Gardens

Bonsai Collection

The Bonsai collection at Como honors a Japanese art. Bonsai, pronounced bone-sigh, means “tree in a pot.” It is an art form with origins that go back more than 2,000 years when Japanese emigrants adapted a similar art form developed in China.

The Marjorie McNeely Conservatory houses the largest public Bonsai collection in the upper Midwest.

The Marjorie McNeely Conservatory’s first bonsai were a donation of trees previously displayed at, and owned, by First Bank System, Inc., in 1987.

The Conservatory’s bonsai collection can be found in The Ordway Gardens.

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Centennial Garden

Como Park Zoo and Conservatory unveiled the Centennial Garden on June 19, 2015, a stylized nod to the traditional European landscape gardens that drew visitors to Como at the turn of the century. The Garden welcomes guests into the Visitor Center and serves as a landmark to remember all of the community members who have made the past 100 years possible.

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Charlotte Partridge Ordway Japanese Garden

The Japanese Garden will be closed for maintenance beginning September 19th, and reopen in 2025.

The Charlotte Partridge Ordway Japanese Garden is a living symbol of the peace and friendship that exists between Saint Paul and its sister city Nagasaki, Japan. A renowned landscape designer in Nagasaki, Masami Matsuda, created the garden according to time honored Japanese design principles using plants and trees that are hardy in Minnesota. Infused with true Japanese design, the garden is meant to delight your senses. The Japanese Garden is open year round, weather dependent.

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Enchanted Garden

The Enchanted Garden is a haven for the butterflies of Como Park. Enjoy a selection of annuals, perennials, trees and shrubs grown for their butterfly attracting properties. Plants in the garden provide nectar for adult butterflies and food for their young, the caterpillars. Many plants native to Minnesota are used in the garden, which was funded in part by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Environmental Partnership grants.

Come walk amongst the butterflies in this beautiful garden.

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Exedra

The Exedra provides a stunning outdoor overview of the Frog Pond, Marjorie McNeely Conservatory and its gardens, and Como Park. Adjoining the Enchanted Garden and surrounded by magnificent pine and fir trees, this stunning overlook is the perfect place to take in the beautiful sights of Como Park.

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Fern Room

Experience the ambiance of dappled light, a gentle waterfall and floating mist. Walk among green lacey foliage and step back in time through a garden of living fossils. Ferns are one of the most ancient groups of plant surviving today. The Fern Room at Marjorie McNeely Conservatory contains over 100 species of ferns and fern allies.

Come and see how many you can discover.

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Lily Pond

The Como Regional Park Historic Lily Pond, built in 1895, was once “a favorite with the public” according to Park Superintendant Frederick Nussbaumer.

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Minnesota and Circle Gardens

The Minnesota Garden and Circle Garden replaces the open lawn in front of the Visitor Center with a formal landscape reminiscent of the historic park gardens that were next to the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory in years past. The space was envisioned for ornamental gardens in the 1996 Master Plan reprising some of the earlier horticultural elements of Como Park once prominent when the Conservatory opened in 1915.

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North Garden

The North Garden is the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory’s living grocery, pharmacy and building supply store. Here you’ll find papaya, pomegranate, fig, mahogany and chocolate, along with many other plants that have a direct influence on human life. Because natural pollinators like bees and bats aren’t present here, some of these tropical trees must be pollinated by hand to coax them into producing fruit.

Visit the North Garden today.

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Orchid House

Take a look through the glass of the Orchid House and admire the award-winning neo-tropical Orchid Conservation Collection. The Orchid House is home to many different orchid species. Although you can find orchids displayed throughout the Conservatory, the smaller and more unusual specimens may only be viewed here.

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Ordway Gardens

The Ordway Gardens is a $2.8 million dollar addition to the historic Marjorie McNeely Conservatory that creates year-round viewing of its nationally-acclaimed Bonsai collection and Charlotte Partridge Ordway Japanese Garden. A Bonsai Pavilion, Huelsmann Foundation Meditative Garden, Huss Foundation Terrace, and realigned Jo and Gordon Bailey Pine Grove Walk leading to the Charlotte Partridge Ordway Japanese Garden are featured in this space.

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Palm Dome

The elegance of stately palms fills this 64-foot-tall crystal dome. You’ll find more than 150 tropical palm and cycad species displayed here, some being more than a century old. The Palm Dome includes an “orchid nook,” which features flowering orchids drawn from the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory’s extensive collection of orchid plants, and is home to Bromeliads while in their peak of color.

Come explore where giant leaves dwarf you and vibrant flowers draw you in.

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Sunken Garden

The Sunken Garden offers beautiful floral shows, updated seasonally. This ever-changing display is as artful as it is fragrant. Perfect for a romantic walk or a curious exploration.

Enjoy amazing azaleas and festive poinsettias in winter, multicolored tulips in spring, prized roses and geraniums in summer and cheery chrysanthemums in autumn.

Visit our current exhibit today.

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The Gates Ajar

The Gates Ajar is a mosaiculture garden established in Como Park since 1894. Parks Superintendent Frederick Nussbaumer brought the idea of Gates Ajar from European parks where such displays were familiar religious horticultural features.

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Tropical Encounters

The Tropical Encounters exhibit is a total immersion experience which allows guests to visit an authentic neo-tropical rainforest and explore the relationships between plants and animals. Tropical Encounters is the first exhibit at Como Park Zoo and Conservatory to combine both the plant and animal worlds. The two-story exhibit is located on the South end of the new Visitor Center.

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Water Gardens

Come face to face with one of nature’s most amazing plants this summer. Victoria Water Lilies, commonly known as ‘Blooming Victorias,’ are on display during the summer months at Como Park Zoo and Conservatory. Floating peacefully in the water gardens that surround Como’s Visitor Center, the giant platter-like plants offer guests spectacular sights and an experience unmatched anywhere in the state, as Como is the only public garden in Minnesota to grow and display the exotic lilies.

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