What’s Your Favorite Arboretum Memory?
We recently asked Arboretum members, Facebook friends and staff, “What is your favorite Arboretum memory?” We published some memories in the April-May 2011 Arboretum newsletter. Here are some additional replies:.
“Writing a book on the meaning of the Christmas tree in a fictional story in the quiet and beautiful tranquility of the Anderson Horticultural Library.”
—Casey Schutrop
“My favorite memory at the Arboretum is in the spring when we lift the roses with the Minnesota Rose Society and Arboretum staff. That to me is exhilarating and signifies spring.”
—Tedd Pew, Arboretum landscape gardener
“My favorite memory of the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is the very first time I went there. It was late October and the fall colors were magnificent. It was foggy and lightly raining that day, which made the landscape feel so dream-like. It felt like my friend and I were on the set of ‘Sleepy Hollow.’ We walked for hours on the trails and through the gardens. I fell in love with the Arboretum right away and can’t wait to go back!”
—Ilona Lazar
“My favorite memory is celebrating my good friend's 60th birthday with a troupe of eight of us on a Sunday noon in July 2010. We traversed the trails, lost in conversation and observation, then lunched in a pavilion near the rose garden, where wedding guests
gathered. We videotaped our friend telling each of us how our individual qualities will help us succeed at turning 60 (when the day finally arrives, years from now!), with the lovely Arboretum surroundings in the background. A day to remember!”
—Heather Olson
“Bringing my grandchildren there to run through the maze. Such fun.”
—Sally McKee Hofmeister
“This is easy. I was over by the play area/tree house by myself this spring and was able to watch a turtle dig her nest and lay her eggs in the middle of the play area! I have a picture of it on my phone. What a blessed time that was.”
—Celeste Coy
“Last January I found myself having a particularly difficult time dealing with the long, dark, cold days of winter. My son and daughter-in-law were expecting their first baby, which meant that I was about to be a grandmother. This in itself was hard for me to get used to. But the baby was overdue, and my anxiety was seeping through into my work life. … I was close to tears nearly every day for a couple of weeks. A very dear friend suggested we both take a half-day off from work and go out to the Arboretum. So we did. We got our tea and our muffins and sat by the fireplace for two hours, talking about life and work and hard times and friendship. And by the time the sun was beginning to set, I was renewed and refreshed. My beautiful grandson was born three days later and I regained my equilibrium.”
—Joan Olson
“My favorite memory of the arboretum is when my family would go to a picnic shelter at the Arboretum and have a picnic lunch or dinner and then walk around on some of the paths and explore and look at all the beautiful plants. We always like to walk on the bog trail, which we are happy is open again.”
—Judy Keller
“I don't think this would be ‘allowed’ now, but I recall going to the Arboretum as a grade schooler after St. Hubert's Mass for picnics and playing touch football with my brothers, my father and other large (Catholic) families. Parks were few and far between back in the 1960s but the Arboretum had open land.”
—Ann Herzog-Olson, corporate sponsorship manager, Minnesota Landscape Arboretum
“Two special days, several years apart. Both in the spring when the blossoming apple trees formed a celestial canopy overhead. I was mourning my brother-in-law's & my mother's deaths. The beauty of God's creation helped begin the healing.”
—Lindsey Kayala Finch
“There are lots of good memories like watching two rowdy young sons stopped cold by the beauty of a flower: ‘Mommy, look at THIS one!’ However, my favorite memory has to be enjoying the gardens with my mother, who was a superb, meticulous gardener. The fun was watching her spot every problem.’ We had to frequently remind her that she could not start weeding or dead heading. Given half a chance, she would have started rearranging the perennials!”
—Rochelle Eastman
“My favorite Arboretum memory is actually a composite of days that I put together years ago, when my children were young. If I ever got a day ‘child free,’ I would choose to come to the Arboretum, it didn't matter what time of the year it was. I would wander the gardens, shuffle through the snow, I didn't much care about the time of year. Being here would refill that pitcher from which a mother always pours. After a morning outdoors, I would go to the Tea Room where the lovely women working there would make ME a sandwich and give ME a bowl of homemade soup. I would sit by a window, take out a book, enjoy my lunch and escape into whatever literary world I chose to bring with me. Who would have thought 25+ years later, I would stop at the gatehouse and say "going to work"!
— Nancy Nelson, Early Childhood Program Coordinator, Minnesota Landscape Arboretum
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