A Jewel in Forest Park

In between the craziness of finding and securing an apartment, trying to buy a car, and working to restrain both myself and my mom from completely furnishing the apartment in one weekend’s worth of shopping trip (chairs really don’t fit into the tiny trunk of a Miata, no matter how good at three dimensional puzzles you might be…), Mom and I found a little time to play tourist.  On our first trip, we had seen a delightful glass building while driving through Forest Park.  This turned out to be the Jewel Box, a gigantic greenhouse built in 1936. 

To get to the Jewel Box, you walk up a lovely garden path with a sundial and large fountains.  We were a little early in the season to see the fountains running, but with the rain, we were treated to a large number of worms squirming along the pavement.  Well, perhaps treated is the wrong word.

Once inside, it is like walking through a tropical garden, with enormous treelike ferns, beautiful pink and red lilies, and other flora.  You almost forget that you are inside a greenhouse until you realize that many of the plants are hanging from massive baskets suspended from the rafters. 

There is a small balcony at one end which brings you close to the tops of the plants.  From here, you can look up and appreciate the beauty of the structure of the greenhouse.  The sun came out while we were on the balcony, making the view through the windows nearly as memorable as the view over the railing.

My advice: one day in spring when you have an hour to kill, take your camera, or maybe your book, and relax while enjoying the garden.  Sure you can walk through and see it in three minutes, but why do that when you can take a leisurely stroll through a lovely glasshouse?