historic milestone by unveiling a new name, a refreshed brand, and a renewed emphasis on colorful plantings. We reopened our popular Rose Garden and revealed Exuberant Blooms, and throughout the year we held events and programs in celebration of our anniversary. We also shared bits of our history every week on social media—check out #90yearsofMorris to get a glimpse into our past.
Summer of Swings
JUNE 24 – OCTOBER 2, 2022
Summer of Swings was a seasonal exhibit that invited visitors of all ages to experience the Morris in a totally new way—while perched on one of 10 swings placed strategically across 92 acres of spectacular gardens.