Garden Highlights

Don't miss our Garden Highlights, updated weekly on Thursday, featuring plants for their outstanding ornamental characteristics. Discover everything from flowers to fruit, buds, bark and more. You can search for specific plants using the Plant Finder

Visitors can also call the Bloom Line at 612-625-9791 for an audio listing of what is currently in bloom each week.

Featured: January 16 - January 22

Common Name: American Arborvitae
Scientific Name: Thuja occidentalis

Thuja occidentalis is an evergreen tree commonly known as American arborvitae or eastern white-cedar. In the 1500s the tree was given the name arborvitae, meaning “tree-of-life” in Latin, by French explorers because of the medicinal compounds in the foliage and bark which saved their crew from scurvy. In addition to healing purposes, Indigenous peoples used the easily splitting bark of this tree for the construction of canoes.

American arborvitae is native to North America, ranging from northeastern United States and southeastern Canada, to as far west as Minnesota. In the nursery trade, cultivars of this tree grow to a height of about 20 feet, and in its natural environment arborvitae can reach 60 feet. Large American arborvitae feature eye-catching trunks with bark ranging from reddish-brown to white. They are frequently planted in groupings to form hedges for aesthetic or privacy purposes. There are many different cultivars of American arborvitae, with differences in height, form, color and environmental tolerance. Use the Plant Finder to discover the locations of the different cultivars available at the Arboretum.

Garden Highlights

Featured: January 16 - January 22

Scots Pine

Ironwood

Goat's Beard

Orchid

Loebner Magnolia

Dwarf Norway Spruce

White Fir

Common Witch-hazel

Tatarian Dogwood

The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum serves as a research center and extension of the University of Minnesota's College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS).

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