Bellagio Conservatory & Botanical Gardens has had many beautiful exhibits over the years, but the newest spring display may be one of the prettiest. Tea and Tulips features an array of huge teapots, with pastel tones accented by live flowers and larger-than-life blooms reflecting spring’s floral abundance.
The inspiration for this exhibit, says designer Ed Libby, are the teas often found at fancy tea parties: rose hip, chamomile, lavender and ginger peach. Each bed in Bellagio’s atrium is themed around one of the flavors. “Our spring display is a harmonious blend of immersive set design, botanically enhanced decor and natural elements, brought together to create a magnificent tea party that weaves a story of springtime themes,” he said in a news release.
Daffodils, tulips, pansies, carnations, roses, wisteria, hibiscus, lavender and pansies populate the beds around the attraction. In the West Bed, an enormous teapot with cunning feet and lid, covered in roses, gems, colorful swags and flower garland around the rim, pours out a stream of rose hip tea into a cup floating on a delicate pool. The bed is packed with other details, like the crescent moon floating in the sky. A young girl relaxes there, as tea from her pot trickles down a mountain below her. And is that a sugar bowl and creamer set to match the pot? One nestles beneath a hot air balloon with a frosting-like canopy, while the other is stuffed with larger-than-life tulips.
To the side is the Garden Table, a Victorian-style greenhouse which serves up brunch from nearby Sadelle’s in four sittings daily, a tea party experience several times daily and a gourmet prix fixe dinner from Michael Mina, in two sittings Wednesday to Sunday. Reservations are required for all experiences.
The other beds are as spectacular, with a different color palette for each tea-inspired area. The East Bed’s path, flanked by waist-high flowers and teacups leading to an elegant gazebo, is covered in peach-and-orange flowers, vines and garlands. On the way, two ladies in fancy dress offer passersby a cup. In the South Bed, the essence of lavender infuses the scene–purple wisteria drapes over arches and the bed, while a violet teapot with a cutout scene of hummingbird eggs provides a vibrant window to a fantasy world and pours its contents into a cup floating on a pool. Where are the hummingbird parents? Why, to each side, making sure you properly appreciate the lavender loveliness, while they sip the nectar of massive hibiscus and pansy blooms.
Blossoms of all types cover the North Bed, with daffodils, roses, mimosa blooms and greenery surrounding a final pool. On the lid of the teapot, a bunny and girl sit in concentrated conversation. A cutout reveals a treat to sweeten the chamomile tea inside. An item to note about the Conservatory and Botanical Gardens is that all the water used in the exhibit comes from Bellagio’s wells (which are fed from rain and recycled water) and is reused throughout the resort, which makes the exhibit seem even more beautiful.
Tea Garden fragrance
Want a remembrance of your visit? Head to The Giardini Garden Store next to the atrium, where a new Tea Garden fragrance infuses green tea, lilac, black pepper, bergamot and cardamon into candles and reed diffusers.
Bellagio, 702.693.7111
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