Garden Highlights

Don't miss our Garden Highlights, updated weekly on Tuesday, featuring plants for their outstanding ornamental characteristics. Discover everything from flowers to fruit, buds, bark and more. Call our Bloom Line at 612.625.9791 for information or use the Garden Highlights layer on our digital map to find these plants at the Arboretum.

Featured: November 15 - November 24

Common Name: Poplar
Scientific Name: Populus cathayana

Native to parts of northeast and central China, Populus cathayana is a standout specimen tree in the winter landscape. In its native range, this tree can be found growing along river valleys, and it can reach heights of up to 100 feet. Poplars are deciduous trees that flower before leafing out. They are also known to be dioecious, meaning the trees will produce male and female flowers on separate plants. The flowers are produced in clusters, called catkins.

So what makes Populus cathayana a standout specimen for the winter landscape? While you might think the smooth white bark would cause the plant to disappear into a snowy, white landscape, the grayish lenticels help create contrast, almost creating a stripe-like pattern down the main trunk and mature limbs. Its rising branches and narrow crown help create a neat and tidy appearance along a horizon. This specimen tree really pops with a clear, blue winter sky behind it.

Garden Highlights

Featured: November 15 - November 24

Yellow-twig Dogwood

Swiss Stone Pine

Orchid

Barberry

Chinese Juniper

Smooth Hydrangea

Red-twig Dogwood

Orchid

Prairie Dropseed

Orchid

Korean Mountain Ash

Japanese Silver Grass

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).

Garden Highlights

Featured: November 15 - November 24

Yellow-twig Dogwood

Swiss Stone Pine

Orchid

Barberry

Chinese Juniper

Smooth Hydrangea

Red-twig Dogwood

Orchid

Prairie Dropseed

Orchid

Korean Mountain Ash

Japanese Silver Grass

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