Gaylord Opryland Atriums (Garden Conservatory, Cascades and Delta)

The hotel opened on 24 November 1977 next to the Opryland USA theme park, with 580 rooms according to Wikipedia. Its first indoor garden came from the architect Earl Swensson: according to a 2013 article in Garden Center magazine, he convinced management in 1982 to build a garden lined with terrace rooms. That is how the Garden Conservatory, an acre and a half in size, came to be, delivered with an extension of more than 400 rooms (1983-1984 in Wikipedia; the 2013 article speaks of 500 rooms added to the original 600).

Five years later demand led to more rooms (797 according to Wikipedia, 500 according to the article), a second check-in lobby and the Cascades Atrium (1988), also an acre and a half according to the 2013 article (Wikipedia gives 2 acres for this phase): a double waterfall drops from a 40-foot (about 12 m) "mountain", while Wikipedia describes a waterfall three and a half storeys high. In 1996 an extension of about 1,000 rooms came with the Delta Atrium, 4.5 acres, with a Louisiana theme and a quarter-mile indoor river christened, says Wikipedia, with water from more than 1,700 rivers. With it, the area under glass reached about nine acres.

On 2 May 2010 the Nashville flood swept into the hotel, where water rose as high as ten feet in places, and guests were evacuated. According to the head horticulturist interviewed in 2013, 119 rooms and the Delta and Cascades gardens were severely hit; 3,000 cubic yards of soil contaminated by diesel fuel were replaced and fifteen tractor-trailer loads of young plants delivered, and a 10 million dollar flood wall followed. The hotel reopened on 15 November 2010 with its atriums restored.

The three atriums are indoor gardens beneath glass roofs. The hotel's own website describes nine acres of gardens, waterfalls and plants beneath tall glass atriums, its Facebook page celebrates the soaring glass ceilings of the Delta, and a Southern Living writer (article updated in 2026) likened the entrance atrium to the world's biggest greenhouse, one that happens to hold a small city.

The Garden Conservatory, said by Wikipedia to resemble a Victorian garden, is held at a constant 71 °F (about 22 °C). The Cascades Atrium is organised around its waterfall and a restaurant, with a rotating bar in the middle of the garden according to the 2013 article. The Delta, the largest, is crossed by a quarter-mile river on which boats carry visitors, with a fountain whose jets are choreographed to music and shops styled like the French Quarter. Terrace rooms open onto the gardens. The areas quoted for each atrium (1.5 + 1.5 + 4.5 acres) add up to 7.5 acres, not the nine advertised.

The 2013 Garden Center article counts about 50,000 plants and 63 kinds of palm under glass. The Delta relies on sabal palms, foliage plants and banana trees; Wikipedia credits the Garden Conservatory with more than 10,000 plants and the Cascades Atrium with more than 8,000 tropical plants. Palms let light through to the plants beneath, the head horticulturist explains. Bromeliads come from Florida, orchids from Florida and North Carolina, and a 5,000-square-foot production greenhouse rotates the plantings.

The growing medium is a custom mix of composted pine bark, cypress bark, Canadian and German peat and solite, with hardly any smelly organic matter. Pest control relies on predatory insects released from the end of a pole. Plants carry no labels: the team (19 people in 2013) prefers that visitors ask questions. Each winter the atriums are dressed for Christmas; the "A Country Christmas" event is announced from 6 November 2026 to 2 January 2027.

The complex adjoins the Opry Mills mall and the Grand Ole Opry house, served by a shuttle reserved for hotel guests. According to Southern Living (updated September 2026), most of the property, restaurants included, is open to the public: a day or an afternoon can be spent walking, sheltered from both heat and cold. The boat ride on the Delta river is paid for separately.

Parking at the hotel is charged; a 2026 blog notes that one can park free at Opry Mills and walk over. At the end of the year the Christmas decorations transform the atriums.