The Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House, a division of the Missouri Botanical Garden located in St. Louis County, opened to the public in 1998. It features an 8,000-square-foot glass conservatory where visitors mingle with more than 60 species of the world’s most beautiful butterflies in free flight. The conservatory is lushly planted with nearly 100 species of exotic flowering tropical plants and is sheathed in 646 pieces of glass, each measuring 4 by 6 feet and weighing approximately 200 pounds.

The Tower Grove House, Garden founder Henry Shaw’s restored country residence, is located in the Lichtenstein Victorian District. After an extremely successful business venture, Shaw retired and made several trips back to Europe. After his first trip, he was inspired to make St. Louis his permanent home. In 1849, he commissioned George I. Barnett, an English-born architect and friend, to design the Tower Grove House. The building is Barnett’s first design with an Italianate influence, a style popular among Americans who traveled to Europe in the Victorian era.

It is often said that a Chinese garden is built, not planted. Designed by Chinese-born architect Yong Pan, this garden is a showplace of extraordinary craftsmanship. The architectural elements were designed and built using the traditional colors indicative of a southern Chinese Garden: black, white, gray and reddish brown for the different elements such as the walls, pavilion, bridges, and blue stone pavings with their exquisite mosaic designs.

What better way to cure cabin fever than to design next season’s garden and landscape plan? The Kemper Center for Home Gardening is a tremendous inspiration to both the budding gardener and seasoned pro. This eight-acre portion of the Missouri Botanical Garden features an 8,000-square-foot enclosed pavilion, which contains displays, a reference library, the Plant Doctor clinic, a classroom, indoor gardening displays, a monthly gardening-calendar display and much more.

A walk through the Shoenberg Temperate House is a lovely respite from the blustery St. Louis weather.  Dedicated in March 1990, the building replaced the 1913 Mediterranean House on a site just north of the Climatron® geodesic dome conservatory.  Boasting 8,900 square feet of space, it displays warm temperate-zone species requiring special protection from our St. Louis winters. The largest portion of the house features species from five widely separated regions of the world known for their “Mediterranean” climate, chiefly characterized by warm, dry summers and cool, moist winters.

Treat out-of-town holiday guests to a walk through the Climatron® at the Missouri Botanical Garden. The Climatron is the first geodesic dome to be used as a conservatory, incorporating the principles of R. Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the geodesic system. The Climatron opened to the public on October 1, 1960. The Climatron has no interior support and no columns from floor to ceiling, allowing more light and space per square foot for plants than conventional designs.