One-Tank Trip / Southern Ontario
A tropical sanctuary on a raw winter day
NIAGARA FALLS, Ont.—One winter a few years ago now, I went on a lucky family trip to Belize, where I snorkeled and saw sea horses, rode horseback to a swim beneath a waterfall, sipped rum on balmy evenings and took a drive down a dirt road to a greenhouse where shimmery Blue Morpho butterflies, wings as big as my hands, were bred for North American conservatories.
The butterflies that landed on my shoulder and flowers and windows around us were so iridescent they seemed lit up from the inside. A friend brought the memories back when he offered a trip to the Butterfly Conservatory in Niagara Falls, Ont. I could repay a favor owed, he said, if I bought the tickets.
My own personal bleak economy meant there would be no trips to the tropics again soon. It was cheering to know I could afford this: $11 tickets. I’d long wanted to see this oasis so close to home.
And as part of an off-season spring special, an exhibit of 200 tropical frogs, including poisonous Peruvian ones, is running through next Sunday. Find them inside terrariums along walkways during conservatory hours (9 a. m. to 5
p. m., seven days a week; the last ticket sells at 4:30 p. m.).
With 80-degree temperatures, 60 percent humidity, and an 80-foot ceiling of sloping paneled glass, the conservatory is host to about 2,000 butterflies fluttering among palm trees, birds of paradise flowers and red “lobster claw” ginger blooms.
Some 40 to 50 different species come in wild orange, blue stripes, black and white speckles and with owl-like “eyes” to trick predators.
About 30 to 40 percent are bred in a back greenhouse. The rest come in midweek shipments from El Salvador, Ecuador, the Philippines and Australia as pupa— the butterfly version of a cocoon, said Assistant Curator Cheryl Tyndall. At this conservatory, she said, the elegant Blue Morphos arrive from Costa Rica, not Belize.
By the weekend about 1,000 small grayish sacks hang from cork boards in the “emergence” window along the garden edge. Butterflies break loose and ever- so-slowly unfurl. Sometimes, they fall: At first wings are heavy, wet with body fluid. It can be a few hours before they are dry enough to work.
“The bigger the butterfly, the longer it takes,” said Tyndall. And when they bask, the sun heats wings, which work like solar panels warming to a fly-ready 72 degrees.
The 12-year-old conservatory is one of the largest in North America with 11,000 square feet of garden display and an 18- foot waterfall. An average of 500,000 people visit each year.
One was a Buffalo friend who made his first visit on the same day I did. “It was staggering to step out of the Niagara Frontier and into a tropical jungle. That was overwhelming,” said Don Shedd, a retired Roswell Park surgeon. “I hadn’t thought that much about butterflies. Such a large number and a mixed variety was impressive.”
Tyndall said people sometimes come with a book to sit on a bench and read. Most visitors come between May and December, so winter and spring can be less crowded.
Another friend reported that when she makes the trip, she dresses her young children in bright colors to better lure butterflies into shoulder perching. Reds, oranges and yellows can sometimes, but not always, work. For her, the conservatory’s blue and orange butterflies and red tropical flowers are an antidote to Buffalo gray.
“It just fills me with joy when I wander in on a day like today and see all those colors. Especially when you live in Buffalo,” said my friend as we compared notes by phone. “Cheaper than a plane ticket to Florida,” she quipped.
It was a snowy Sunday afternoon in January when I visited. Our drive to 2405 Niagara Parkway, Niagara Falls, Ont., from my house in North Buffalo was, according to Mapquest, 29.71 miles, 1 hour and 9 minutes and $2.09 in gas.
We took the I-190 and drove through Niagara Falls, crossed the Lewiston- Queenston Bridge and made our way through the hilly curves of the grounds of the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens &School of Horticulture until we spotted the entrance marked by a big metal butterfly sculpture dusted with snow.
As I went through the doors into the balmy air, I was immediately welcomed, and startled, by a landing Blue Morpho. I flinched, adjusted—just a friendly butterfly!— it flew away and I began hoping another would visit as I wandered along the stone walkways. The waterfall’s sounds were soothing and it was easy to peer in at plant leaves and blooms for close-up looks.
We saw tiger-striped butterflies and a big plain orange one on a purple flower. The owl-eyed ones gathered to feed on plates of orange and banana slices. A butterfly with a red spot at the end of each wing landed near long fuzzy-looking red flowers that matched. Inside a blooming red amaryllis, a velvety brown one was feeding.
Tyndall recommends looking for a glimpse of the proboscis, the long butterfly “tongue” that sips nectar, like a straw.
In the conservatory, butterflies have long lives—some live three weeks—because there are no predators. Faded, tattered wings are a sign of a long, happy life, she said.
I visited late in the afternoon, near closing, Tyndall’s favorite time of day. Near dusk, butterflies sometimes hang together, and even fly, in groups. “It’s really quite enchanting,” she said.
After a late lunch in Niagara-on-the- Lake, we drove back to Buffalo along the Niagara Parkway and I gazed at the lake as snow fell. The butterflies, the warm garden walk, lunch with a rich-tasting glass of Ontario wine—and now our long winter didn’t seem so bad.
I need to go back for the things Tyndall revealed I’d missed. I want to see wet butterfly wings dry and stiffen in the emergence window, watch a proboscis “tongue” sip nectar and see the butterflies dance as they fly together at dusk.
If you go
Butterfly Conservatory, 2405 Niagara Parkway, Niagara Falls, Ont.; www.niagaraparks.com/garden/butterfly.php , (905) 358-0025.
Ticket prices vary slightly, with the exchange rate. Early this week, with tax, it was $11.50 for an adult, and $6.80 for a child. Kids under 5 are free.
Niagara Parks’ information: www.niagaraparks.com Eat, play, stay
On the way home, we detoured 10 miles along Niagara Parkway to Niagara- on-the-Lake. At the end of the main drag of shops and restaurants, the old brick Prince of Wales hotel at 6 Picton St. had formal and informal options. We skipped afternoon tea—$32 for adults, $17 for children—in favor of the Churchill Lounge.
With book-lined shelves, it had a cozy window view of the park across the street. A fat burger, with soup, salad or fries, was $15.My small pizza with caramelized onions and Ontario goat cheese, $14.We lingered and ordered more: A big mixed green salad, a parfait dessert, a hot-chocolate-liqueur concoction and a glass of wine. The total bill, $83. www.vintage-hotels.com/ niagara-on-the-lake/hotels/ prince-of-wales. php. (905) 468-3246. Another friend tried lunch at a Japanese restaurant in Fort Erie: Yukiguni’s can be found at 660 Garrison Road, (905) 994-8506. And there’s another at 5980 Fallsview Blvd. in Niagara Falls, Ont., (905) 354-4440. www.yukiguni.ca . Tyndall recommends the restaurant or food court at Niagara Parks’ Table Rock at 6650 Niagara Parkway in Niagara Falls for its walkway view of the Falls. www.niagaraparks.com/nfgg/tablerock.php Directions
From Buffalo, take the I-190 North to the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge. Take Route 405 West and exit toward Stanley Avenue. Turn right at Town Line Road and left on Portage Road. Niagara Parkway to Butterfly Conservatory is the first exit off the roundabout.
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