The Missouri Botanical Gardens are among the best botanical gardens in the country. The "hot house" area is very large for a botanical garden and quite impressive. There is a wide variety of plants, and good explanations of what they are. There are both exotic beauties and practical plants (banana trees, coca plants, pineapple bushes, etc). The conservatory is also nice. It was too cold during my visit to walk the outdoor grounds, sadly. The in-house restaurant is quite good and rather reasonable as far as museum dining goes. Don't miss the Orchid show every February/March and the Dale Chihuly exhibition in 2006!
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