Hope Eternal Gardens Becomes Charlotte County’s First Accredited Arboretum
Punta Gorda natural burial cemetery earns Level I Accreditation from ArbNet and The Morton Arboretum
Media Contact:
Lauren Robie
(941) 413-0415
PUNTA GORDA, Fla. (October 9, 2026) – Hope Eternal Gardens has become Charlotte County’s first accredited arboretum, earning Level I Accreditation through the ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program and The Morton Arboretum.
The accreditation recognizes Hope Eternal Gardens for meeting professional standards related to planning, collection management, stewardship, public access, education, programming, and tree science. Hope is also now listed in the Morton Register of Arboreta, an international database of arboreta and gardens dedicated to woody plants.
Hope Eternal Gardens is a 42-acre natural burial cemetery and arboretum east of Punta Gorda. Since purchasing the former horse ranch and cattle pasture in 2020, its founders have been transforming the property through wildflower meadows, native plantings, and Miyawaki forests, a dense planting approach used to establish fast-growing, biodiverse forests.
The arboretum’s collection includes memorial forests created for individual families as well as community projects. One of the most significant is the Sgt. Elio Diaz Memorial Forest, planted in January 2025 by his family, friends, fellow officers, and members of the community.
Sgt. Diaz was a devoted husband, father, grandfather, and law enforcement officer who gave his life in service to others. His daughter, Nayleshka Luna, described the forest as “a living testament to the love of a community.”
“Every tree that has taken root, every branch that has reached toward the sky, and every new sign of growth is a reflection of the love that surrounds his memory,” Luna wrote on behalf of the Diaz family. “It takes root. It grows. It flourishes. And it lives on.”
The Sgt. Elio Diaz Memorial Forest is now part of Hope Eternal Gardens’ accredited arboretum collection, where it will be cared for, documented, and shared as a living memorial for generations to come.
Hope’s founders have also created memorial forests honoring their own parents, making the arboretum both a public project and a deeply personal commitment. These forests demonstrate how trees can carry memory, create habitat, and bring people together over time.
The accreditation also creates a stronger foundation for Hope Eternal Gardens’ role as a place for public learning and environmental stewardship in Charlotte County. Visitors can explore how native trees and memorial forests grow in Southwest Florida, while families, students, and community members can engage with the connections between remembrance, habitat, landscape design, and long-term care.
As the collection develops, Hope plans to continue documenting its trees and sharing what it learns with the public through the Museum of Trees, a digital arboretum and self-guided walking experience featuring tree profiles, photographs, dedications, growth records, and mapped locations.
“Hope Eternal Gardens has always been a place where remembrance, restoration, learning, and life come together,” said Lauren Robie, co-founder of Hope Eternal Gardens. “This accreditation recognizes the work already underway and gives us a stronger foundation to care for the collection, document what we learn, and invite more people to experience how trees can create lasting value for families and the wider community.”
The arboretum is open to visitors by appointment. Explore the collection online at the Museum of Trees. Learn more about what the accreditation means for Hope Eternal Gardens here.
About Hope Eternal Gardens
Hope Eternal Gardens is a natural burial cemetery and arboretum at 47990 Bermont Road in Punta Gorda, Florida. Founded by Lauren Robie and landscape architect Chris Alonso, Hope began welcoming the public in 2024 and combines natural burial with native landscape restoration, Miyawaki memorial forests, education, and long-term stewardship.
In the tradition of America’s early cemeteries, which served as parks, gardens, and outdoor galleries, Hope is designed as a place of remembrance, restoration, learning, and life. Learn more at HopeEternalGardens.com.
About ArbNet
In April 2011, The Morton Arboretum launched ArbNet and arbnet.org, an interactive community of arboreta and tree professionals designed to support the common purposes and interests of tree-focused public gardens. The Arboretum Accreditation Program was established through ArbNet at the same time to provide specific standards of professional practice, and offers four levels of accreditation. In tandem, they created the Morton Register of Arboreta—a global database of arboreta and other public gardens that have a substantial focus on woody plants.
Since its inception, ArbNet has accredited over 800 arboreta across 40 countries. In 2022, ArbNet was honored with the American Public Gardens Association Program Excellence Award. Into the next decade, ArbNet will engage its large and growing audience by continuing to support gardens in reaching their professional goals and milestones, sharing best practices and resources, improving urban forestry by supporting municipal tree collections, building capacity for smaller arboreta through grants and professional opportunities, establishing arboreta in biodiversity hotspots to facilitate conservation, supporting tree conservation efforts through partnership and networks, and finally, supporting scientific and horticultural research in arboretum collections of all sizes.
The ArbNet program is unique and impactful, which can be seen by its global footprint and diversity of arboreta. ArbNet supports a greener, healthier, and more beautiful world.
ArbNet’s founding organization, The Morton Arboretum, is an internationally recognized tree-focused botanical garden and research center. Its 1,700 acres of beautiful tree-filled landscapes are a place of enjoyment, a vibrant hub for nature education, and a world-renowned center for scientific research that studies trees and how to sustain them. As a nonprofit organization, The Morton Arboretum’s mission is to collect, study, display, and conserve trees and other plants from around the world to inspire learning, foster enjoyment, benefit communities, encourage action, and enhance the environment.
More information is available at www.arbnet.org.
