Since I'm with my family for Easter weekend, I convinced my mom and grandma to come with me to the Como Zoo Conservatory. This has been one of my favorite places in the Twin Cities since...well, as long as I can remember. When I was little I loved watching the carp in the garden ponds. Now I just love the flowers and the tropical air.
I'll try to label as many pictures as I can but there are TONS of them, so I won't be going through and naming each and every plant.
In the entryway they had two flowering trees with HUGE flowers.
These flowers were hanging down from one of the trees.
Now THAT'S a hibiscus. It was bigger than my hand!
The first room you walk into is the fern room. I always imagine little dinosaurs running around in the ferns because it reminds me so much of Jurassic Park.
Then you walk into the huge main section of the conservatory and get hit with a tropical blast of air.
These plants are called bromeliads.
Mini orchid!
One of the more common orchids.
This one reminded me of the lady slippers that grow near my house in the spring.
They also had this 40-year-old bonsai tree in a little room off the main room.
Attached to the main room are two smaller sections of the conservatory. One is the North Garden. This has more tropical flowers, but while the main room tropical plants from what seems to be South America and Africa, these plants seem to be native to parts of Asia.
Little oranges. :)
A knobbly fig tree.
An all-spice tree. Yes, the same all-spice that you might have in your spice rack.
A chocolate tree.
Red Torch Ginger
Macaw Plant
The main attraction of the day, however, was the sunken garden. This is where the conservatory has flower shows that change every season. One of my favorites is the spring flower show. This year, was a gorgeous color scheme of pink and purple.
The sunken garden.
Hydrangeas were one of the main attractions.
Foxgloves!
Pink and yellow tulips.
Iris
The crocuses (croci?) weren't quite blooming yet but the muscari were adorable.
Giant pink amaryllis blooms.
My favorite bloom of the day were the ranunculus. They were just so big and bright and happy.
The lilies made the whole garden smell amazing.
Pink hydrangea.
A bed with bright pink tulips and purple pansies.
Blue hyacinths.
Foxgloves
A tulip with more than one layer of petals.
Easter Lily
One of the planters in the middle of the pond.
The conservatory is an awesome place to visit if you're visiting the Twin Cities. Suggested donation is only $2 ($1 for kids). It's a great way to expose your kids to lots of different types of plants. Or, you're like me and just love plants, it's a great place to come for a few hours just to be surrounded by tropical air and the smells of blooming flowers.
They're online at http://www.comozooconservatory.org/
They also have a gardener blog here: http://marjoriemcneelyconservatory.blogspot.com/
(Also, in accordance with their photo policy, I did not use a tripod for any of these pictures and do not intend to ever use them for commercial use. They are purely the pictures of a plant lover to show one of my favorite places in the Twin Cities to my blog's followers.)
