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<p>I better not tell you about the First Collection for first year students in September then. The candle lighting gets my daughter welling up every time.</p>
<p>In addition to the rose, the Arboretum gives every student a Swarthmore seedling (complete with name tag) to take with them into the world. Most of them managed to kill the plant they received four years ago!</p>
<p>I haven’t even gone into the fun meeting friends families. We’ve gotten to know most of daughter’s friends over the years and some of their parents. Saturday afternoon, daughter and friends organized a little improptu gathering with wine and beer and cheese. It was supposed to be outside in the Worth courtyard (gorgeous place in its own right), but the rain motivated a forced entry into Bond Hall, which was lovely, too.</p>
<p>My advice is to learn all the little “secret” gardens around the Swarthmore campus and enjoy a couple of them on each visit. Sunday morning, we got parked in the Science Center lot before 8:00 am. My wife tended to the seats in the amphitheater while I got coffee from the snack bar and sat out on a bench in the Fragrance Garden, which I had totally to myself, listening to the bell tower over head.</p>
<p>[Theresa</a> Lang Fragrance Garden - Garden Tour - Scott Arboretum](<a href=“http://www.scottarboretum.org/gardentour/fragrance-garden/]Theresa”>http://www.scottarboretum.org/gardentour/fragrance-garden/)</p>