Dallas Arboretum staff share tips on beating summer heat

Enjoying summer at the Arboretum is all about knowing where to go.

Summer heat typically isn’t seen as an invitation to get outside in Dallas.

Sitting on 66 acres of rolling hills, babbling streams and flower-filled green spaces, the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden is well aware of the heat’s impact. Attendance typically sees a steep drop off in summer months, especially July and August, when a stroll through its winding, plant-walled paths may not seem as appealing as it would in more temperate months.

But there’s a way to solve the summer puzzle and enjoy the second largest botanical garden in North Texas — it’s just about knowing where to go.

“When my friends or family come into town asking how I would arrange a summer trip to the Arboretum, I tell them to go through all the cool areas there and then, depending on if they have kids or not, either it’s going into the DeGolyer house to see the exhibit plus lunch, or coming over to the Children’s Garden,” says Dustin Miller, the Arboretum’s vice president of education and programming.

“Cool areas” can typically be found, believe it or not, in heavily shaded portions of the garden, where trees are generally a pretty good indicator of lower temperatures. The Pecan Grove, which was filled with hammocks last summer, and the Shadow Garden both have plenty of tree cover in the summer. In the Palmer Fern Dell, misters can lower an already shade-reduced ambient temperature by as much as 10 degrees.

When visiting in the summer, even in cooler areas of the garden, it’s important to plan ahead and bring a bottle of water, Miller says.

“We have a ton of refill stations throughout,” Miller says. “Dress for the weather, wear a hat that gives you shade. Bring an umbrella and dress in layers so that you can adjust as needed.”

The water refill stations were added in the last few years as a way to encourage hydration and sustainability.

If visitors need a break from outdoor activities, there are several air-conditioned indoor buildings open to the public during extended post-daylight savings time operating hours, including A Tasteful Place on the garden’s west side. One such stop is the DeGolyer House, where the Arboretum will showcase a gallery of noted 20th Century artist Seward Johnson’s hand painted watercolor trays. Several of Johnson’s sculptures — ranging in scale from 20 feet tall to life-sized, can currently be found throughout the garden.

“The other spot, obviously, is in (Restaurant DeGolyer),” Miller says. “I don’t know that everybody knows that we actually have indoor fine dining, so that’s a spot where people can go in the summertime, visit the garden while it’s cool, and then go in there before they leave.”

The Rory Meyers Children’s Adventure Garden, which features two indoor spaces (the Discovery Center and Cafe), is one of the cooler outdoor areas found on the grounds, with misters, water features and shade abounding. Admission to the Adventure Garden previously required a separate entry fee but is now open to all visitors.

Both outdoors and inside the Discovery Center, the Children’s Garden is an epicenter of educational programming at the Arboretum.

“We’re primarily focused on the K-6 age level, both school and family,” Miller says. “Every day, we have stem stops, which are like little pop up activities. We have a plant Lab. You can learn about space in the Omni globe. And then we have other programs that are sort of in the gallery spaces too. So in the summertime, we shift towards during the morning, most of the programs are outside, and then in the afternoon, we shift inside.”

“There’s enough inside in the afternoon that theoretically you could come and spend the entire day and be inside all afternoon and still not run out of things to do.”

Programming is a large part of the net the Arboretum casts in summer months to attract visitors. The Cool Thursdays concert series brings musical acts from around the country to the Martin Rutchik Concert Stage and Lawn through the end of June, and Family Fun Fridays feature ice cream, Kindermusik and a petting zoo in the Pecan Grove weekly.

Summer at the Arboretum runs from June 6 to August 17 this year, with tickets increasingly discounted as the season wears on.