Brookside Gardens Director Stephanie Oberle was visiting Cancun, Mexico, with her father several years ago when she saw inconspicuous gray, patterned butterflies covering Mayan ruins. Oberle knew exactly what they were: cracker butterflies, which are known for blending into trees and making a crackling noise as they fly.
“I knew what they were because I had seen them at Brookside, but then I was seeing them where they were really from,” Oberle told Bethesda Today on Friday.
This spring, The Butterfly Experience in Brookside Gardens — the seasonal exhibit that introduced Oberle to those little butterflies she saw in Cancun — will be returning to the botanical garden in Wheaton Regional Park for the first time in six years. Tickets are now on sale for the popular event that draws visitors of all ages.
The Butterfly Experience, slated to run from April 10 to Sept. 21, provides visitors with an opportunity to see, interact with and learn about hundreds of butterflies from all over the world within the garden’s South Conservatory House. The exhibit, which had been offered annually beginning in 1997, was last held in 2019, Oberle said.
Pandemic restrictions and then staff turnover and vacancies in critical areas needed to operate the “very labor intensive, highly detailed” butterfly show kept Brookside from offering the exhibit again until this year, according to Oberle.
“One of the wonderful things about this exhibit is how long we’ve been doing it,” she said. “It’s part of the community fabric. And I think that’s why people missed it so much, and why we’re really so happy to be able to bring it back.”
Advanced tickets for The Butterfly Experience are now on sale. Those interested in visiting the butterflies in the conservatory at 1500 Glenallan Ave. are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance for a specific date and entry time. Tickets are $14, $9 for ages 3 to 12 and free for children younger than 3.
“Seeing people come in having that ‘wow’ moment and then getting excited about this relatively tiny organism is the best because that’s what we’re here for,” Oberle said. “There’s so many butterflies, there’s so much variety and they’re so close to you. It’s magical.”
How the butterfly show comes to life
Bringing hundreds of butterflies from all over the world to the Wheaton garden is no easy feat.
The process starts with securing permits through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Oberle said, because Brookside staff are receiving live insects from outside the country. Staff members work with butterfly “growers” from North America, Costa Rica and other areas who aggregate butterflies from other areas of the world.
When the butterflies arrive, they’re in the pupa, or chrysalis, stage of their life cycle.
“They’re still fragile, but they’re in a state of sort of stasis and metamorphosis,” Oberle said. “That’s a good time for them to be shipped from the farms to the garden.”
After Brookside receives the butterflies, they’re taken to a receiving room, which is enclosed with fine mesh to prevent anything from escaping or entering the room, Oberle said. Then, staff members check the pupa to ensure they’re in good condition.
The butterfly chrysalises are placed in a clear box and watched daily to see which butterflies emerge. The butterflies are checked again for health, to ensure no parasites can enter the local ecosystem, Oberle said. Finally, they are taken to the conservatory for visitors to enjoy.
The conservatory, which was built in 1969, also must be retrofitted with nets, Oberle said, since it wasn’t originally designed as a butterfly house.
Every week during the exhibit period, Brookside will receive between 200 and 300 butterflies, Oberle said.
“[Butterflies] live longer than a week,” Oberle noted. “Within the show there could be two or three weeks’ worth of butterflies that are flying around in there.”
Brookside relies heavily on volunteers who help educate visitors, maintain plant food sources for the insects and ensure butterflies don’t escape. For example, before exiting, visitors have to do the “butterfly dance” and spin to make sure there are no butterfly hitchhikers, Oberle said. Brookside is currently looking for volunteers to staff the butterfly show.
At the end of the show, volunteers also help collect the remaining butterflies, Oberle said. The butterflies are then taken to other exhibits in the area, such as those sponsored by the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., or at Hershey Gardens, a botanical garden in Pennsylvania.
Oberle said Brookside is excited the butterflies are back for visitors to enjoy.
“This is a really successful program at making people see the wonder of nature,” Oberle said. “We’re here to connect people to nature so they … develop a sense of stewardship, and they care about the world around us.”
