Growing in Minnesota

Minnesota’s cold winters and short, hot summers challenged growers, and the University of Minnesota became a leader in developing cold-hardy fruits, flowers, and vegetables beginning in the 1870s. By 1910, its horticultural science department had expanded into fruit and vegetable breeding and genetics, general and ornamental horticulture, and statewide extension work. A fruit-breeding farm established in 1907 near Lake Minnetonka later became the Horticultural Research Center, and since the 1920s University researchers have introduced hundreds of varieties of fruits, flowering plants and ornamentals, and vegetables, including the Honeycrisp apple, Frontenac wine grape, Autumn Spire maple tree, and the "Lights" series of north-hardy azaleas. Students in the plant sciences have gone on to careers in research, extension, plant breeding, park and nursery management, horticultural therapy, and floral design. Public demand for advice led to a horticultural information office in the 1970s, with services that included plant diagnostic clinics, consumer information lines, and a Web site, while extension faculty from plant pathology, forestry, soils, and entomology trained Master Gardeners to advise Minnesotans statewide. The Minnesota State Horticulture Society, industry partners, and foundations helped shape and support this work, and since the 1960s University scientists have collaborated with the Minnesota turf industry on work for golf courses, cemeteries, football fields, and parks. Ornamental horticulture was among the department’s original subjects, and after a 1955 movement by the Men’s Garden Club of Minneapolis and the Minnesota State Horticultural Society, the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum was established in 1958 in Chanhassen near the Horticultural Research Center; in the 21st century it draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

Falcon Heights, Minnesota · United States