Marion Andrus Learning Center

Every year, more than 55,000 children participate in the Arboretum's programs, including field trips, Field Trips in a Box, Plantmobile programs and on-site summer classes, providing access to the Harvest Kitchen, Garden Shed, Greenhouse and Children's Garden. Learn more about all of the Learning Center spaces below.

Parking & Access Directions

  • After you pass through the gatehouse, take the first right.
  • Drive past the main parking lots, you will loop behind them and come to a T intersection. You should see a hill directly in front of you.
  • Turn right.
  • Follow the curved road past the picnic shelters.
  • Enter and park in the Learning Center parking lot, or parallel park in the spaces designated along the road.

Expand all

Additional History & Building Details

The award-winning Marion Andrus Learning Center creates educational experiences for children, teachers, and families, and is at the heart of the Arboretum's mission. Children's educational programs reach about 50,000 students and teachers each year through school field trips, an Urban Gardening program and the popular Plantmobile.

Renovated in 2003, the Learning Center has new and existing programs and state-of-the-art learning spaces, including an interactive greenhouse and gallery, where children can get their hands dirty as they touch and experience plants; the new Harvest Kitchen, a unique and innovative demonstration kitchen and fiber lab where visitors can connect plants with their uses in everyday life; a Potting Shed for growing plants; a treehouse, and a children's garden. In the Sally Pegues Oswald A Growing Place for Kids, two hands-on educational labs allow the Arboretum to reach children and their families more effectively than ever before.

The Arboretum's Adult Education Program provides rich opportunities for life-long learning, offering seminars, lectures and workshops in a variety of topics - from aromatherapy and handmade papermaking to prairie plant propagation, edible landscaping, butterfly gardening and ecological landscape design. The gardening classes are a way for beginner gardeners, gardening enthusiasts and industry professionals to learn from expert instructors in the Midwest's largest and most spectacular outdoor classroom - the 1,200+ acres of the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. The Arboretum offers seasonal classes so students can immediately apply what they've learned to their own garden.

Learning Center Features

 The Marion Andrus Learning Center is open only to those registered for field trips and Arboretum classes; the building and its restrooms are otherwise closed to the public.

Outdoor Play Yards

These play yards are available to all Arboretum visitors! They are open during Arboretum grounds hours