Photo: Lily Smith
It’s difficult to become an expert on a place as big and beautiful as the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, but thanks to a new 50-page guidebook, your chances have improved dramatically.
Penned by University of Minnesota professor emeritus Mary Meyer—the horticulturist who established the arboretum’s Ornamental Grass Collection and who once served as the arboretum’s interim director. Meyer was inspired by the guidebooks often found at public gardens abroad, especially in Europe, and decided the arboretum, with its many gardens, collections and natural spaces, certainly merited a helpful tome.
It contains seven tours, each with its own map and key to important and notable sites with plenty of surprises. Tours include a Showcase Gardens Tour, capturing the magnificence of the gardens near the Oswald Visitor Center; a Family Tour, covering kid-friendly places; a Gardener’s Tour, spotlighting special spots for horticulture aficionados; two Nature Lover’s tours, detailing the less-traveled wildlife paths; and two Art Lover’s Tours, creating an educational scavenger hunt of masterpieces both well-known and off the beaten paths. The back of the book includes a bit of arboretum history and further reading for home gardeners, too.
The stunning photography was provided exclusively by Jason Boudreau-Landis, a longtime arboretum volunteer and member of the Arboretum Photographers Society.
The guidebook is available in the Arboretum Gift and Garden Store and AppleHouse for $12.99 and would make a great gift for anyone who plans to visit as well as longtime fans.
Sarah Jackson is a media specialist at the arboretum. She lives and gardens in Minnetonka. Grow more at arb.umn.edu.
