Conservatory & Interpretive Center, International Peace Garden

The International Peace Garden straddles the border between North Dakota and Manitoba. Founded on 14 July 1932, it covers about 800 acres on the American side and some 1,500 acres on the Canadian side, according to The Dickinson Press. Its landmarks include the Peace Chapel, built across the 49th parallel, and the Peace Tower, taken down in 2016 after it had become unstable.

The glass building of the interpretive centre and conservatory was added to the grounds in 2009, according to the Grand Forks Herald. Its purpose took shape with a gift: Don Vitko of Minot, who had collected cacti and succulents for some fifty years, gave his collection to the garden as he approached retirement (in 2010 according to the garden, in 2009 according to the Fargo Forum). The Forum reports that the plants first occupied a 3,000-square-foot space before moving in 2013 into a 7,000-square-foot permanent home funded with more than $200,000 from the state's general fund. When the Souris River flooded Minot in 2011, Vitko defied evacuation orders to rescue the plants still at his house, among them a fifty-year-old specimen; by September the whole collection was united at the garden.

In 2019 the North Dakota Legislature allocated $6 million for deferred maintenance, with Manitoba pledging a matching sum. A major expansion of the conservatory, celebrated in August 2024, doubled its exhibit space, and the project later received an Award of Merit at Canada's Prairie Design Awards.

The building stands at the head of the formal gardens, directly opposite the Sunken Garden, and brings several functions under one roof: besides the conservatory it holds a conference centre, a horticultural library, a gift shop and the Border Walk Cafe. The Grand Forks Herald describes it as an open, airy glass structure, and its tallest cacti, about 26 feet (8 m) high, nearly brush the ceiling.

The 2024 expansion was designed by JLG Architects in partnership with LM Architectural Group, with interior design by Environmental Space Planning, landscape architecture by HTFC Planning & Design and engineering by AE2S and Prairie Engineering; Bockstael Construction and Construction Engineers built it. It nearly doubled the exhibit space (KFYR gives a total of 18,000 square feet, without saying whether the figure covers the whole building) and upgraded the infrastructure and mechanical systems around sustainable energy sources. A new irrigation system supplies purer water, heat comes through the floor, and an insulated masonry wall on the north side absorbs heat during the day and releases it slowly at night, cutting heating costs.

The conservatory is devoted to the Vitko Collection, which the garden counts among the world's most diverse indoor collections of cacti and succulents: more than 5,000 species, rare and endangered ones among them. Figures vary between sources, from about 6,000 plants of 4,500 species in 2018–2019 to 5,500 plants in a 2024 report. Most come from North America, South America and Africa. Vitko assembled the collection by buying from growers in California and Arizona, and his 1997 catalogue, nicknamed "Don's bible", still underpins the garden's records. Tall columnar cacti, up to about 26 feet, give the display its vertical accents, and early spring is said to be the best season for flowers.

The interpretive centre and its conservatory stand at the head of the formal gardens of the International Peace Garden, on the North Dakota side of the border near Dunseith. Open year-round, they give a reason to visit outside the summer season. An hour is enough for the conservatory and its exhibits, longer with a stop at the café. In the warmer months the visit continues outdoors through the Sunken Garden and the formal gardens to the Peace Chapel on the 49th parallel. Early spring is the time to catch the cacti in flower, while summer suits a walk through the formal gardens.