The Wild Reed: An Afternoon at the Arboretum

Thursday, October 15, 2015

An Afternoon at the Arboretum

This past Saturday, October 10, 2015, I spent the afternoon with my friend Brent (left) at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.

It was a very enjoyable time . . . with glorious fall weather and lots of interesting and colorful photo ops, as I hope the images I share today confirm!

Notes Wikipedia:

The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is a 1,137-acre (4.60 km2) horticultural garden and arboretum located in Chaska, Minnesota. It is part of the Department of Horticultural Science in the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences at the University of Minnesota, and open to the public every day of the year except Thanksgiving and Christmas. An admission fee is charged. It is the Upper Midwest's largest public garden.

The arboretum's earliest area was established in 1907 as the Horticultural Research Center, which developed cold-hardy crops such as the Honeycrisp apple and Northern Lights azaleas. In 1958 the arboretum itself was begun on 160 acres (0.65 km2) founded by Leon C. Snyder. By now the arboretum is the largest, most diverse, and most complete horticultural site in Minnesota, with over 5000 plant varieties, and approaching its goal of protecting its entire watershed (1200 acres).

Opening image and above: "Stone Arch" (limestone, 1995) by Swiss sculptor René Küng (b. 1934). I see a hare, don't you?

Continues Wikipedia:

The arboretum features annual and perennial display gardens, plants developed for northern climates, demonstration gardens, a Japanese garden, and natural areas including woodlands, prairie, and marshes. Its collections include clematis, dahlias, ornamental grasses, hostas, iris, wildflowers, and cultivated and hardy shrub roses. The arboretum also includes a horticultural library and conservatory, as well as miles of hiking and cross-country skiing trails.

The Meyers-Deats Conservatory features bromeliad, orchid, and cactus collections and tropical houseplants. The Andersen Horticultural Library houses 15,000 books covering botany, horticulture, natural history, children's literature, research materials, and nursery catalogs.