Catch gorgeous spring blooms at the Arboretum while they last

Something especially glorious is happening at the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska right now.

Tulip time is always lovely. Seeing 40,000 bulbs in bloom – in citrusy shades of orange, yellow and green, with accents of violet this year – is a joyful announcement that spring has come.

But thanks to early rain and this week’s quick blast of warm weather, tulips aren’t the only spring beauty popping; it seems like everything is blooming all at once! That includes daffodils, tulips, apple and pear trees, crabapples and even lilacs!

Daffodils have typically faded away by the time the lilacs bloom, and seeing this confluence of flowers is turning heads. Staff who have worked here for decades are stopping in their tracks to take photos of all the blooms. There is beauty around every corner and curve.

Arboretum Horticulturist Duane Otto and Senior Gardener Aimee Thuen say a number of things come together to make tulips bloom. They require numerous weeks of cold – something that’s typically no problem in our wintery Minnesota climate. Then tulips wait for the right combination of warmth, sun and rain to pop.

This year, the Arboretum planted more than 100 varieties across 7,000 square feet, and what you see might surprise you. Tulips come in numerous shapes now, including lily forms with pointed petals, double or peony forms that can fool you into thinking you are seeing a peony in improbably bright shades, fringed forms with feathery petal tips, heavily fringed and scalloped parrots, and of course, the classic traditional tulip.

Each variety has a sign identifying it, making it easy to get inspiration and information for your own garden.

A quick tip for gardeners: In case you’re wondering why your tulips aren’t coming back year after year, most tulips aren’t perennials. They’ve been bred to favor shape, form and color in ever more creative combinations. Thuen recommends looking for Darwin hybrids to find tulips that do reliably return. (And as always, guard against rabbits.)

At the Arboretum, bringing the tulip display to life takes an entire year. In July, Otto starts designing the gardens for the following spring. He orders the bulbs from wholesalers who get their bulbs from the Netherlands. Each fall, staff and volunteers prepare the gardens for planting, then spend more than 500 hours planting the bulbs. They mulch the bulbs with straw, and put up deer fencing and bring out an organic spray repellent to keep critters away from the tender bulbs and new blooms.

And then, like gardeners everywhere, they hope for the best. Nature is inevitably in charge of what happens next.

And like in every garden, the Arboretum has its season and its rhythms. Once the tulips are done, staff and volunteers amend the soil and immediately start planting summer flowers.

Another must-see right now are the crabapples that roll across the hills off Three-Mile Drive. The Arboretum collection contains nearly 400 trees and more than 100 cultivars. It’s fun to see painters setting up their easels here, and people dressed up in their finest posing for photos.

The lilac collection is in full bloom, and that fragrant scent is wafting across the Arboretum.

This time of year, about 100,000 people come to the Arboretum. Many come to mark Mother’s Day, and they bring generations of their families together to see the flowers, ride the Tram, and picnic.

It’s the perfect moment to make memories and create perfect images. These moments of spring are so fleeting. Be sure to capture them now, when so many plants are in bloom.

Getting tickets ahead of time is recommended.

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Editor’s note: Lynette Kalsnes is the public relations strategist at the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. She is keeping a close eye on when the 40,000 tulips will bloom at the Arboretum, and plans to spend her weekend doing what she can to prepare her gardens without disturbing any pollinators.

Kalsnes’ column on happenings at the Arboretum will appear periodically on the Eden Prairie Local News website. Contact her at arbpr@umn.edu.