Come in from the cold.

Four glass houses around an iron dome, built in 1893. Open late on the coldest nights.

The Palm House

The dome is fifty-eight feet at the crown, and the tallest palm has been trying to reach it since 1931. It is the warmest room we have, so coats come off at the door.

Take the spiral stair to the gallery and you are standing in the canopy.

The dome holds 4,200 panes. We replace about forty a year.
The gallery is thirty-one feet up. There is a rail.
Strelitzia reginae flowers here from late winter into spring.

Hand-colored engraving of a bird of paradise flower, orange and violet petals rising from a beak-like green bract — *Strelitzia reginae*Pl. 119. Curtis's Botanical Magazine, 1790

Palm fronds silhouetted against the iron ribs of the dome, a gallery walkway crossing high above in the lamplit haze

The white iron spiral stair curling up through the palms toward the gallery

Hand-colored engraving of a spray of white moth orchids with broad green leaves — *Phalaenopsis amabilis*Pl. 4297. Curtis's Botanical Magazine, 1847

The Orchid Room

Small, dim and close, on purpose. Orchids like a cloud forest: warm, wet and never bright. Ours grow on mossy branches the way they do in the wild, not in pots.

Vanilla is an orchid. Ours flowers in spring, and each flower lasts one day.
The air is kept damp enough that your glasses will fog. Give them a minute.

A spray of white moth orchids beaded with water, lit from one side

A vanilla vine on a mossy post with one pale green flower open

The Water Lily House

One round pool, kept at eighty-five degrees, and the giant lily the house was built for.

First nightIt opens white at dusk and smells faintly of pineapple.

Hand-colored lithograph of a giant water lily, a large white flower open among floating pads — *Victoria amazonica*Victoria Regia. W. H. Fitch, 1851

Second nightIt opens again, pink this time. Then it closes and sinks.

A white giant water lily opening on black water beside the ribbed edge of a pad

The dark lily pool under the dome, lamps reflected in gold streaks between the pads

The upturned red rim of a giant lily pad, its spiny underside catching the lamplight

The pads grow wider than eight feet.
Their undersides are armed with spines, which keeps hungry fish away.

The Desert House

The one room where the glass stays clear. It is dry in here, hot in the afternoon, and quieter than the rest.

In early summer the Queen of the Night opens its flowers one at a time, each for a single night. We stay open until it closes.

About twenty percent humidity. Your lenses will be fine.
Our oldest cactus arrived in 1906 and is still growing, slowly.

Hand-colored engraving of a night-blooming cereus, a huge white flower on a slender cactus stem — *Selenicereus grandiflorus*Plantae Selectae. G. D. Ehret, 1750s

A night-blooming cereus fully open, a white star of a flower against clear glass and night sky

A red aloe flower spike and cactus spines backlit by a warm lamp

What’s in flower

January

Turn the window, tap a month, or use the arrow keys.

The conservatory at night in falling snow, the dome and four glass wings glowing gold, lamp posts along a snowy path

After dark

On late nights the lamps stay lit until eleven. The glass fogs over, the rooms go quiet, and the place feels nothing like it does at noon.

13NovemberLamplight lateFriday, 6 to 11 pm
19DecemberThe longest nightSaturday, 6 to 11 pm
15JanuaryThe coldest weekFriday, 6 to 11 pm

Visit

1 Conservatory Walk, Wyndham Hollow Park
Providence, Rhode Island 02907

Hours

Tuesday to Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm. Last entry at 4:15.

Fridays from November to February, open until 9. Closed Mondays, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.

Getting here

Free parking in the Elm Street gate lot. Buses stop at the park’s north gate, a four-minute walk on a path we clear of snow.

Access

Step-free from the gate into every house. The gallery is up the spiral stair only; a camera there shows the view on a screen below. Wheelchairs to borrow at the desk.

Quiet hours on Tuesdays, 10 to noon: no tours, lamps low.

Worth knowing

It is humid. Wear layers you can carry. Camera lenses fog when you come in from the cold: give them five minutes. Strollers are welcome.

Members

Come back all year. The houses change more than you would think.

Friend
$60 a year
One person, every day we are open. Early entry on Saturdays from 9.
Household
$110 a year
Two adults and their children, two guest passes, and a text the night something rare is about to open.
Patron
$300 a year
All of that, an invitation to the lily’s first night, and the spring plant sale a day early.

Join at the front desk, or add a membership when you book.

A long candlelit dinner table under the palms, iron columns and fogged glass above

Marry under the palms

After closing, the Palm House seats 120 for dinner. Vows on the gallery, photographs by the lily pool, and in winter the glass fogs over on its own. We host twenty weddings a year, and no more.