Meyer-Deats Conservatory (Snyder Building), Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

The conservatory belongs to the Snyder Building of the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska. The arboretum itself dates from 1958, when it began on 160 acres under its first director, Leon C. Snyder; it now covers 1,200. Ground was broken in 1971 for the education and research building. According to the history of the horticulture department that Snyder wrote, the architect, Ed Lundie, had nearly finished the plans by 1970 but died in 1972. Staff moved into the completed parts in autumn 1973; the building was finished and opened to the public in spring 1974, and was named for Snyder after his retirement in 1976.

The conservatory came later. The same account says it was started in 1979 with funds from Dr. Edith Potter Deats, to house a collection of bromeliads and other conservatory plants, and that it opened to the public in the spring of 1980; the arboretum's website gives 1980 as its dedication. Its construction took over part of the parking area, and temporary lots for about 80 cars were laid out that year. The name is spelled Meyer-Deats on most pages and Meyers-Deats on others.

In 2014, as the arboretum launched the public phase of a $60 million campaign, the Star Tribune reported a $6 million gift to expand the conservatory into a year-round facility with plants from several climate ecosystems. The arboretum's current pages still describe a small conservatory.

The conservatory is not a free-standing pavilion but a small glasshouse attached to the Snyder Building, on the ground floor. From the lobby, visitors turn left, pass the literature racks and then the auditorium, and find it at the next left. The University of Minnesota's guide to the state's public gardens calls it a glasshouse conservatory attached to the building, and in 2024 the arboretum's spokesperson described it to the Pioneer Press as the most tropical stop on the Spring Flower Show route because it is a greenhouse. The arboretum calls the space small, and its wedding page lists a capacity of 15 people.

The host building is the work of the architect Edwin Lundie, and the arboretum likens it to a European country manor, with massive wood timbers, cathedral ceilings and earth tones. Against that timber setting, the conservatory is described as sunny and warm, with tropical and seasonal plants on show all year.

The official page lists orchids, bromeliads, palms, ferns, cacti, air plants and other epiphytes, houseplants and fruit trees. Bromeliads are the founding theme, since the 1979 gift was meant to house a collection of them; the arboretum's building guide still speaks of permanent bromeliad, orchid and cactus collections, with ferns and other tropical and subtropical plants.

Part of the display rotates. Horticulturists bring plants over from other greenhouses on the grounds, so the page mentions in turn a corpse flower and moth orchids (Phalaenopsis); its photo gallery shows, among others, a Nepenthes 'Miranda', a flowering bromeliad and two hybrid orchids. In February the conservatory is the last stop of the Spring Flower Show, with hundreds of orchids in many colours, some hung from the ceiling according to a 2024 account by the arboretum's communications staff. Three sculptures stand among the plants: Amphitrite, The Princess and the Frog, and Kaleidoscope, an interactive piece for children about plant patterns.

The conservatory occupies the ground floor of the Snyder Building, just east of the large Oswald Visitor Center, to which a skyway links it. The room is small, so a short stop is enough, easily fitted between two walks. Admission is included in the arboretum's daily ticket, and the hours change with the season. The arboretum calls it especially popular in winter, when visitors crave a "tropical" break; February and the Spring Flower Show are the high point.

In the same building, the Andersen Horticultural Library holds about 20,000 volumes and nearly 73,000 seed and nursery catalogue items dating from 1614 to the present. Outdoors, the Three-Mile Drive passes many of the collections, and the Japanese Garden lies near the main visitor buildings.