‘Butterflies in Space’ to open at Krohn Conservatory
Inspired by the butterflies of the International Space Station in 2009, Krohn Conservatory will host its annual Butterfly Show, “Butterflies in Space,” running May 11 through August 18.
“The Butterfly Show is an annual exhibit that we put on every year,” said Mark House, manager, at Krohn Conservatory. “We moved it back to May this year, and that will give the butterflies a lot more daylight and energy from the sun.”
This year’s theme, “Butterflies in Space,” was inspired by the four Painted Lady Butterflies that flew aboard the space shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station in 2009.
“We are having a lot of fun with this year’s theme,” said House. “The children can’t hide their emotions when they see these large, colorful butterflies flying around. You see the smiles on their faces, and they are so happy watching them … Generations of people have experienced this, so they keep coming back.”
“Butterflies in Space” will include everything from photo ops to planets and stars hanging from the ceiling, and a star tunnel that guests can walk through.
The exhibition will feature up to 100 species from around the world, including butterflies from every continent, except for Antarctica.
Visitors can expect to see 1,000 to 2,000 butterflies in the Butterfly Show on any given day. Guest favorites include Blue Morpho, Malachites, White Kites and Monarchs.
“Everybody seems to have a favorite. They come in every single color of the rainbow, and we are careful about selecting species that have a variety of colors.” House said.
In the on-site nursery, there are hundreds of chrysalises. Krohn Conservatory gets up to 16,000 of them from butterfly farmers from around the world for the Butterfly Show each year. Butterflies are chosen that do well in the environment as well as those that are popular with visitors.
Once a butterfly is ready to fly, they are carefully placed in a butterfly taxi and transported from the nursery into the showroom, and they are released around 11 a.m. each day. In addition to the variety of more than 3,000 plants and flowers in the showroom, the butterflies love Orange Gatorade.
Admission for the Butterfly Show is timed, with hourly entry, and guests can reserve timed tickets online or purchase them at the Krohn Conservatory. Tickets are limited to 75 people per hour, online, and 50 tickets per hour at the door, so the show doesn’t get too crowded during a particular time period.
“We can accommodate up to 125 people per hour, and that provides a much better experience for our visitors, compared to previous years of the show, where we would get so many people. They would stand in line for an hour, and now, there’s almost no wait,” House said.
About 1,250 people visit the Butterfly Show per day. Over the course of past shows, 80,000 to 90,000 people have visited the Butterfly Show annually.
“People are just delighted to be immersed in a room full of flowers, and butterflies floating all around them. They absolutely love it,” House said.