As gardeners get ready to plant this spring, there’s one location in Minnesota where flowers are in full bloom year round.

In St. Paul, the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory is a legendary landmark.

“It’s the second most culturally visited destination in the state, just after the Mall of America,” Anne Ahiers with the conservatory said. “It is such a cultural destination, and everyone who kind of lives here has all these memories of being here as a child, as an adult, and then continuing those memories.”

The conservatory was a dream of Como Park gardener Frederick Nussbaumer, who worked at London’s Kew Gardens and remembered its enormous glass house. Nussbaumer convinced city leaders to build a similar one in St. Paul.

“Built the conservatory like a giant erector set,” Ahiers said. “They constructed it in New York and shipped the pieces by train to St. Paul. Spent about $50,000 on the conservatory itself, which would be about $1.5 million today.”

Opened in 1915, the conservatory was an instant success. Within three years of its opening, the conservatory had more than 77,000 plants. Some of the originals still survive. It now maintains over 260 major varieties of plants from six different continents.