Because plants are jealous of our ability to live indoors, they attempt to infiltrate our finest mansions and universities by slowly climbing stony facades. Visit a place built specifically to contain these floral strivers with today's Groupon: for $30, you get a one-year family membership to the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens on Park Avenue (a $60 value).
A family membership nets unlimited entry for two adults and two children to the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens' three cavernous glass domes and nine greenhouses. Leaf-loving lads and lasses can get face to face with extraordinary local, tropical, and subtropical leafy treasures while exploring gardens such as the Palm Dome, Desert House, and Panama Cloud Forest & Epiphyte Pavilion. Designed by famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead and master builders Lord & Burnham in 1899, this impressive horticultural shrine is spread over 11.4 acres, with plants arranged in a classic Victorian style without Victorian foliage's classic disdain for humans.
In addition to free admission, garden gals and guys enjoy four guest passes, discounts on special events, and a free year-long subscription to Better Homes and Gardens magazine. Foliage fiends with a touch of wanderlust also have access to reciprocal benefits to more than 200 gardens, arboretums, and garden-gnome adoption centers.
Buffalo Botanical Gardens
A massive glass dome reminiscent of the Victorian Crystal Palace and verdant plant life stretching their green leaves toward the sun attract visitors to the Buffalo Botanical Gardens. The gardens span 11 acres and include three glass domes and nine greenhouses full of re-created tropical and subtropical climates. In the Fern House and tropical rainforest, banana trees surround a 30-foot waterfall as large dinosaur topiaries roam across a backdrop of hanging ferns.
Called a living museum, the botanical gardens is dedicated to enriching lives with nature and teaching guests to appreciate the natural systems and diverse plant life the earth sustains. Visitors can soak up Mother Nature’s splendor in addition to manmade wonders such as the 67-foot-tall Palm Dome.