The Karaca Arboretum is located in Samanlı village, which is on Yalova-Termal highway 5km away from the city centrum.Arboretums are living plant museums in which in which mostly a collection of rare trees and shrubs whose origin is well-known and that are carefully classified, is cultivated for scientific, obser­vational or educational purposes in suitable habitats for exhibition. The living plant gardens where every tree, bush, shrub and herbaceous plant are gathered together and correctly and carefully labelled for scientific and display purposes, are also called the Botanic Gardens.

The Karaca Arboretum project has been started as a hou­se garden in 1976 by Hayrettin Karaca. In year 1980. as a results of the developments and an increase in Karaca's interest to the field caused to transformation of the gar­den to a real Arboretum by himself. Arboretum, is situ­ated on a field of 13, 5 hectar and nowadays includes an estimate of 7000 different plant types, kinds, sub-groups, variety and culture forms. Karaca Arboretum is the first private Arboretum of Turkey. It includes rock plants, iris and rose gardens, miniature plants and Turkish eastern bonsai plant collections. It also involves the kinds of es­sential type and culture forms of the significant collections such as Acer, Prunus, Malus, Magnolia, Quercus, Betula, Pinus, Abies, and Picea.

A trip in Arboretum takes about 1,5 hours. Every year Ka­raca Arboretum is visited by. around 15.000 tourists both from inland and foreign countries. Among the most impor­tant facilities of Karaca Arboretum are providing practicum opportunities to college students, raising the awareness of ordinary people as it is open to public, supplying the arbo­retums and botanic gardens in various regions of Turkey with plant materials, providing training opportunities for gardening, making exchanges of seeds with arboretums and botanic gardens all around the world, continuing the expansion of plant collections, building new gardens in Ar­boretum can be listed. The financial support to all of these facilities is provided by Karaca Arboretum Tree Nursery facility located in Karaca Arboretum. The Tree nursery is open everyday. Karaca Arboretum has been awarded by International Dendrology Society in June 2004 and the reward has been presented to Hayrettin Karaca by the president of International Dendrology Society in a award ceremony held in Arboretum on 27 June 2004. Up that to­day, this award had been given only to 14 Arboretum or collection gardens. Karaca Arboretum has been the 15th Arboretum to be awarded.

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