Northern
Oklahoma
College

Northern Oklahoma College (NOC) is one of our most recent affiliate gardens of the Oklahoma Botanical Garden and Arboretum. Since its establishment in 1901 as a land grant institution, NOC has maintained beautiful gardens. Campus beautification was a top priority of the third president Lynn Glover (1911-1916). After his plans came to pass, area citizens considered the campus one of the most beautiful in the entire Southwest.


Although the landscaping has changed throughout the years in keeping with the times, NOC has always considered beautiful surroundings an important part of the student experience as well as an aesthetic value for the community. Since 1989, the gardens have been redesigned by current head gardener, Kelley McKenzie. The new plan incorporates existing architectural features and vistas.

A rose garden surrounding the main campus entrance draws the visitor's eye to the spacious lawn leading to Central Hall, the oldest campus building. This area also contains many varieties of trees. For the past six years at least one new specimen tree has been added to the campus annually with a mass planting of 150 redbuds commemorating the first annual Redbud Festival in 1995, hosted by NOC and the Tonkawa Chamber of Commerce.
In February 1993, a 2,016 square foot Quonset greenhouse with a 7,500 plant capacity was constructed for growing annual bedding plants. Since that time, 4,000 to 6,000 annual bedding plants have been planted each spring around building entrances and existing flower beds, providing brilliant splashes of color throughout the main campus.

Future plans include the establishment of a nature walk along the abandoned railroad bed on the south border of the campus and new butterfly and/or hummingbird flower beds.
Click here to return to the Affiliate Gardens.