I posted before about the value of taking advantage of reciprocal memberships when it comes to places like zoos and museums.  Imagine my surprise to find that such discounts and reciprocity apply to arboreta!

Okay, I know what you're thinking...  An arboretum?  Isn't that like a museum for trees?  Isn't that a little, well, um, boring?

Don't fall into that trap!  I thought the same thing and I was wrong. 

The museum part is true - and they are often affiliated with local colleges and universities.  The official definition of an arboretum as defined by the National Arboretum (who knew?) is:

An arboretum is a living museum where trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants are cultivated for scientific and educational purposes.

In other words, it's a living, working museum for green things.  And I love green things.

I love to garden, as you know, and I am trying to share this love of gardening with my girls.  In addition to digging in my own yard, I thought it would be beneficial for my girls to see some other gardens - so we started visiting area arboreta.

This is the thing that you have to know about an arboretum:  it's basically a giant park.  Really.  It's not just a stuffy ol' garden where you're not allowed to touch things and you must stay on a tour or something (well, some are, but we avoid those, like bad museums).  The picture for this post is actually of my girls playing on the trees at Morris Arboretum, our local arboretum.  It's wildly family-friendly with winding paths and stroller-friendly paved areas (important for me since my issue with "normal" parks and playgrounds is that other than the swing, there is little for infants to do - this way, I can stroller baby Charlie around and keep moving while the girls run around).  There are ducks and geese for the girls to watch, sculptures to check out (and some okay for climbing), beautiful flowers for me to be envious of and... best of all, a model railway which is ostensibly for the girls but hubby seems to enjoy it, too.  There are seasonal events for holidays and classes that you can take.  We're there so often that we decided to join as a family (I got in for free because I am a member of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society).  I just loved the idea of supporting the arboretum

I had no idea that there would be any reciprocity with other arboreta so imagine my surprise to find that there are more than 175 other arboreta in the US and Canada that allow free admission through the American Horticultural Society.   You can see the whole list here. 

There's lots to see.  So, we're heading off to Wintherthur today to check out their gardens - for free!  It's a great way to spend a day with the family enjoying the sunshine and saving money, too.  The plan is to spend next week in New York - I've always wanted to see the Botanical Gardens there, and they are on the list, too!  And Chris doesn't know it yet, but since the whole family is headed to Chicago in July for the BlogHer conference (I'm speaking!) I've already started mapping out gardens in Illinois and along the way...

So, get outside and enjoy some sunshine!