Visiting the Tropics in December

I had an errand today near Como Park in Saint Paul, so when done decided to visit the Conservatory to see the holiday flowers. What a treat to be semi-retired and able to visit here without crowds on a weekday!

The Conservatory opened for the first time in November, 1915. The first Holiday Flower Show was held in 1925. It enjoyed a renovation between 1987-1992.

The Sunken Garden shown above is the area with seasonal changes. Now obviously it is decked out for the Christmas season.

At the far end is a small fountain.

The sculpture is called Play and is the work of Harriett Whitney Frishmuth.  A review of the link provided will reveal she was a quite noted sculptor during the early 20th century, having lived in Paris and Dresden as a young woman and even studied for a bit with Rodin.

But the title of this post says tropics, so let's move there.

 The garden area under the dome of the Conservatory is called the Palm Dome. This garden includes many beautiful flowers.

 I found one curious plant with flowers.

It grows very low to the ground and the blossom appears to emerge out of the red leaves.

Nearby is another garden area, the Fern Garden. In the center of this is another Frishmuth sculpture.

This sculpture is called Crest of a Wave and was also placed in the Conservatory in 1925.
I wandered just a bit too in the Tropical area of the nearby Como Zoo.

Here is a fish video.

Today was a lovely sunny day in Saint Paul with a seasonal temperature of 33 (+1 in Celsius), cooling down from nearly 50 degrees when I came home last evening about 8 PM. It was still nice to visit the tropics, and it will not be my last weekday trip to this area this winter. What a wonderful place to escape!