A visitor’s view of one of the two emergence cases at Butterflies in Bloom, an annual exhibit in Dow Gardens’ Conservatory. Chrysalises are pinned to the shelves and the humidity is kept high.

My volunteer work is in a small room behind the cases. This is my view of part of one shelf. These butterflies emerged earlier in the day and will be released into the exhibit when they are dry and strong.

How do baby butterflies get from the emergence cases into the exhibit? They get transferred from the case into a zippered net bag, then brought out into the Conservatory to be placed on flowers … or eager visitors. We are the only exhibit we know of that encourages visitors to gently handle the butterflies.