Reiman Gardens Conservatory Complex (Hughes Conservatory and Christina Reiman Butterfly Wing)

Reiman Gardens began with a gift from Bobbi and Roy Reiman to Iowa State University in 1993. Construction started in 1994 on an initial five-acre site, whose landscape was designed by Rodney Robinson Landscape Architects, and the garden officially opened on 16 September 1995.

The Conservatory Complex, opened on 2 November 2002, more than seven years later, allowed the garden to operate all year round. The firm Smith Metzger designed its buildings. The butterfly wing is named for Christina Reiman, Roy Reiman's mother.

The garden now extends over seventeen acres of the campus and belongs to the university, which presents it as a university botanical garden. In 2023 it was named one of the ten North American gardens "worth traveling for" at the International Garden Tourism Conference.

The Conservatory Complex covers 30,000 square feet and combines several functions: the Hughes Conservatory, a 5,000-square-foot glasshouse; the Christina Reiman Butterfly Wing; an auditorium, a gift shop, a café and offices; and an event space, the Garden Room, plus the Mahlstede Horticulture Learning Center with its Speer Room. Production greenhouses and a head house complete the ensemble. Smith Metzger designed the main buildings, including the butterfly wing and the learning centre.

The garden states that the wing's architecture echoes the shape of a butterfly. The 2,500-square-foot space is kept at 80 °F (27 °C) and 80% humidity, conditions that let tropical species live and fly freely. The sources consulted do not detail the structure or the glazing.

The Hughes Conservatory shows tropical plants, palms and cycads around a waterfall, together with seasonal artistic installations that interpret the garden's annual theme, developed each year through what the institution calls "Dimensional Design".

The Christina Reiman Butterfly Wing houses up to 800 live butterflies from up to 80 species. It is permitted to display almost 1,000 different native and exotic kinds, which allows the individuals on show to be renewed. The garden publishes an online list of the species currently on display. Insect display cases and tours of the entomology lab complete the offer, with explanations of colouration, camouflage and mate attraction in butterflies.

The complex stands at the centre of Reiman Gardens, on the Iowa State University campus in Ames. The Hughes Conservatory and the butterfly wing stay open all year, making them the most dependable part of the garden; allow about an hour, longer with the neighbouring gift shop and café.

The seventeen acres of outdoor gardens are best seen from late spring to autumn: the collection of Dr Griffith Buck roses, the bulb meadow in spring, the edible garden, and Elwood, a concrete gnome the garden bills as the world's tallest.