Hidden Lake Gardens colloquially known as Hidden Lake , is a botanical garden and an arboretum operated by Michigan State University situated in the Irish Hills of southeast Michigan. The Gardens are known for their large collection of native and nonnative trees, shrubs and flowers. HLG was given to Michigan State University by Harry Fee in 1945. Today it is visited by nearly 45,000 people annually. Hidden Lake Gardens mission is to "preserve and enhance the natural beauty of the gardens and to display plants for the inspiration and education of the public". History Hidden Lake Gardens began with Harry Fee, an Adrian businessman, purchased of land surrounding the "Hidden Lake" upon his retirement in 1926. He began with the intent to farm, but after realizing the land was not suitable for agriculture, he began to grow nursery stock instead. Fee decided that he did not want to compete with local nurseries during the Great Depression, so he began planting his trees and shrubs on the property. Fee sought to create picturesque landscape scenes, embellishing on the natural environment of his property to create a “series of pictures.” In 1945, Harry Fee would donate Hidden Lake Gardens to Michigan State University, and his generous Financial endowment continues to develop the gardens with additional land acquisitions, building construction, and educational programs and visitor services. Arboretum A large portion of Hidden Lake Gardens has been planted as an arboretum - a collection of trees and shrubs. Here visitors can view a wide variety of flowering crabapples, beeches, lindens, maples, oaks, lilacs and other trees and shrubs. A large collection of conifers is also included. Harper Collection of Rare & Dwarf Conifers This collection contains approximately 600 specimens of conifers. Selected cultivars of pines, firs, spruces, larches, hemlocks, false cypress, arborvitae and junipers are displayed in a garden setting. These rare conifers and slow growing cultivars are labeled so that they can be easily identified. Justin (Chub) Harper donated the collection to Hidden Lake Gardens in 1980 and Jack Wikle worked to establish the conifer collection at Hidden Lake Gardens. Hosta Hillside Situated along the shore of Hidden Lake, the hillside garden provides the perfect shaded setting for hosta. More than 700 cultivars are displayed here showing off the wide variety of foliage colors, textures, and sizes of hosta that are available. Other shade loving plants are intermingled with hosta along the cascading