Orchids, bromeliads and plumeria, oh my!

The Orchid House is a favorite stop at the South Texas Boranical Gardens and Nature Center in Corpus Christi. One of the Coastal Bend's visitor destinations is the 180-acre South Texas Botanical Gardens and Nature Center. The center showcases nine floral exhibits and gardens, including the acclaimed Orchid House and Plumeria Garden. The Bromeliad Conservatory and Butterfly House are expected to open summer or fall 2009.

The Orchid House, home to one of the largest public collections in the United States, houses an abundance of cattleya, phaleonopsis, paphiopedlum and dendrobium in a climate-controlled environment.

The contemporary Rose Garden, with its large covered pavilion, features 300 rose bushes in raised beds.

The Sensory Garden experience includes two limestone and ceramic tile 'sofas,' and two sculpted ranch hands resting under the tile-legged windmill.

Other exhibits are the Hummingbird Garden, Arid Garden and EarthKind Demonstration Trial Gardens. The new 100- plant Plumeria Garden, with its viewing platform, is thought to be one of the largest public displays in the continental United States.

A walk-through 2,600 squarefoot octagonal screened Butterfly House was built in the Butterfly Garden this winter, where a host of nectar and larval plants already were attracting native and migratory butterflies. Also scheduled to open in 2009 is the Anderson Bromeliad Conservatory, a state-of-theart facility housing 800-plus specimens collected worldwide by Nelwyn and the late John Anderson, internationally known bromeliad collectors, hybridizers and growers.

The Garden Shoppe is open year-round and offers a variety of unique merchandise.

For more information, call (361) 852-2100, or go to www. stxbot.org.