Minnesota Landscape Arboretum
Mon, May 5, 2025, 9:30am
3675 Arboretum Drive
Chaska, MN 55318
We are so fortunate that Peter Moe, retired Minnesota Landscape Arboretum director and UMRA member, will be leading a hiking tour of the Arboretum again this year. This was our most popular hike last year with 28 hikers attending. Let’s top that number this year!
We will meet on the welcoming terrace in front of the Oswald Visitor Center at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, May 5, to start our hike.
We will travel through the Arboretum's display gardens to the beginning of the Three-Mile Walk, which starts near the Sensory Garden and continues through the woodland Wildflower Garden and the Shade Tree Exhibit. We will leave the Three-Mile Walk and take a loop around the perimeter of the Tall Grass Prairie and then return to the Three-Mile Walk to visit the Harrison Sculpture Garden and many other plant collections.
Every spring is different
At the Rhododendron Garden we will head up to the Farm at the Arb to see the 1920 Red Barn and Tashjian Bee & Pollinator Discovery Center. We will return to the Three-Mile Walk for a short distance, and then cut across the Sphagnum Bog on the boardwalk to the Green Heron Trail and back to the Display Gardens and Oswald Visitor Center. The total of all segments is approximately 4.5 miles. There will be options to head back to the visitor center early for those who want a shorter hike.
Every spring is different in Minnesota but on this date last year, the amazing tulip display was at its peak, and we will undoubtedly enjoy seeing many spring-blooming trees, shrubs, wildflowers, and perennials.
Peter will arrange for group tickets at a discounted cost of $17 per person for non-members of the Arboretum. Plan to pay Peter your entrance fee in cash at the event. Hikers who are Arboretum members need to reserve their entrance to the Arboretum for that day (at no additional charge).
Plan to stay for lunch together (optional) after the hike at the Rootstock café on the second floor of the Oswald Visitor Center. It’s a lovely place to gather.
Please sign up for this hike (required). Your completed form will be used to buy tickets, and to be sure everyone who signs up has arrived before the start of the hike. Registrations will be accepted up to 24 hours before the hike.
—Bev Moe and Michael Luxenberg, UMRA Hiking Club co-leaders
Upcoming Events
The Black Count: Glory and Betrayal by Tom Reiss, published in 2012 and winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in biography, will be the selection for discussion when UMRA’s Fourth Friday Book Club meets via Zoom at 2 p.m. on Friday, April 25. Newcomers are welcome.
Morris Campus Retirees will host a Zoom meeting. Morris Campus Retirees are part of the University of Minnesota Retiree Association (UMRA). The group has already held two meetings in its first year of existence.
Peter Moe, retired Minnesota Landscape Arboretum director and UMRA member, will be leading a hiking tour of the Arboretum again this year. The amazing tulip display was at its peak for our hike last year, and we will undoubtedly enjoy seeing many spring-blooming trees, shrubs, wildflowers, and perennials. Plan to stay for lunch together (optional) after the hike at the Rootstock café in the Oswald Visitor Center.
UMRA’s Family History Interest Group will meet via Zoom on Wednesday, May 7, for an open discussion of ideas, insights, questions, and issues related to family history, and to discuss topics for next year’s meetings.
We will revisit the University of Minnesota Archives, with its major holdings largely tucked away in two huge underground caverns along the Mississippi River under the West Bank campus, holds the essential records of our University of Minnesota’s past. University Archivist Erik Moore will interpret the holdings and bring out a sampling of what it holds. We will also get a tour of the caverns (Minnesota Library Access Center), revealing where these precious materials are housed, including the original tapes of KUOM, now Radio K.
Cancer has touched all of us. If you are willing to share your cancer journey or talk about your experience with a person you have supported, please consider attending the May 8 UMRA breakfast gathering at The Original Pancake House in Roseville.
You are cordially invited to this presentation by Andy Whitman, Professor, Attorney, Volunteer Financial Planner. He will discuss investments for your grandchildren.
The UMRA Photo Club is having a photo shoot at the Como Park Conservatory in St. Paul on Tuesday, May 13.
Financial scams are a multi-billion-dollar enterprise, and learning how to spot and avoid scams is more important than ever to your financial health. For UMRA’s May workshop, Jay Haapala, leader of AARP’s Fraud Watch Network, will share with us the latest criminal trends in scamming and how to avoid them.
The UMRA Book Club will discuss The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon when it meets via Zoom on May 16.
.Wood Lake Nature Center is a peaceful 150-acre cattail marsh, woodland, and restored prairie that is a haven for migrating birds and waterfowl. This UMRA hike is a great opportunity for those who would like a shorter, easier hike. The trails are dirt, grass, and woodchip, with some bridges and a bit of paved trails. Only a couple small hills to navigate, the park is mostly flat.
University of Minnesota Regent Penny Wheeler, MD, will be the featured guest for the UMRA luncheon forum on May 20. In place of the usual speech format for our forums, Regent Wheeler will be interviewed by UMRA member and liaison to the Board of Regents John Finnegan, professor and dean emeritus of the U of M School of Public Health.
I, Claudius by English writer Robert Graves, published in 1934, will be up for discussion when UMRA's Fourth Friday Book Club meets via Zoom on May 23.
The UMRA Book Club will discuss The Great River by Boyce Upton when it meets via Zoom on June 20.
Learn about writing memoirs, technology for seniors, campus architecture, and more at the fourth annual Age-Friendly University Day to be held in the McNamara Alumni Center on the Twin Cities campus in Minneapolis on Monday, June 23.
Catch up with friends and former colleagues, meet new UMRA members, enjoy delicious food, and participate in the third annual UMRA Summer Social Quiz at the Como Lakeside Pavilion in St. Paul on Wednesday, June 25.