4 Best Sights in Columbus, Ohio

Beman and Bertie Dawes founded the arboretum in 1929 to demonstrate the value of trees and shrubs. View the 1,700 acres of plants and natural areas on the 4½-mi auto tour or more than 8 mi of hiking trails. Plants tolerant of central Ohio's climate are the mainstay including more than 4,500 unique specimens of conifers, plus azaleas, crab apples, hollies, oaks, witch hazel, and others. The icing on the cake is "Dawes Arboretum" spelled out in the 3-foot-high hedge.

In the middle of a 90-acre urban park about 2 mi east of Downtown, this elegant glass conservatory shelters desert, rain forest, mountain, and tropical island plant habitats. Built in 1895 and styled after London's Crystal Palace, the conservatory is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Outside, hardy bamboo and Japanese maples in the Japanese garden are part of a 28-acre botanical garden. Franklin Park Conservatory is the only public garden to have a permanent glass exhibit by artist Dale Chihuly.

Instead of stippled paint, the medium is shrubbery in a one-of-a-kind topiary replica of Georges Seurat's postimpressionist masterpiece, A Sunday on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Fifty-four people, eight boats, three dogs, a monkey, and a cat look to a creek instead of the Seine River. The tallest figure stands 12 feet high.

Affiliated with the school's department of horticulture, the Chadwick Arboretum and Learning Garden is an outdoor laboratory of local and regional trees and plants including wildflowers, prairie plants, and perennials. The calming labyrinth garden, set in a ring of arborvitae evergreens, is modeled after one at Chartres Cathedral in France.