Columbus: Franklin Park Conservatory

This past Saturday, just before the weather turned to shit, Amanda and I headed over to the Franklin Park Conservatory.  Amanda had been ages ago, but I had never been.  I had heard good things, and we all know how much I love flowers and taking pictures of flowers, so it seemed like an obvious activity for Amanda and I to do over our girl's weekend together.  Oh, and their "Blooms & Butterflies" exhibit was going on...perfect timing! 

Franklin Park has a great collection of Chihuly glass artwork.  I always enjoy seeing his pieces mixed in amongst the flowers; they're so vibrant.

I've only ever been to two different butterfly shows/exhibits: Krohn's annual exhibit, which has a great deal of butterflies, and the Butterfly Pavilion in Denver, which is a permanent butterfly house crawling with a wide variety of butterflies.  Franklin Park, in comparison to these two, had far fewer butterflies...but it wasn't a million degrees in there, so that was nice.  But still, I managed to get a couple of decent shots...with the help of Amanda pointing out all the butterflies to me!

The ones that didn't make it...kind of sad.

Within the butterfly wing of the conservatory there was a decent sized koi pond with giant, gorgeous koi in it!

Also in the koi pond, more Chihuly glass.  For some reason, the floating glass orbs were my favorite.

Oh, and now it's time for me to rank their orchid collection, since we know that's my thing!  They get four stars from me!  What I liked best about their orchids was that they all weren't just restricted to one house (like Krohn's Orchid House...although don't get me wrong, I love Krohn's collection).  I spotted orchids in at least three separate rooms.  In fact, one of the main hallways/lobbies was littered with them.

Overall, I loved Franklin Park Conservatory and would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys flowers/plants and is looking for something to do in Columbus.  It's slightly pricey, $11 for adults...but that gets you into the whole place...which is pretty impressive.  It felt like it was about three times bigger than Krohn Conservatory, with several different wings, and there was a great variety of plants and flowers.  There are outside gardens that, unfortunately, we didn't get to explore since it started pouring just as we were getting done inside.  But that just gives me an excuse to go back some other time!