The Myriad Botanical Gardens are right in downtown Oklahoma City, a city block remade into a beautiful and varied garden and event space. And in the middle is the stunning Crystal Bridge Conservatory. The conservatory is closing at the end of April until winter 2022 for a complete overhaul. So if you’re nearby this month, make sure to stop by before they close it!
Oklahoma City
I have to say, I am super impressed by downtown Oklahoma City. It’s as if after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the residents made an effort in rebuilding the damage to make the city extra beautiful. It’s clean, there’s large-form art everywhere, and it has an inherent atmosphere of openness and friendliness. Not sure how you manage that with office buildings and apartments, but they do!
Part of that openness comes from all the garden spaces in the city. The site of the bombing is now an open memorial (plus an excellent museum.) Then, just a few blocks down is the Myriad Botanical Gardens which takes up an entire city block. Down from that, there is the new Scissortail Park, which is 2-3 times bigger than even Myriad Gardens and has a cool color-changing pedestrian bridge over the highway to connect to even more park space.
Myriad Botanical Gardens
Myriad Botanical Gardens (and Scissortail Park) is completely FREE as well! To the north, there are areas with flowing water, bridges, all planted with native Oklahoma plants and grasses. Up a hill is a small terrace overlooking the whole park. A wide lawn with a bandshell hosts performances. During the winter, a plaza is home to an ice rink. A prairie garden and dog park fill the southeast corner, while in the southwest corner is a children’s garden. Near it is a beautiful carousel and, during the summer, a fun “Thunder Fountain” with lights, mist, and rain.
In fact, water is a central feature of the whole park, surely having a cooling effect during hot summers. The whole Myriad Botanical Garden is situated around a body of water straddled by the enormous Crystal Bridge Conservatory. On either side of the conservatory/bridge is a water stage for performances, events, and terraces for everyday strolling and lounging.
Crystal Bridge Conservatory
While the rest of the park is free to visit, there is a small charge ($8 for adults) for the conservatory. And it is well worth it! Almost all of my pictures are from inside the Crystal Bridge – there wasn’t a whole lot blooming outside during my visit in early March. (Though I’ve seen pictures on their Instagram – it looks like there are lots of tulips out right now.)
Inside the Crystal Bridge (and you can only enter from the south end) is a lobby with art and a reception desk. Pay here and enter the conservatory to the right. As you enter, a tall waterfall is to your left and ahead wandering paths through dense, tropical foliage, leading over bridges and through arbors,
But the coolest thing about the conservatory is the sky bridge! There are stairs at each end leading up to a walkway the length of the Crystal Bridge so you can view everything from above. (And during Covid, they’ve made it one way.)
AND, while one side of the conservatory is tropical rainforest complete with waterfall, the other side is a dry desert! You see this best from the sky bridge. Most of the desert plants are planted in rockwork around the stairs on that end.
The Future
As I mentioned above, the Crystal Bridge will be closed for around a year and a half for a total refurbishment. And it looks like they’ll change it quite a bit, with a larger water feature and a store. (My hope is that they don’t make it smaller/shorter.) I’m sure it will be absolutely amazing, but if you are at all in the OKC area, I would make sure to check it out before the end of April!
For now, I’ll leave you with a few more pictures of flowers. (And one parrot who *is* allowed out of the cage and will absolutely say hello.)
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