Tropical Conservatory, Luthy Botanical Garden

The Luthy Botanical Garden is named for George Littlewood Luthy, president of Peoria's Commercial National Bank and a trustee of the Peoria Park District, known for his rose collection according to Peoria Magazine. Wikipedia dates the garden's creation to 1951; a 2011 article specifies that it opened in November 1951 in its current facility in Glen Oak Park, and that 2011 marked its sixtieth anniversary.

The floral shows thread through the place's history. Wikipedia dates the poinsettia show, with its candlelight walks, to 1951, and the Peoria Orchid Society's orchid show, held around Mother's Day, to 1966. Peoria Magazine announced for autumn 2015 a chrysanthemum show on a Harry Potter theme. The garden, owned by the Peoria Park District, is a member of the American Public Garden Association; in October 2026 the ArbNet programme granted it Level 2 accreditation, which recognises a collection of more than a hundred kinds of trees and shrubs.

Wikipedia and Peoria Magazine give the conservatory 2,500 square feet, about 230 m². A visitor's blog (2016) speaks of a "glass conservatory".

In the photographs on the garden's official page, a tall hall is covered by a network of light-green painted metal ribs, forming facets under a translucent roof; a raised platform, edged with an iron railing and carrying a plaque, overlooks a bed of tropical plants. A small rustic building with wooden-shingle walls and a thatched roof stands among the plants. Another view shows, at the end of a garden path, a white gabled building with small-paned windows, classic in form. The OpenStreetMap outline, which tags the building as a greenhouse, covers about 1,250 m², more than the 230 m² attributed to the conservatory.

The Peoria Park District presents the conservatory as housing tropical plants and succulents; Wikipedia adds orchids and seasonal displays, and Peoria Magazine (2015) an extensive collection of rainforest plants, succulents and orchids. A visitor's blog that saw the greenhouse in August 2016 names a Bird of Paradise in bloom, the miracle berry (a berry that temporarily makes sour food taste sweet), orchids and bananas nearly ready to harvest: a dated testimony.

The conservatory also hosts the garden's floral shows: a spring show, a chrysanthemum show and then a poinsettia show. For 2026 the official page for the latter announces 20 November to 30 December, in the Conservatory, where the tropical collection blends with drifts of poinsettia; it is free. The district's school programmes include "Rainforest Versus the Desert" and conservatory tours.

The conservatory stands in Glen Oak Park, at 2520 North Prospect Road in Peoria, near the corner of Prospect Avenue and Gift Avenue. The garden is open daily, with free admission according to the Peoria Park District's official page (Wikipedia and a 2015 article mention an admission fee, which the current official page does not); CityLink bus route 12 serves it. A visitor's blog spent about an hour there, together with the garden's fifteen themed gardens, including the rose garden and the herb garden.

In December the garden stages Luthy Lights, with a new outdoor ice rink this year, alongside the poinsettia show.