Anthony Aiello

Anthony Aiello is Associate Director of Collections at Longwood Gardens, where he participates in tree conservation, plant exploration and evaluation, and collections development.  Previously he served for over 20 years as the Director of Horticulture and Curator at the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania, where he managed their historic gardens and living collections. These positions have allowed him to travel throughout the U.S., Europe, China, and Japan to find novel plants suitable for growing in the Delaware Valley.  He has a B.S. from Cornell University and M.S. from Purdue University and for many years chaired the North America-China Plant Exploration Consortium (NACPEC) and participated in the APGA’s taxonomy and plant collections committees. 

Anthony’s interests include temperate trees and shrubs, in particular oaks, maples, hollies, witchhazels, and flowering cherries, as well as economic botany and the history of horticulture. He has written extensively about his travels, as well as his historic and plant interests.