Taltree Arboretum & Gardens

(I am just writing this review but I visited in the month of August)
I don’t know what I was expecting really but it was kind of depressing. At the gate I was told that there was a $ 10.00 entry fee. I handed my card. For some reason I thought that meant per car, because that is what most places charge at a gate. I got my receipt and it was $ 20.00!
We were given a map and we parked. We checked out the area where they had garden veggies growing and had hens, turkeys, cute little goats and some pigs and then went on our walk. The trails at some points came to open fields and we had to figure out where the next part of the trail started.
They have nice areas for weddings it seems, but to come here for any other reason for $ 10.00 a person is kind of blah at least in my opinion unless there is a special event.
They had gardens, lacking flowers or anything great. I think there was supposed to be a water feature but it wasn’t on.
Lastly we went to the visitors center to see the train set. It was very cool, however there were NO trains on the tracks!!! The main waterfall feature wasn’t on and of course there was a guy walking around.
I asked and he said that they shut down the trains a half hour before close… Um… But we are here and it’s 2 HOURS before closing time!!! Don’t get it. Anyway, it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Great model train exhibit! We visited in the Fall, I’d love to see it when the flowers are in bloom. Will definitely comeback when the weather is ideal, and we have more time to see the various trails.

The model trains here are absolutely beautiful and amazing! However, not all trains were running due to being an outside display (MAKE SURE YOU CALL AHEAD IF BAD WEATHER). Other than that: go to this place!
Extremely impressed with the detail. Everything is real. Water, rocks, plants… All to fit the scale and look of the G scale trains.
Beautiful! Can’t say enough about it, and we live near Entertrainment Junction near Cincinnati Ohio.
There is a wonderful educational aspect about it as well. The scenery reflect moments and places in history, and they expanding as well.
Can’t wait to see what happens with this place. Great potential.
I do have to say I was a little disappointed with the kids area. There isn’t much to do for little ones. You cannot interact with the animals (learning about, petting, feeding), nor do they have much shade to cover the kids or for parents to sit down to watch the children play in the small sand square. I wish they had a center there for kids. One, for employees to educate the kids, and it would be a great place for a science center/​museum.
I love trails, but my three year old can only go so far, so we didn’t get to enjoy the whole arboretum.
I do say it’s worth going for the trains, and there are great restaurants in Valparaiso.
We were staying by the Dunes National Park. I think it’s worth the drive.

Love this place. I don’t know why people say bikes aren’t allowed because I’ve never had anyone say a word too me. My kids and I live down the street and have a membership here and enjoy riding our bikes there and around the place. A couple of the trails were a little muddy and rough on the bikes last time I was there and when it’s freshly mulched or on the gravel roads it’s also a little hard to pedal. I’ve road past tons of employees and also am having tons of workers asking if I need directions to trails. I do agree a few more directional signs would be nice but on the other hand we like the «exploring» side of looking for trails. I do feel the cost if you don’t have a membership is a little ridiculous but my kids aged 8 – 15 all love it here

Yes it is an arboretum, not a display garden. This puts between a full fledged park and a display garden.
There are things to see but it is mostly a place to walk around and potentially learn about trees/​plants. If you want to look at the at once hokey and impressive miniature train track then knock your socks off.

Prior reviews here went reallly high or low, so I went in with lower expectations to offset potential disaster. Having now been to Taltree, I would unequivically say that rating this place a 1 is moronic.
First, I wouldn’t recommend this place if you aren’t going to walk at least some of the trails. Previous reviews have knocked this place hard for a lack of things to do. It’s an arboretum!
Second, while I’m not into trains, model trains or watching trains I will say that the model train display at the visitors center is very, very cool. Kids, especially boys will love it. This display also has informational signage that adds to the historic value of each scene.
The gentleman inside the visitors center was helpful when asked about other things to see in the arboretum. Our next stops were at the various gardens and facilities. My son especially enjoyed the basic animals, eco-​friendly instruments and walking paths. We also liked the fruit and plant gardens.
In my estimation Taltree could do a great deal more to enhance their park. Judging by several of their recent additions, they’re headed in the right direction.

Grandmother had fun. It’s a nice local place for a relaxing nature thing. We saw about a third because it was a lot of walking for her. The fairy houses were my favorite part. I would have liked to see the train exhibition and more blooming flowers.

I went on Labor Day 2013, after accidentally purchasing a membership on Groupon. I honestly I bought one for the Lisle Arboretum. But I am a bit of an adventurer.
So… I will have to actually go back again when I have more patience. For one, it was crowded for a Holiday, and a lot of families were bringing larger groups for picinics and there was a lot of child noise and parent noise which I would rather do without when I am in nature.
Beyond that it is hard to get a grasp of the size as others have said, because the trails are not marked and they are not necessarily obvious. This is actually a personal sanctuary and home of a couple who created the arboretum and gardens and then opened it to the public. Their public rest room is one of the nicest I’ve ever seen. The gift shop and the railroad garden are very nice structures too.
But I came for the trees, flowers, colors, scents, nature, etc. I also wanted to bike ride but that is not allowed. When I got to the gift shop I asked for a map but they were out. I drove back to the entrance and asked for a map. What I got was a useless graphic depiction of the entire place on a page that was too small and too cluttered and with really poor navigational clues. Whomever created the map should have received an «F» for failure to convey what is there, and how it’s mapped.
HOWEVER — YOU CAN TELL, ONCE YOU DO FIND A PATH — THAT GET CARE AND LOVE HAVE GONE INTO MAKING THIS HOME AND SANCTUARY A LOVELY LOVELY PLACE.
I choose to forgive all the negatives and just give thanks that these lovely people have been kind enough to invite us into their front and back yards. If I keep that in mind, I will return again, with less expectation and more time and just explore.

I was expecting to see beautiful flowers and landscape, but maybe what I am seeing here is global warming or a poorly maintained site. There really isn’t much to see, it’s just like wandering off into a field randomly. The only area that was cool was behind the gift shop, the toy train area. Otherwise I’ve seen more flowers in the floral section of a grocery store.
You drive up off the main street to a booth where you MUST pay $ 10 per person if you are not a member (I feel sorry for the members).
Find your way to the gravel parking lot, and then drive down to the left to the actual parking area. You feel lost immediately. Out front, there is a train ride for kids (they said more adults do it) and the seats are cut-​out blue barrels. Inside is a gift shop and the restrooms. Behind the building is a mini-​train world set up with a guy landscaping (as the previous reviewer said, is always there. part of the «show?»)
The toy train area is cool to look at, but that’s not why we came here, so after 5 minutes of that… you find yourself asking the gift shop employee «where do I go to find the trail?» Even after you go outside to find it, nothing is clearly marked. So we just start wandering along what looks like a path. Every once and a while there a wooden post that shows which trail you are on, but doesn’t really indicate where you are on the map other than what color line you are following. Very rarely you find a «you are here» bulletin board, but it doesn’t help much because you don’t know what direction you are. Wish I had my GPS with me. But it’s really not all that big — at least it didn’t feel like it, because most of the time you are walking past NOTHING hoping you’ll find something to stop at look at. Maybe happened 3 or 4 times the entire trail.
So the trail sometimes splits off into 3 directions, and you don’t know where to go. It feels like one of those «Choose your path, Safety, Death or Certain Death» scenarios, and of course we picked death. We start wandering down a path, and my girlfriend identifies POISON IVY along the way, and eventually the path leads to a DEAD END/​wooden fence. So we turn around and head back, being careful that our legs don’t brush up on the poison ivy along the sides of the path.
Some paths looks like they plunged into steep areas, of course probably not part of the path at all BUT THEY ARE NOT CLEARLY MARKED so you don’t know which why is the «right» way.
There were hardly any flowers. I’ve seen more flowers in Chicago park districts. There was a flower section somewhere that wasn’t prairie with some water fountains. It was a sad site… one rose… one of this, a few of that… it seemed like nothing was growing. They living flowers were so spaced apart, it resembled a cemetery. Garden FAIL. Every so often you’ll find a wooden chair or bench you can sit on so you can take a break from being bored.
At some point we found a caged-​in small chicken/​hen house and next to it, 2 baby goats in a caged-​in area. This was pretty random and not sure why it was here. 2 baby goats and a dozen chickens. Why? They seemed pretty bored, too. At least we get to leave. I felt the urge to jailbreak the baby goats from this mundane landscape.
After we went in circles a few times and managed to find other sections of the path and end up going into a circle. After that, we found our way back to the main building and I looked at the train ride with the cut out blue barrels… asked about it, the person said it just goes along the path and comes back. I wondered what was in the blue barrels before they were cut out to be used as train seats. For the money they make at the gift shop (high prices) and the forced entry fee, you’d think they would have something better than a wonder-​what-​was-​in-​this-​barrel-​before-​it-​was-​a-​cut-​out-​blue-​barrel for you to slide yourself into.
Later, I found out most places like this DO NOT FORCE YOU TO PAY, they just ask for a donation. The fact that they hit you up for $ 10 before you even see the place is a bad sign.
At least I got some exercise walking around. And around. And around. Poor baby goaties…

There are no bike trails and bikes are not allowed, even though they have a bike rack in the parking lot.
The Railway garden which they just kept pounding their chest about was cool, but if you seen it once your done. It’s a big train set that about it. The train scenes are boring, never change, and there always seems to be an employee in the landscaping when you there. I made suggestions that they should change it up and they told me it was too expensive, but didn’t mind telling me it was almost 5 million to build the place. That’s an insane waste of money.
Taltree Arboretum & Gardens located in Valparaiso, Indiana is not the peaceful, beautiful poster child it portrays itself to be. It is very ugly, dangerous, and not deserving of the charity that people give to it with their heart. This Non For Profit Company looks for donations to keep its gardens beautiful and its landscapes well groomed, but at what cost? Well I have a good idea from personal experience, observation, and multiple conversations with employees and volunteers. So before you consider visiting or donating, please read this review.
Unfortunately Indiana Law does not protect employees of companies. Taltree has a revolving door for employees and that’s for the ones that leave, for those who speak up about mistreatment or safety concerns they have an ejection chair. There was one employee that came forward to warm the company about equipment they used for tree trimming, climbing, and old trees that need to be removed. His warning was that employees and clients could be seriously injured or worst… if the right tools and maintenances were replaced or completed. He was told to keep quiet and go back to work, if he talked about the issue with anyone, he would lose his job.
Another employee was a top performer at Taltree. She reported being overworked, underpaid, and bullied on several occasions by her own boss. (I understand the difference between a boss working her employees and overstepping their position as a manager.) The manager was in charge of a large job of transporting seeds overseas. She was warned by her employee the paperwork wasn’t in order; the seeds were unsafe to ship. The employee has had professional experience in overseas transporting of plants and seeds, her manager had none. When the whole event collapsed do to extremely poor management. A lot of time and money were lost; the manager looked to blame the employee to her superiors. When the employee got word from another co-​worker she immediately approached her manager to have a conversation on what she was just told. At first she really tried blaming the employee, but after being called an outright liar by the employee, the manager cried and apologized. That was all just a fake out and the manager went forth and blamed the innocent employee. At hearing this, the employee followed company rules and went to Human Resources to file the complaint. The bullying by this manager had gone too far. Unfortunately for the employee, she had no idea the Human Resources manager was best buds with her manager. One hour after filing a complaint, the employee was fired. She was fired for reporting a boss that bullied, lied, and then conspired to destroy her character to cover her ass.
Then there’s the abuse of charity. I volunteered at Taltree a few times. I watched upper management be the poster child’s for the word lazy. Also I watched them consume others people charity. At an Art show I not only volunteered to run the grill, but I donated $ 100 in food for the event, along food warming container to keep the BBQ fresh. I watch as visitors, employees, and volunteers from the grounds make their way over to the BBQ food tent. The money raised here was for Taltree. Everyone had said the prices were extremely high, but since it was for charity… they understood and paid anyway. All the volunteers and ground employees who worked that day paid for their food. The volunteers working the food tent, paid for what they took, but not upper management. They treated the food tent as a feeding troff. I watched as they treated themselves and the people they were with. After the event was over, the money was counted out, the amount spent on the event was set aside and the profit disappeared.
Several employees and volunteers have made similar complaints and made the same observations. Taltree is an unfair workplace and does not deserve the people’s charity. How can we support, donate money, and time to an organization that allows management to create hate, fear, greed, and vanity in a non for profit work place. Looking deeper, I found out the CEO has a track record for overspending, creating a revolving door for employees, and destroying a business. Boycott this place until it is investigated.

Oh how I love this place when I want to get away from it all. It’s like a nature sounds CD. Everything is silent except for the rustling greenery or the occasional bird. I like how you can disappear onto one of the hiking paths and be completely alone with Mother Earth depending on when you go. It’s a great place to meditate and I love the model trains that are behind the gift shop too.

Do you like the idea of hiking but really just want to walk? Where it’s safe and easy? Plus gorgeous surroundings? Where you could even hold a wedding?
Then Taltree is the place for you! Plus, it’s way cheaper than Morton Arboretum and less crowded.
I have visited it twice, once in the summer to «hike» and another time in the fall to take pictures of the fall foilage. Both times it was superb and the second time there WAS a wedding going on!
I can’t wait to go back when there is snow on the ground.
See you on the trails.

Wait a minute. Hold the phone. How have a I spent a sizable chunk of my life emigrating in and out of the south ‘burbs and NWI region without ever hitting up The Taltree Arboretum? What the hell have I been doing?
The Taltree Arboretum is a little piece of lush, green heaven in the middle of Valparaiso, Indiana. Some arboretums tend towards more manicured flower beds and various gardens, which I enjoy. The Taltree Arboretum is more of a nature reserve with marshes and wetlands and walking paths than flower gardens. The paths a well marked and uncrowded (the last time I was there I never passed another person) and there are benches and dead ends where one can stop for awhile and read, relax, etc.
The arboretum also offers a summer concert series in its gorgeous stone gazebo. The gazebo can also be rented out for weddings and other occasions. Wanna be social? There are yoga and gardening groups that meet within the arboretum, and I highly recommend stopping by for one, or both, groups. Yoga, in such a serene setting is nothing short of spectacular.
If you are so inclined, check out this seemingly under-​utilized paradise. Pack a lunch and bring a blanket. It is well worth the trip – and your time.

The Taltree Arboretum is a great escape from the day to day stresses of the world. There’s nothing better than being able to sit back and relax in nature and Taltree gives you the opportunity to do just that.
If you’re looking for a way to get away from it all for a little while, I’d recommend checking out Taltree. Go for a hike. Hug a tree. Unwind. You won’t be sorry that you did.