Visit to Phipps Conservatory's Summer Show 2013

Glass passion flower at Phipps Conservatory

We were visiting at Phipps Conservatory after my RHS test in June, and were wowed by some of their pretty glass flower sculptures for the summer show.

I posted the enormous glass waterlilies last week. Here are a few more highlights from our visit.

The Palm Court entrance is festooned with these pretty glass passion vines. There is another unusual flower in Phipps' Palm Court this week... see the bottom for details!

Rotating glass boxes displayed different scenes from Pittsburgh; this one being sponsored by the zoo.

The Orchid Room is always in color, even in the middle of the winter. See my series of posts on it in February.

This unusual orchid is Dendrochilun filiforme, which is native to the Philippines.

Maidenhair ferns are some of my favorites, so I was intrigued by this one with bright green foliage and ruffles. It is the Delta Maidenhair fern, Adiantum raddianum 'Created Fritz'.

The Butterfly room was quite full by the end of June. This butterfly is Malachite, Siproeta stelenes.

My kids looking at the new butterflies coming out.

Buckeye, Junonia coenia

Monarch, Danaus plexippus

This Sweet Almond Verbena (Aloysia virgata) was slender, but also one of the most fragrant flowers in the Butterfly room.  It is native to Brazil and Argentina.

Zebra Longwing, Heliconius charitonius, enjoying a sip of the butterfly bush, Buddleia.

These are a few of the butterflies you might find in Phipps' Butterfly room.

A beautiful glass vase on a pedestal display in the Sunken Room.

A dozen glass vases were lined up in the Sunken Garden.

The Broderie Room filled with bedding and roses for the summer months...

...and these white glass unbellifers, probably meant to be Queen Anne's Lace/Wild Carrot, Daucus carota.

A glass flower in the East Room by the stream.

The glass sunflower from the entrance.

And a few real flowers from the Children's Garden outside... Rose rugosa 'Frau Dagmar Hastrup'

An enormous beauty bush, Kolkwitzia amabilis. It is so large that we ate a shady lunch under it that day.

The pink beauty bush flowers seen against a red Japanese maple tree.

Foam of forget-me-nots, purple Allium christophii and native columbine, Aquilegia canadensis.

Water fun in the Children's garden...

I was thrilled to find the company who supplied this iron grate: Urban Accessories in Tacoma, WA

The rugosa rose and the beauty bush blooming together at the end of June.

Baptisia australis, known as blue false indigo, sending up its flowers in front of the red Japanese maple.

Another exciting thing to watch out for at Phipps this summer: the giant Corpse flower (or Titan flower), Amorphophallus titanum. It is set to stink up the entrance conservatory in the next few weeks! It is an amazing flower from the Sumatra, but I am not sure if I really want to experience it. Would you?

Perhaps see this great time-lapse video of the last Corpse flower at Kew Gardens in London, England. instead?