“The Domes” Tropical Time

January 6, 2013 by Megan | 8 Comments

Last Sunday we roadtripped over to Milwaukee to check out the Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservatory (The Domes) for some horticultural excitement.  I hadn’t been in years, but remember not being impressed the last time I was there. Built in the mid 60′s, The Domes were recently upgraded with new lighting and tons of great plants. Read all about it in a recent WSJ article. They did a great job! I think it may be only conservatory I’ve been to that offers alcoholic beverages at all times.  There are was a little cooler full of beers and single serve white wine for $4.00 a piece. Welcome to Wisconsin!

I’m not 100% sure that this is Ceiba pentandra… I was lazy and didn’t take pics of plant tags. Then I spent twenty minutes googling around to figure out what type of Ceiba I took a pic of.

Thanks to Jason the main man of The Palm Broker at Flora Grubb for helping me out in the ID department for these two.

A ginormous relative to the bird-of-paradise, Ravenala madagascariensis has freaky blue seeds with edible appendages.

They have a big Amorphophallus titanum (corpse flower) hanging out next to a bunch of ephiphytes.

The Domes are definitely worth a visit. Zoe slept the entire time we were there. You can check out all our pics on flickr.