For the Love of Valentine’s Day
A view of the cottage with tulips, daffodils and hyacinth in the East Wing of the Conservatory. Perfect place for a date!
This Valentine’s weekend, instead of just a dozen flowers, give your sweetie hundreds of fragrance-filled blooms. Take your love for a romantic stroll in the warm and cozy Conservatory, where you can enjoy a colorful array of nature’s beauty. Plus, right now (and through the end of February) we are offering half price admission to visitors. The Conservatory has a variety of tropical flowers filled with color and fragrance. As soon as you enter the glass building you’ll be surrounded by floral fragrances, mint and even lemon. This glass-filled paradise will be the perfect way to escape the arctic blast. You’ll have the chance to experience an early spring in the East Wing and tropical bliss in the West Wing.
Triumph tulip, Tulipa ‘Rejoice’
Each 2 to 3 weeks, Conservatory horticulturist Chelsea Mahaffey updates the display and adds a new collection of blooms and bulbs with a new theme. The current West Wing display will give you a taste of what you’ll see during A Million Blooms (starting March 26). Each wing offers something different for our visitors to experience. Varieties of narcissus such as triandrus and trumpet daffodils along with triumph tulips, white grape hyacinth, and yellow hyacinth are featured in the West Wing, while an array of orchids, including corsage orchids, oncidium and lei orchids are growing in the East Wing.
Triandrus daffodil, Narcissus ‘Hawera’ blooms in the Valentine’s display.
Mahaffey explains her design of the exhibit, “I like to focus a lot on senses. It not only looks good but it smells good. I want visitors to touch things and be more curious.”
So if passion is your thing, we have the perfect spot for you! Red passion flowers will surround you and your date as you spend time together on the bench in the West Wing of the Conservatory enjoying the tulips and daffodils. Passion flowers add a rich color of Valentine-red for a great backdrop. Moments like these are meant to be captured, and everyone loves a good selfie.
Get cozy under the vines of the red passion flower (Passiflora coccinea).
On Saturday, visit the Garden anytime, but here’s our idea — come spend a couple hours walking the Garden and exploring the blooms, then take your love out for a romantic dinner off site (the Garden closes at 5 p.m.). On Sunday, Valentine’s Day, you have options.
Visit earlier in the day and treat your date to lunch at the Garden. Our Garden Café features a special Valentine’s Day lunch (from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.) with a special menu featuring steak medallions, banana pudding and even blackberry punch. Or visit us later in the day for a romantic afternoon at the Garden before your dinner reservations this weekend, the Garden closes a 5 p.m. both days.