The Arboretum was established in 1958 and consists of 905 acres of educational facilities, plant collections, display gardens, and generic collections with over 5,000 species, as well as natural areas with a variety of native plant communities. The Horticultural Research Center was established in 1908 on over 200 acres. It is one of the few institutions in the world that specializes in the identification and development of cold-hardy fruit and woody landscape plants. It also offers a field laboratory for other horticultural research. The Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station operates a dozen off-campus branch stations around the state where researchers have the opportunity to obtain research results that are specific to regional needs.
Several stations have large horticulture components.
Much laboratory and field research in potatoes is conducted in northwestern Minnesota at the Red River Valley Potato Research Laboratory, which is jointly funded by the University of Minnesota, the USDA, North Dakota State University, and the Red River Valley Potato Growers. Research in vegetable crops for processing is centered at the Southern Experiment Station in Waseca, which has equipment for seed physiology research as well as for field trials. The North Central Experiment Station also hosts considerable horticultural research, specializing in small fruits and alternative crops and cropping systems.