Last updated on June 24th, 2024
Have your heart set on visiting a lot of gardens AND saving money? The American Horticultural Society reciprocal garden admissions program lets you buy one botanic garden or arboretum membership an use it visit hundreds of other gardens in the USA and Canada at no additional cost.
The Heritage Museums and Gardens on Cape Cod are gorgeous in spring – and you can visit for free as a member of another garden in the reciprocal admissions program.
The reciprocal membership program does not include every public garden in North America. However, it does offer free admission at more than 300 gardens. And, while some of these are always free, others charge hefty entrance fees. Entrance fees you don’t pay as a member of the Horticultural Society or another participating garden.
How sweet is that?
Late in February 2022 I purchased a membership at my local garden, the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. By the end of February 2023, I had saved almost $300 dollars in entrance fees at gardens across the USA.
So, if arboretums and gardens are in your travel plans and you want to save money, you need to check out this program.
What is a reciprocal admission?
Under any reciprocal admission program, a paid membership or admission at one entity or organization is honored at certain others as if you were a member of both.
You’re probably familiar with museums, historic sites, gyms, or other entities that let you purchase a membership or admission at one site and then use that to visit others in their network without an additional fee.
A reciprocal garden membership works the same way. You buy one annual membership and you can visit all other gardens in the program for free as part of that membership.
How does the American Horticultural Society Reciprocal Admissions Program work?
Reciprocal garden admissions are available to members of either the American Horticultural Society or one of the many botanical gardens, conservatories, and arboreta that participate in this program. That means one membership includes free admission at more than 300 other public gardens!
Use your garden membership to visit as many other gardens in the program as you want, wherever you want, as often as you want – all at no additional cost.
Bloedel Reserve offers visitors a mix of gardens and natural areas amid the rainforest on Washington’s Bainbridge Island. And you can explore all of it for free with a reciprocal garden membership.
Reciprocal benefits usually include free admission based on the number people allowed under your paid membership. Free parking is also included at most gardens. In addition, some gardens offer free audio guides and/or a discount on classes or in the gift shop as part of a reciprocal admission.
This program will save you the most money if:
- You use your membership to make at least one visit to a very expensive garden, and/or
- You make many visits to gardens with low entry fees, and/or
- Your favorite garden offers discounts on classes, gift shop purchases, special events, or other activities that you will use.
Know what’s included and what isn’t before you join
Of course, there are limits to what is included. And benefits vary between gardens.
If saving money is important to you, take a close look to see what gardens are included in the program. Then look at the benefits included under a reciprocal membership for the gardens you plan to visit AND the restrictions that apply at both the ones you want to visit and the one where you want to take out your membership. That information will tell you if a membership will save you money and where to buy that membership.
The following is a summary of what to look for. You can find details for every garden in the program on the American Horticultural Society’s website. (Gardens on this list change from year to year.)
After you’ve looked at information online, it’s a good idea to also make a phone call to the gardens you plan to visit. Some may have additional restrictions or benefits. And they can tell you how to reserve a ticket, since you can’t always use an online reservation system with a reciprocal membership.
Not every garden participates in the reciprocal admissions program
This program does NOT include every garden in North America. Far from it. There are thousands of public gardens in North America, so even with almost 350 gardens in the program, many others are not. It doesn’t even include a garden in every state or province.
Some gardens are always free
Check to see if the gardens you want to visit charge an admission fee and what that fee is.
Some gardens that participate are free anyway, so you don’t need a membership to visit them. Others have such low fees that it might be easier and cheaper to just pay the admission fee when you arrive.
Gorgeous Munsinger and Clemens gardens in central Minnesota participate in the reciprocal garden program, but since they are free anyway, the only reciprocal benefit is a discount in the gift shop.
Check for restrictions
Even if the gardens you plan to visit are part of the reciprocal admission program, there may be other restrictions that limit or reduce the value of your membership. That’s especially true if there is a special exhibit or event happening when you visit.
Your local garden may not honor memberships from other gardens
Even if the botanic garden near you participates in the reciprocal admissions program, they may not honor your membership from another garden or the American Horticultural Society.
Gardens can enforce a “90-mile exclusion” where they don’t have to offer reciprocal admission to members of other gardens located within 90 miles. If you are using a Horticultural Society membership, the 90 mile exclusion applies to gardens within 90 miles of your home address.
Special events and activities are usually not included
The reciprocal garden program covers regular admission fees and (usually) parking. That means it covers the normal fee to visit during the hours the garden is regularly open to the general public.
Special events, activities, and exhibitions may not be included in the program. This is particularly true of activities held outside the garden’s regular hours. Likewise, reciprocal garden members usually are not eligible for member discounts on ticketed events and activities, including concerts.
Special events, like the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum’s winter evening photography nights, may not be completely free.
Call the garden directly if you hope to use a reciprocal membership to cover the admission fee for any of these kinds of special events and activities.
You may not be able to reserve an entry ticket online
Many gardens now require advance reservations.
If you want to visit using a reciprocal membership, call the garden to make your reservation. Online systems usually don’t have a way to identify you as a reciprocal member (and offer you a free admission ticket) if you aren’t a member of that particular garden.
How I used my 2022 reciprocal garden membership
I knew I wanted to visit the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix in winter of 2022 because they were doing another Chihuly exhibit. And I wanted to be able to visit several times and maybe take my mom.
I could have taken out a membership at the Desert Botanical Garden while in Phoenix. That would have been easy. However, I did that once and had a weird experience where the Landscape Arboretum back in Minnesota wouldn’t honor the Arizona membership. (I think it was a fluke. Today they would accept it. Note though that they would NOT accept a membership with the American Horticultural Society, since my home address is within 90 miles of the Arb.) Given that experience, I wanted to be sure I could use my membership in both Arizona and in Minnesota.
So, before buying a membership or heading to Arizona, I called the Desert Botanical Garden and asked if I could use a membership from the Landscape Arboretum to see the Chihuly exhibit.
They confirmed that I could. They also told me that I would need to call them to make my reservations because I wouldn’t be able to book it online.
Given that knowledge, I joined the Landscape Arboretum at a level that would allow my husband and I to bring two other people with us at no extra charge. That Duo +2 membership cost $125.
Putting my membership to use
I purchased a membership at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum mostly so I could visit the Desert Botanical Garden. (I don’t get to the Landscape Arboretum very often and I didn’t have any other trips planned at the time.) However, that membership was much more useful than I imagined!
I visited gardens in the southwestern USA on three different trips
I ended up visiting the Southwest three times during my membership year. So, because I had my membership card from the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in hand, I made visiting at least a couple of gardens a priority on all three trips.
The Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix was covered
I purchased my Arb membership specifically to use at the Desert Botanical Garden, which my husband and I visited twice. Those tickets would have cost a minimum of $30 each (and up to $40 each) per visit, depending on the day of the week we visited. So that’s worth at least $120.
I love Chihuly garden shows like the recent one at the Desert Botanical Garden.
So, about a week after purchasing my membership at the Arb in Minnesota, I’d already gotten back almost all of the cost! I got to see the Chihuly show during the day and again in the evening and have dinner in the garden with friends.
The Japanese Friendship Garden of Phoenix was covered
The Japanese Friendship Garden of Phoenix was also on my itinerary. My membership at the Arb in Minnesota gave me free admission to what turned out to be an unexpectedly pleasant garden that I’d never visited before. The value of that admission for two of us was $20.
I wouldn’t have guessed there was a fine Japanese garden just a few blocks from other places we regularly visit in Phoenix.
Show more Southwestern gardens. . .
Filoli Gardens in California was NOT covered
As spring rolled around, I made a quick visit to San Francisco to meet friends.
I started south of the city, joining a friend who lives in the area on a visit to Filoli Gardens, a lovely spot I’ve visited in the past.
It’s good that my friend has a membership at Fioli. The garden (which includes a historic house museum) is fairly expensive and does NOT participate in the reciprocal garden admissions program. If she hadn’t been a member, the admission fee would have been a hefty $25 per person.
The gardens in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park were covered
My next stop took me into the city to meet another friend. We visited both the Japanese Tea Garden, where we had lunch and tea, and the San Francisco Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park.
Without my reciprocal garden membership, the Tea Garden, would have cost $13 each, for a total of $26.
We took a break to enjoy lunch and tea in the Japanese garden in Golden Gate Park.
Likewise, my membership saved another $26 at the Botanical Garden, where a regular admission is also $13 per person.
The expansive San Francisco Botanical Garden is divided into sections with plants from different parts of the world.
Sadly, the Conservatory of Flowers was closed the day we visited. Had it been open, my membership would have saved us yet another $26.
The San Diego Botanical Garden was covered
I thought I was done using my reciprocal garden membership when I booked time in San Diego to visit friends in February of 2023. But the membership is annual. That meant I had a couple of weeks left before it expired.
And I had a couple of gardens to get to, including the San Diego Botanical Garden (which I hadn’t visited since 2011). The original plan was to bring my friends on my membership too, but tthat didn’t happen, so Lane and I made a quick visit on our own.
A very quick visit to the San Diego Botanical Garden showed us a lot has changed!
We got a really late start. Such a late start that I wouldn’t have gone at all if we had to pay the $26 to get in. But, since we weren’t paying an entrance fee, it was worth going even for an hour or so.
The Japanese Friendship Garden at Balboa Park in San Diego was covered
Our California friends weren’t able to join us for this one either, even though it was also high on their list. But I’d never been to the Japanese garden in Balboa Park, so it was a very high priority on my list. We were there on holiday weekend, so it was really busy, but using my reciprocal membership to get in at no cost made the crowds a lot less annoying!
The Japanese garden in Balboa park was unexpectedly colorful.
Maybe it was unique to this time of year, but this is the most colorful Japanese garden I’ve visited. And it was nice to save $24.
(My favorite garden in the park, the historic Botanical Building, was closed for a major rebuild. But, unlike the Japanese garden, that one’s always free.)
Moorten Botanical Garden was NOT covered
I’ve ended up at Moorten Botanical Garden every time I’ve been in Palm Springs, including this year.
Moorten is more of a cacti garden than a traditional botanical garden.
It’s not covered under my reciprocal membership, but it also only costs $5 to enter.
The Sunnylands Center and Gardens were free
I first became aware of Sunnylands and its gardens about a week before I got to Palm Springs. It’s part of an estate that requires hard-to-get paid reservations to see the historic mid-century house or take a guided tour of the gardens. But there’s no charge to check out the exhibits in the Sunnylands Center or walk through the gardens around it.
Sunnylands has extensive cactus gardens.
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I visited gardens on the East Coast
While I had a lot more gardens on my list, I only got to four during various trips east.
Blithewold Mansion and Garden in Rhode Island was covered
A summer trip to Newport to use the rest of a pre-COVID ticket to see the mansions gave me a chance to visit nearby Blithewold, where entrance to both the house and garden were covered by my reciprocal membership.
Blithewold has an amazing kitchen garden.
We hadn’t planned to tour the house, but since it was included in our free admission, we did. And it was a nice contrast to the far more opulent mansions in Newport. My membership saved us at least $22 — and maybe more because their fees vary depending on when you visit and I forgot to check what it was the day we were there.
The United States Botanic Garden is always free
A fall trip to DC gave me a chance to re-visit the US Botanic Garden. While it participates in the American Horticultural Society’s reciprocal garden program, this garden and conservatory is always free.
The Botanic Garden was displaying cool model buildings made from plant material.
While the US Botanic Garden can be a little underwhelming (especially in fall), they do have a some nice seasonal displays. And it never costs anything to come in and look around.
Hillwood Estate and Gardens was covered
I’ve long wanted to get to Hillwood Estate to see their gardens and a few of their collections. But it’s sort of on the edge of DC and we often don’t have a car. This time we had both a car and friends in the area who like Hillwood themselves, so we met for a too-short afternoon in the gardens.
Japanese gardens seem to be a theme this year. Hillwood has a large one.
Besides the Japanese garden, Hillwood has several formal gardens and an incredible orchid greenhouse. And they also have a tea garden, where we spent so much time catching up with our friends that we didn’t have time to get into the house.
I don’t recall how the admissions broke down, but we saved at least $33 (which we then spent in the tea house) on admission fees with my reciprocal membership.
I visited gardens in Chicago
Like DC, I had a list of gardens I wanted to visit on our trip to Chicago. I got to two of them.
The Chicago Botanic Garden was covered
I’ve been to the Chicago Botanic Garden before, but I’d kind of forgotten about it until we got there. But that was ok, since gardens are different every time you visit, and with reciprocal membership I could get in for free.
Yes, another Japanese garden — they are so beautiful in fall.
Garfield Park Conservatory was free
One of the most impressive gardens I visited this year was the Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago. And it is always free.
Under the palms at Garfield Park Conservatory.
This enormous glass conservatory has multiple sections filled with plants of all types from around the world. But even more impressive is how healthy all those plants are. It’s one of the healthiest-looking conservatories I’ve visited in the US. And it’s completely free to visit.
I visited a garden in Canada
While some Canadian gardens are included in the Horticultural Society reciprocal garden program, they are few and far between. But I didn’t have a lot of extra time to visit gardens while in Vancouver, British Columbia, either, so it didn’t really matter.
Sun Yat-Sen Chinese garden was NOT covered
With limited time, I only got to one garden this time: Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden.
Perhaps my spouse was less enchanted with the garden than I was!
It’s a small garden, but exquisite. It cost $30 for two of us to enter, but I really enjoyed seeing it.
Back home at the Landscape Arboretum
The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is really nice. But it’s also kind of a pain to get to from my house. That means I don’t visit very often. And, since I don’t visit every year, I’m usually not a member.
But this year I had a membership because I wanted to visit those gardens in Arizona. So, my husband and I made a trip out to the Landscape Arboretum while the tulips and fruit trees were at their finest. That visit would have cost us $15 each ($30 total) if we weren’t members.
Spring is a glorious season at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, but fall is also spectacular. (And summer is pretty nice too!)
Show more of the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. . .
We went again in August to drop off a box of books and CDs to donate to the Arboretum’s annual book sale. While there, we saw an exhibit of classic Japanese woodblock prints and, of course, wandered through some of the gardens.
August brings lots of prairie flowers, lilies, and butterflies.
And I went once more in December for the photographer’s evening Winter Lights event. I brought a friend with me and, because I was a member at the Arboretum, both of us were able to get in for substantial discount.
Thousands of lights sparkle during the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum’s Winter Lights events.
As I’m writing this, I still have a couple days to make one more visit with my current membership (and the winter flower show is going on), but I don’t think that’s going to happen. And, as it is, my Arb membership has served me very, very well this year!
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My reciprocal membership quickly paid for itself
I paid for a more expensive Duo +2 ($120) membership at the Landscape Arboretum so my husband and I would have the option of bringing friends or family with us at various gardens. As it turned out, all of my visits would have been covered with a $100 Duo membership. (Which would have put my total savings for the year over $300!) But we appreciate having the Arboretum available even if we don’t visit very often and we can afford the higher priced membership. Even at the slightly higher price, it was a very good deal this year since I used that membership at so many other gardens.
While my reciprocal garden membership more than paid for itself by May, the total savings for the year was almost $300.
I’ll probably take out another membership at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum this year, but not immediately, since I have no garden visits planned. Even then, I don’t expect a membership to save me money this year because I don’t have much domestic travel planned and the Arb isn’t convenient enough that I’ll visit very often. But after how much I benefited last year, it’s worth it to me to take out another membership sort of as a thank you gift to the Arb. And who knows, maybe I’ll get back to DC or California to catch a few more gardens.
But — if your goal is strictly to save money — you do have to think about what you are likely to do during the year to determine whether or not a reciprocal membership makes sense for you.
Get your botanical garden membership and start using it
While the American Horticulture Society’s reciprocal garden admission program is available throughout the USA and Canada, there aren’t participating gardens in every state or province. And many of the gardens that do participate are free to visit anyway. However, some are major public gardens with high entry fees. It’s those high-fee gardens that really make this program worthwhile.
Besides the gardens I mentioned above, other gardens that offer reciprocal admissions include the New York Botanical Garden, Denver Botanic Garden, Chicago Botanic Garden, Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Garden, Memphis Botanic Garden, and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Of course, there are many others I haven’t visited. (Note that there are very few Canadian gardens in this program.)
Find the right membership for you
You can easily search for gardens that participate in the reciprocal admissions program on the American Horticultural Society website. Just select a state or province and you’ll get a list of participating gardens, member benefits, and restrictions.
Once you’ve determined which garden, garden, arboretum, or conservatory you want to join (or you can just join the American Horticultural Society), go online and purchase a garden membership at a level that makes sense for you. If you will be visiting that garden multiple times, purchase a membership level that gives you all the benefits you want even if some don’t carry over to other gardens.
Things to consider include:
- How many people do you want your membership to cover both at home and when traveling? Just you? You and your dog? A partner or friend? A bunch of grandkids?
- Does the garden you are joining have a membership that costs more, but includes access to and/or discounts for special events, classes, activities, or gift shop and café purchases that make a more expensive membership worthwhile?
- Can you afford to give a little more? Public gardens are expensive to operate. They need your support.
Financially support public gardens in other ways
While you can save a lot of money with a reciprocal garden membership, the gardens you visit rely on memberships for funding.
Even though you can visit any garden in the program for free, if you can afford it, help keep these gardens open and in good condition by making a separate donation, buying a gift membership for someone else, taking a class, making a purchase in the gift shop or at a plant sale, stopping for lunch in the café, or otherwise contributing to the garden’s ongoing financial health.
This is good to know. I love botanical gardens and we have quite a few beautiful ones here, in California. I don’t see on your list the ones in Los Angeles (Huntington Gardens, Descanso Gardens, and L.A. Arboretum) and I wonder why. Perhaps they are not participating in the program.
You do have some beautiful gardens in California, but not every garden is in the program — I know Huntington does not participate. You’d have to check the list online to see about the others. It’s hard to guess which are in and which aren’t.