Butterflies and Baja California

We continue our tour of Hortus Botanicus in Amsterdam by featuring the first of their three greenhouse attractions - The Butterfly Greenhouse. The other two being the The Palm Greenhouse and Three Climate Greenhouse.

Keeping in mind how small this botanic garden is, their greenhouses are relatively small too but all has sufficient interests in them to merit a visit. And of the three, The Butterfly Greenhouse is the smallest. 

And speaking of threes, the butterflies are just in one of three adjoining greenhouses. The middle one is used for propagation and not open to the public. The outer ones though are open to visitors.

Baja California to the left and Butterflies to the right

Before we proceed to see the butterflies let's check out the Baja California one first...

Even though we haven't been I'm pretty sure that this greenhouse doesn't do this part of Mexico any justice at all but the plants inside are interesting enough to check out. Gotta love a greenhouse laden with spikies!

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The Butterflies at Wisley

The day has finally arrived last Saturday when it was actually too cold outside to do anything in the garden. Well, that's stretching it a bit I know, it wasn't really that cold and I'm sure we could do lots of other things if we really wanted to but the nippy weather outside was a great excuse to have a day out instead and off we went to RHS Wisley to check out the first day of their new winter attraction, Butterflies in the Glasshouse.

Even the cobwebs were shivering! Fortunately this was outside the glasshouse...

Frosty but lovely! 

RHS Wisley is a great place to visit even in the middle of winter, for the winter interest outside but mainly for their large glasshouse which you can take refuge in to, away from the cold and into the warmth where you can enjoy strolling around, looking and surrounded by beautiful exotic plants from warmer regions.

And into the glasshouse we go...

The glasshouse is divided into different sections (arid, temperate, humid, etc.) to suit the growing conditions needed by various exotic and wonderful plants from warmer regions, beautifully displayed and the plants are the main reason in itself to visit the place (which I will feature on a separate blog). But for now I will focus on the current attraction which are the exotic butterflies!

Within the glasshouse is a 'tropical humid' section and it is there where the butterflies can be found freely flying amongst the plants. I was a bit hesitant at first, going to the first day of this seasonal attraction, worried that the crowd would be so large and overwhelming that we wouldn't enjoy the place. To a certain extent that was the case with a queue forming to go inside the tropical humid section which it took us awhile to actually get in but fortunately the wait was far from boring as we were surrounded by beautiful plants and the slow movement gave us ample of opportunity to take photographs of the specimens (which we will feature on a separate post).

A queue, how British!

And finally, we got in  and it was well worth the wait! Once inside, you can stay for as long as you wish to admire the plants and of course the butterflies. Despite the queue it didn't feel overcrowded inside and you still had ample space to stroll around and take photos of these wonderful creatures.

Inside the 'tropical humid' section...

Xanthosoma (Yellow Leaved form)

And here they are, just some of the butterflies..

Butterflies 'in action'...

It was a most enjoyable day and was great to see the glasshouse again, and of course the butterflies! A day out like this was just what we needed, feeling refreshed we spent the next day doing a few more bits towards our project. 

Looking forward to visiting again, perhaps in the spring and/or summer, time permitting. The butterflies may not be there by then but there's plenty more to explore at Wisley, both inside and outside the glasshouse.

Mark

RHS Wisley: Butterflies in the glasshouse

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