By Holly Einess The next few weeks will be a great time to see many of Minnesota’s spring ephemerals blooming in the Arboretum’s Dayton Wildflower Garden. These beauties grow, bloom and become dormant in a relatively short period of time, taking advantage of the sunlight available to them in the spring before the tree canopy has fully leafed out. Below is a sampling of what was in bloom on a recent sunny day visit.  Bloodroot (poppy family) Gets its name from the red-orange juice in its roots and stems. The leaves curl around the flower stem at night and on cloudy days, opening on sunny ..read more

By Mary Beth Pottratz Brilliant gold daffodils bloom in large swaths at the Arboretum. Early tulips are just opening their petals, but most tulip buds are tightly closed with hints of color at their seams. With today’s high temperature at 61 degrees, boreal chorus frogs are singing from the wetlands.  Black-capped chickadees are calling their “feee-beee” tunes. A northern cardinal loudly whistles its song. An eastern phoebe chortles its name repeatedly. Daffodils and eastern phoebe In the woodland, northern bedstraw and Virginia waterleaf are a few inches tall. A pair of pileated woodpeck ..read more

By Zan Tomko The Arboretum is a big space that reveals many small, intimate moments. It delights as it overwhelms, inviting visitors to stop and take a closer look. What do you see? The flit of a bird’s wing? What do you hear? Water flowing over rocks or the sound of wind through the trees?  A visit to the Arboretum provides many small moments to connect with nature. Haiku poetry shows us a way to describe those magical moments at the Arboretum or in any natural setting. The American Society of Poets defines haiku as a traditional Japanese form of poetry that often depicts images from nat ..read more

Great news! The Arboretum’s live osprey cam is ON and — just in time — the osprey are BACK!    Staff at the Arboretum first spotted an adult male on the cam nest at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 9. By April 11, a couple of osprey were in the nest eating fish and engaging in friendly behaviors.  Astute watchers have reported that the male bird is marked with a PV band, which is not the male that nested here in the past few years. He is banded, rather, with the letters MS. If MS comes back to claim his nest, things could get interesting.  One thing that may help this year’s ..read more

This year, the Arboretum is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the historic Leon C. Snyder Building. Named for the Arboretum’s first director, Leon C. Snyder, the building opened in 1974 and served as the Arboretum’s first visitor center and education and research headquarters. Renowned Minnesota architect Edwin Lundie designed the building in the style of a European country manner.  The Snyder Building in the 1970s is almost unrecognizable without the mature landscape surrounding it today. Plans for the construction of a new visitor center were first announced to the Arboretum community ..read more

By Holly Einess It feels like spring has finally arrived on this mild blue-sky day at the Arboretum. A Canada goose pair is strolling along the edge of the Iris Garden pond, perhaps scoping out a nest site. A flock of dark-eyed juncos calls noisily to one another. They will soon be heading north to nest. Some local birders claim that juncos stick around until the final snowfall of the year, then promptly leave town; if that’s true, we may have one last taste of winter still to come!  Dark-eyed juncos will soon head north to nest. A few spring ephemerals are beginning to emerge in the Dayt ..read more

By Mary Beth Pottratz Spring has crept silently into the landscape. Tulip tips are two or three inches above their beds. A few groups of yellow daffodils reflect the sun. Flocks of robins, starlings and chickadees flit between trees. Their furtive “check” and “chip” calls can barely be heard above the wind. The ground is glowing green in spots where tiny sedges, blades of grass and clumps of moss appear.  In the Annual Garden, tulip tips are two or three inches above their beds. The first day of spring will occur Tuesday, March 19. The length of our day and night will become equal!  ..read more

By Zan Tomko For the past 30 days, my coat rack at home has looked like a free-for-all at a flea market. Scarves, gloves, hats, down-jacket, sweaters, sweatshirts, wind-slicker, boots, sandals, long-sleeves and short-sleeves; there is no room for all four seasons on a coat rack.  But here we are, in an unfamiliar season of weather wonder and woe. Below is a chart I made of the highs (blue) and lows (red) we have been through in the metro area in the last 30 days. The high and low temperatures of 30 spring days. NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, collects and stores ..read more

By Jean Larson March is an energizing and astronomically significant month. In the northern hemisphere, it’s the month of the vernal equinox — the first day of spring! This year, the vernal equinox is March 19, the day the sun’s rays shine directly onto the equator, making the length of the night and day (almost) equal. It’s the month the earth awakens, birds migrate overhead and plants push their way up from the ground.  Photo by Jason Boudreau-Landis March is the perfect time to embrace the energy of the new season and fresh beginnings.  There are plenty of ways to tap into the tra ..read more

By Mary Beth Pottratz This morning’s dappled sunshine has given way to bright haze. Geese squawk overhead and disappear behind the woodland.  Blue tubing crisscrosses maple trees in the forest, and I see several blue bags and buckets attached to some trees as well. Is it maple syrup time already?  Blue tubing crisscrosses maple trees near Frog Hollow at the Arboretum. I head to Frog Hollow to find out and happen upon the Arboretum’s Natural Resources Horticulturist, Richard DeVries. He manages the process of tapping, collecting, boiling and producing maple syrup. I ask how our record ..read more