Mississippi State University’s garden Crosby Arboretum in Picayune was recently awarded the esteemed Garden Excellence Award for it’s phenomenal horticultural practices, but this isn’t the only award it received this year.

Best College Reviews, an online organization, recently ranked Crosby Arboretum seventh in their “Top 50 Most Beautiful College Arboretums” list this year. On the website, it mentions the arboretum as “a small paradise in the Deep South” because of its unique and natural features.

In the description it states, “The Crosby Arboretum is the premier native plant conservatory in the Southeast and is a resource for education in the region and the world.” This is a great representation of what the Crosby Arboretum has to offer, besides beautiful scenery.

Patricia Drackett, Crosby Arboretum’s director, mentioned the vast educational exhibits it provides to the public and also the opportunities it can provide for the students at Mississippi State University to gain experience in landscape and construction.

The Crosby Arboretum has a lot to offer; it has 20 acres of savanna exhibits, 40 acres of woodlands and four acres of aquatic waterways. This provides a full base of knowledge about the local environment and how to grow and sustain a local garden.

Drackett said one of the greatest things the arboretum offers is education to those curious about growing their own gardens and how certain plants thrive with other plants and certain insects.

It’s a beautiful place, but if you look at the arboretum at a larger perspective, you will see the wisdom it holds between each blade of grass.