Because plants have long been jealous of our ability to live indoors, they attempt to infiltrate our finest mansions and universities by slowly climbing stony facades. With today's Groupon to the Conservatory of Flowers, located on the east side of Golden Gate Park, you have two options to visit a place built specifically to contain these floral invaders:
- For $7, you get a ticket for two people (up to a $14 value).
- For $24, you get a one-year family membership (a $60 value).
The Conservatory of Flowers is a veritable Emerald City of juicy, verdant plant life. Swathed in a perpetually tropical greenhouse with historical wood-and-glass Victorian architecture, this botanic garden is brimming with everything from lowland and highland tropics to special exhibits such as Garden Railway, a display that celebrates the Golden Gate Park's 140th anniversary with noteworthy, miniaturized landmarks that are traversed by models trains and trolleys. With today's deal, you and a pod-person pal can take one tour of the mini-jungle, or you can opt for a full family membership for multiple returns. Membership comes with a number of beneficial benefits, including:
- Unlimited admission for two adults and two children, including special exhibits
- Admission for two to an annual members-only event
- Subscription to Conservatory Chronicles
- Discounts on other select special events
- 10% discount at the gift shop
- Special admission privileges at more than 250 associated horticultural organizations across the vast bounty of North America
Whether you're a fan of breathing oxygen made by plants or a student of spells wishing to take a look at the plants in the potions that make children love hot dogs, a trip to the Conservatory of Flowers will bring beautiful sights and vivid colors to your eyeballs, as well as plant-based knowledge and a deeper appreciation for our fragile environment to your brain.
Reviews
The Conservatory of Flowers has gotten a lot of press, including features in The Chronicle and The Examiner. More than 200 Yelpers give them an average rating of 4.5 stars, and seven Insider Pagers give them a five-star average.
- The Conservatory of Flowers is well known for its tropical plant collection, and…“Edible Expeditions” doesn’t stray far from the jungle. – Christina Troup, Examiner
Conservatory of Flowers
Planted between mighty palms in Golden Gate Park is the oldest public wood-and-glass conservatory in North America. The gleaming white Victorian structure has survived several boiler explosions, closure during World War II, and more than two decades of renovations. In 1998, it was deemed an endangered building—but it was quickly adopted by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and completely rehabilitated by 2003. This 135-year-old structure is home to the Conservatory of Flowers, a National Historic Landmark that connects visitors year-round with the exotic flora of the world's tropical regions.
The Conservatory houses five main galleries. In the Aquatic Plants Gallery, cascading water gurgles into pools beneath a glass-and-metal sculpture of a six-foot Victoria amazonica water lily. The mist-filled Highland Gallery mimics the high-altitude forests of tropical mountaintops with clusters of orchids and ferns. Showcasing another side of the tropics, the rainy Lowland Gallery replicates lush jungles, housing a 100-year-old imperial philodendron and several cycads, which date to the days when most dinosaurs were just tiny salamanders. The Potted Plants gallery incorporates man-made works such as copper planters from India, ceramic pots from Burkina Faso, and an urn from the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. An additional rotating Special Exhibits Gallery features two different educational exhibits per year.