Wings of Fancy Live Butterfly and Caterpillar Exhibit, Wheaton, Maryland

The Wings of Fancy Live Butterfly and Caterpillar Exhibit runs from April to mid-September (September 17 in 2017) at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, Maryland. The gardens are part of the county park system. The gardens are free but the butterfly and caterpillar exhibit requires purchased tickets. We found an online deal for half-price tickets. The plan worked out well except our toddler turned three just before we visited, so we had to buy a ticket for him too, since only two and under get free admission to the exhibit.

The first, and smaller, part of the exhibit is the caterpillar display, with some small trees and plants that were home (and meal) for the caterpillars. The most impressive ones were the Monarch caterpillars.

Toddler looking for caterpillars

Monarch climbing the leaf

More Monarchs

The main part of the exhibit is the large conservatory with plenty of plants and flowers for the butterflies to enjoy. The room is a bit warm for the comfort of the butterflies. We were amazed to see them flying all over the place.

Conservatory

A bit of camouflage

Blue and yellow near each other

Ready to launch

The butterflies fed both on the flowers and on plates of overripe bananas. The toddler was fascinated but a little nervous about them landing on him. My two older children were dying to be landed on.

Drinking from some small flowers

Long snout to drink from long flowers

Banana eaters

Blending with the flower nicely

The butterflies were quite comfortable with people, landing on the ground quite freely, sometimes to their own peril!

A close call...

...but the butterfly is okay

Another floor wanderer

The kids did not get their dream of having a butterfly land on them. One did land on my head. I felt it land and when it walked around, but otherwise it was unnoticeable. It must have liked my hair because it stayed the whole rest of the visit, finally getting brushed off at the exit. The volunteer actually used a paint brush to push him off!

Not a hairband or pin

My recommendation for those who want to have butterflies land on them is to use their wife's fruit-based shampoo the morning of the visit!

Farewell to the conservatory

We wandered a little bit in the formal gardens after leaving the butterflies. The children's favorite features were the water fountains. We saw several.

In the perennial garden

Falling water is a pleasant sound

Tribute to Flora Wertheim on her hundredth birthday

We loved the visit and will come back to explore other parts of the garden.