Here's some incentive to get out outside during the coldest month of the year: The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is offering free gate admission to all visitors all month.

You don't have to go outside; you can stay inside the Visitor Center and enjoy a 25-foot tree covered with orchids in the Great Hall, sip hot chocolate or enjoy a warm bowl of soup in the restaurant, and check out the expanded clearance area in the gift store.

For outdoors enthusiasts, the arboretum offers 16 miles of snowshoe or cross-country ski trails, plus snowshoe rentals.

For more information about January activities and offerings, go to www.arboretum.umn.edu/.

The arboretum is the largest public garden in the Upper Midwest.