Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park Butterflies Are Blooming Exhibit & Giveaway!

If you live in, or near, Grand Rapids, MI, you are most certainly familiar with Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. This past November, I wrote about one of their special exhibits – their Holiday Exhibition (and gave away passes to go see it as well!)

Today I’m very happy to once again be writing about Meijer Gardens (as those of us who live in this area fondly call them) and their amazing Butterflies are Blooming Exhibit (and I’m giving away two of their family pack tickets!)

If you have never had the opportunity to experience, explore, discover and learn in a butterfly exhibit, you are absolutely in for a real treat at the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park as their Butterflies are Blooming exhibit is a most delightful opportunity, and certainly all you would hope and more than you can imagine!

This may sound like big “build up”, but it is the truth! It has been several years since I personally visited the Butterflies are Blooming exhibit at Meijer Gardens, but I was left in awe of it! So many amazing, beautiful butterflies flying all around in and among the beautiful tropical plants! It was unforgettable!

Meijer Gardens is making tickets available for me to visit once again (this time with grandchildren) and after our visit, I’ll write again to share what we experienced, but for today, I’d love to give you an idea of what you will see if you visit the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park Butterflies are Blooming Exhibit.

As you might expect, a visit would most certainly include the opportunity to see butterflies – Meijer Gardens describes it as; “This temporary, annual exhibition features thousands of tropical butterflies from Central and South America, Africa and Asia freely flying in the Tropical Conservatory. From March 1 through April 30, experience butterflies close up and watch them emerge from their chrysalises’ right before your eyes.” And, yes, it is even more incredible than it sounds!

But, this is not all! No, there is more for you to explore, experience and discover! Just look . . .

• There’s the Caterpillar Room - “The Caterpillar Room is home to the lifecycle of the Monarch butterfly during our Butterflies Are Blooming spring exhibition from March through April. Guests can watch as tiny black and yellow caterpillars feed on milkweed, spin a cocoon and emerge as Monarch butterflies.”
• The Butterfly Bungalow – “The butterflies emerge from chrysalides, or cocoons, daily at the Butterfly Bungalow. To help ease their transition to the open conservatory, staff will collect and release adult butterflies throughout the day.”
• Butterfly feeding stations – “Feeding stations provide a great spot to closely watch and identify butterflies as they feast on a honey-water solution. Also look for trays of juicy, overripe fruit.”
• On a nice Spring Day, go outside and discover the . . . “The Butterfly Maze, solve it by navigating the right path and ring the bell to sound a victory.”

A Butterfly exhibit, Caterpillar Room and Butterfly Maze all are more than enough opportunities to explore, experience and discover, but they are not all! There is more . . 

• Tropical plants and birds! “Within the Lena Meijer Tropical Conservatory over 500 species from five continents are displayed in a lush, verdant setting including waterfalls, streams and bridges, as well as varieties of tropical birds.”
• Carnivorous Plants! “The Kenneth E. Nelson Carnivorous Plant House is the only publicly displayed plant collection in the U.S. dedicated exclusively to carnivorous plants.”
• The Children’s Garden with the treehouse, Great Lakes Garden, Kid Sense Garden, Log Cabin and so much more!
• The Japanese Garden and, So Much More!

Yes, you could easily describe the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park as, “So much more!”

You have until April 30, 2017 to enjoy this year’s Butterflies Are Blooming exhibit, so if you live anywhere near here, or will be planning a visit anywhere near here during this time, be sure to visit . . . you will be so glad you did!

And, as I mentioned, not only did the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park make tickets available for me to visit, they are giving me two family packs (two adult tickets and two children’s tickets) available for me to give away (USA only)! If you are over the age of 18 and would like to enter this drawing for one of the Family Pack Tickets to Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park Butterflies Are Blooming - which will be on March 20, 2017, please comment below to tell me your favorite butterfly – growing up in West Michigan, I have to pick the Monarch, although I do like Tiger Swallow Tails, too!

In addition if you have followed on Google Friend Connect, followed by liking on facebook with the tab in the "Find us on Facebook" box ON THE BLOG or at this link (not just liking the post) and/or have followed grandma's cookie jar by email you will receive one entry for each of these which you have done. Plus, if you "share" this post, you'll receive another entry (please let me know if you share). This will help me be able to draw names from among people who would like to win one of the Family Pack Tickets to Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park Butterflies Are Blooming and it gives you several ways to enter the give-away! Thank you for reading grandma's cookie jar and for sharing it with the people you know!