idabean is referring to the rural landscape cemetery movement, which came about as cities realized that land was getting scarcer and didn't need to be tied up with, ahem, dead folks. Additionally, the cemeteries of the early 1800s were rather dreary places and didn't inspire one to invest much in your dearly deceased. So - in the attempt to save the land nearest the urban centers for more lucrative endeavors, properties were sought out in the relative hinterlands and efforts made to make them more of a place to go visit and spend time with the loved one departed. Sort of like parks for the passed. Mount Auburn Cemetery actually precedes Frederick Law Olmsted Sr.'s design career. I think it dates to the early 1830s, and Olmsted began at Central Park in NYC in the late 1850s. Still, it is a fine example of working with the topography in laying out the design, and then making it beautiful and beckoning with the plantings and architecture. Back to the question: most all large cities took up this baton, and established their own rural landscape cemeteries. I'm very familiar with the Big Three of the Ohio River valley region. ***Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati OH (700+ acres) ***Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville KY (400+ acres) ***Lexington Cemetery, Lexington KY (150+ acres) These are all fine institutions that have maintained the traditions of their founding, and all have excellent horticultural collections - reaching arboretum status. Don't have the skills to post pics here, but I have many from each of these sites. The Ginkgo biloba at Cave Hill Cemetery is absolutely (and appropriately) other-worldly.

Thank you very much for the ID's. The first one is near the spot where I saw the bad-looking P. mugo subsp. rotunda about which I asked an ID too. At first I though they were both the same species because they looked similar, but when I went too look closer then I could see the cones were definitely different. Funny part is that someone else suggested in that thread where I asked for an ID that it could be P. thunbergii. So I guess both trees are similar looking indeed. The second one I think comes from a hedge close-by that was (I think) never trimmed and therefore started producing cones. The third one is almost a miracle to me. Closest Abies koreana that I'm aware of is at least a few hundred meters away from where I found it. I'm very glad I dug it out too because A. koreana was also on my wanted list. :)

a crushed leaf... for a brief second or two.. might smell like rootbeer but sometimes not ... but all 3 will smell the same.. if the same.. rootbeer or not... ken

Cardamine bulbosa, or similar. But that's just a guess. It really needs a shot of the leaves to lock down the ID.