I was overwhelmed with the loveliness of the flowers and the fragrance. But what got to me the most was seeing the orange trees growing in the same room and laden with oranges. The last week of January had been a very hard week for me. Someone told me that the last week of January was hard on most everybody. People are feeling the effects from being shut in for three months (for those of us who live in the northern part of the country, that is), all the Christmas bills have come in (but that doesn't affect us since we go lightly on Christmas), and there's not much excitement going on in general. Yep, I sure felt it. It is the time of year when I yearn the most to be in Florida. So, seeing the orange trees made tears well up in me but brought the biggest smile on my face, too. I was just beaming. All of us stayed in this room the longest not wanting to leave such an uplifting place. But eventually we did move onto the desert room that was chockfull of the most varied assortment of cacti that I had ever seen. What a contrast from the beauty of flowers to the pointiness and dryness of succulents.

Then you flowed along to the orchid room. Orchids are wonderfully detailed but they don't excite me much. The bonsai exhibit that was next was much more impressive. And then onto the rain forest which we totally loved. It was complete with a waterfall. The wonderful thing about conservatories is that the trees grow so high it makes you dizzy to look up at them. And there is such lushness all around that it pleases every sense especially the sense of sight. I felt the cloak of winter fall off my shoulders being surrounded by such greenness. Every nook and cranny was filled with some kind of plant. I don't think they had nearly enough identifying markers by the plants but it was interesting to know the names of ones that they did have marked. I especially loved the tall royal palm growing right beside the path. The trunk was so chubby and tall. I wanted to hug it but restrained myself and just put my hand lovingly on it as I looked up into its dizzying heights.

The last room was an Amazon forest room. More of the lush greenery, some being the same as we had just seen but most of it being different. In here, I especially loved the cocoa tree with the cocoa pods hanging from it. There was a faint aroma of chocolate around it. They also had on display a vanilla tree, a coffee tree and a papaya tree. In each forest section, there were large ponds with goldfish in them. Scattered along the way were several benches. It was refreshing to sit down and observe all the quiet growth going on in there.

The nice thing about the place is that it is free. They have a display where you can make a donation, so we did. We only wished the conservatory was located closer to us so we could pop over there when we felt the need to be refreshed from the drudgery of winter. It would be worth it to go back when they let the butterflies loose in the flower room. That's an awesome experience. We went to the butterfly exhibit at Niagara Falls several years ago and it was enchanting.