Southern California forest in glass
Educational and lushly beautiful, the Huntington Botanical Gardens’ new Rose Hills Foundation Conservatory for Botanical Science offers an ideal spring outing for kids and parents. Upon entering the soaring conservatory and getting hit with its warm, humid air, you immediately become aware of the tropical forest, bog, and cloud forest environments that this facility re-creates.
Giant palms soar toward the glass ceiling and plants fill a large pond ― elevated so visitors can see roots and life underwater ― along a serpentine pathway.
Over in the plant lab, hands-on exhibits take basic botany lessons out of the textbook realm. Use a videoscope to collect and transfer pollen from a flower’s anther to its stigma, or glimpse living algae through a microscope.