The recent story in The Chronicle about Nicky and Cerberus finding a new home at Wolf Haven is a wonderful example of the thoughtful planning and collaboration that goes into caring for animals in accredited zoos.

Moving animals is a normal and important part of the Species Survival Plan (SSP), the cooperative program managed by accredited zoos and aquariums to ensure healthy, genetically diverse populations of animals in human care. Animals are regularly moved between accredited institutions for breeding recommendations, social compatibility, retirement, or to better meet their individual welfare needs.

In this case, as Como Zoo prepared to retire its wolf exhibit, staff worked well in advance to find the best possible home for Nicky and Cerberus. Their move to Wolf Haven allows them to remain together while providing companionship for resident wolves that had recently lost their partners.

“We were especially impressed by the level of care Wolf Haven put into preparing for Nicky and Cerberus’ arrival,” said Como Zoo Campus Director Erica Prosser. “Before Cerberus even arrived, Wolf Haven hired a nutritionist to review his medical and dietary history to ensure he would receive the best possible care from day one.

“Wolf Haven is widely recognized for its excellence. It is accredited by both the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries and the American Sanctuary Association and was honored with the 2024 Outstanding Wildlife Sanctuary Award, selected from more than 200 facilities. The organization is also a SAFE partner for both Mexican wolves and red wolves and has successfully helped return wolves to the wild through conservation and recovery efforts.

“Although we will miss seeing Nicky and Cerberus every day, we are grateful they have found such an exceptional new home. I also want to thank Senior Keeper Jill Erzar for orchestrating this move, along with our Animal Care and Veterinary teams and everyone else who helped make this transition possible. Their careful planning, collaboration, and dedication ensured the wolves had a safe and successful move to their new home.”

Relocating animals is also a normal part of preparing for future zoo improvements. Sometimes animals move to other accredited facilities before construction begins on exciting new habitats. These projects allow zoos like Como to modernize exhibits, enhance animal welfare, create opportunities for new species conservation programs, and provide an even better guest experience.

While we will all miss Cerberus and Nicky and their unique personalities, we couldn’t be happier that they have found such a wonderful new home at Wolf Haven, where they can continue to thrive together. At the same time, we’re excited for what lies ahead at Como Zoo. Their move marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter as we prepare for a future habitat that will welcome new species and continue advancing our mission of exceptional animal care, conservation, and inspiring connections with wildlife.

As Como Zoo begins finding new homes for the beloved animals currently living in our Large Cats habitat, these transitions will happen thoughtfully and over time. We know the Como Zoo staff, volunteers, and guests have formed special connections with these incredible animals, and we’ll share updates along the way so everyone has the opportunity to celebrate them and say goodbye before they begin their next adventures and milestones. Every move will be guided by the same careful planning, collaboration, and commitment to animal welfare that made Nicky and Cerberus’ journey such a success. We hope you’ll join us in celebrating each animal during their remaining time at Como Zoo and in wishing them the very best as they begin their next chapter.

Apprentices in animal care and horticulture are finding careers in conservation through Saint Paul’s flagship youth career development program

Dj Jones always wanted to be a zookeeper, and got an early start down that career path through Como’s teen volunteer Nature Walk program. While still in middle school, Jones gained valuable experience interpreting plants and animals for thousands of summer visitors, yet as they learned more about the traditional career trajectory toward becoming a zookeeper, they saw some serious roadblocks ahead. 

“Becoming a zookeeper is not easy,” says Jones, who started college at Miami University in Ohio before moving to the University of Minnesota. Not only are there a limited number of positions in the field and an endlessly renewing population of young animal lovers, zookeeping has become increasingly professionalized and competitive in recent years, requiring college degrees in zoology, biology, animal science, and other related fields. To stand out against the competition, prospective keepers are expected to have a series of internships and volunteer work on their resumes, accumulating as many as two or three years of hands-on animal care experience even before they get hired. For young people who need paying jobs to cover college and household costs, the path ahead can feel impossible. 

But thanks to the City of Saint Paul’s Right Track program, Jones has spent the last two years as a fully paid apprentice at Como Zoo, learning the ropes through a series of rotating assignments with professional mentors, while earning full-time pay in the process. “I have always understood that getting into this work would be a labor of love, with long hours on your feet and not great pay,” they say. “But this program has definitely made it more possible for me.”

Launched in 2014 as a partnership between the City of Saint Paul, the Saint Paul Public Schools, and the Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce, Right Track has established a growing pipeline of career development opportunities for underserved Saint Paul youth. While Como has hosted interns for decades, Como Zoo launched its own Right Track partnership in 2022, inviting youth from cost-burdened homes or facing other barriers to employment to take part in paid apprenticeships and early career experiences in animal care. The program has been so effective at cultivating a diverse, next-generation workforce that the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory soon joined in, offering youth new experiences in horticultural operations as well.  

While the program is primarily funded by the City of Saint Paul, Como Friends has provided additional support over the years, for instance, providing grant money to help apprentices access the essential gear they need to succeed in their jobs, from campus uniforms to sturdy boots. That commitment grew in 2026 when Como Friends made the Right Track program a special focus of the Fund-a-Mission donation at the Sunset Affair gala on July 16. With cuts to federal funding that has supported Como’s apprentices, the goal is to match private contributions with funding from Minnesota’s Legacy Amendment to keep the successful program in place. 

“Investing in The Right Track program is really about investing in the future of Como, and making sure that we have a workforce that really reflects the diversity of the community we serve. These are dream jobs for youth who want to work with animals and plants, but there are significant structural barriers to getting hired in this field that the Right Track program helps young people overcome,” says Katie Hill, president of Como Friends. “That’s exactly the kind of work we believe is essential to support at Como Friends—nurturing the next generation in this field—and we hope our donors see that it’s a win-win for everyone. Como benefits from the support of these talented and motivated youth apprentices, while young people get the career boost they need to find meaningful jobs in conservation.”

Como’s historic Gates Ajar has a new theme grown right from the headlines

With more than 4,000 plants needed to create Como’s historic Gates Ajar mosaiculture every year, assistant gardener Marie Day usually has a strong idea about her design plans several months before the up-right garden feature makes its seasonal debut.

“What’s funny is that this is the first year I hadn’t selected a theme by fall,” she says. “I just couldn’t come up with anything.” Six months later, the answer was obvious: the “Rebel Loon,” the viral symbol of Minnesota’s community, character, and resilience that’s now seen on t-shirts, beer cans, and tattoos across the state. The image is so 2026, she says, “that even before I’d finished installing the outline of the loon, people were coming up to me, and were really excited about it. They understood exactly what it was.” 

A design motif originally created and shared by Moorhead’s Bernardo Anderson in January, the Rebel Loon is now fully installed on the left side of the Gates Ajar structure, located just east of Lexington Parkway. On the opposite side is a monarch butterfly, the powerful pollinator that makes one of the earth’s most epic migrations. Together, these two Minnesota icons have become instantly Instagrammable, inspiring many visitors who are discovering Gates Ajar for the first time.

“This is the first year where I’ve been hearing from people who are visiting the park just to see Gates Ajar,” says Day, who often spends a half hour or more every day just watering the structure. “The other day, I met a woman who had brought a friend visiting from the East Coast specifically to see it.”

No matter what the seasonal theme, Gates Ajar is a unique piece of Como history, and one of the oldest mosaiculture displays in the country. The installation was the brainchild of the St. Paul parks’ very first superintendent, Frederick Nussbaumer, a German landscape designer who honed his craft at London’s Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew before emigrating to the United States. At the turn of the 20th century, building topiary-like sculptures from plant material was the height of European flower fashion. But the flower display also has a distinctly Minnesota flavor, taking its name from “The Golden Legend,” an 1851 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, whose epic poem “Song of Hiawatha” was wildly popular with the Twin Cities’ early parks designers. 

Day says Gates Ajar typically reaches its peak in early August, when foundational plants like echeveria, hens and chicks, and Graptosedum, and trailing plants such as petunia and ivy are fully grown and beautifully integrated. “The public response to this one has been incredible,” Day says, adding how much it means to carry on a Como tradition that’s lasted more than 100 years. “It’s public art and it is for everybody, so it’s exciting to see how much it still resonates with people.”

Your support for Como Friends is helping Conservation Champions like EJ Smith rebuild endangered coral reefs in the Caribbean

As a kid, EJ Smith spent hours watching French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau take TV viewers under the sea, unveiling the extraordinary ecosystems that thrive under the surface of our oceans. Now as a life support specialist at Como Zoo, Smith says he’s living out a few of those childhood fantasies, caring for Como’s large collection of aquatic animals, while diving into conservation projects around the world. 

In fact, Smith is just back from a two-week conservation trip to Aruba, where Como Zoo is establishing a new Conservation Champions partnership with the ScubbleBubbles Foundation, an Aruba-based environmental nonprofit aimed at getting local youth interested in ocean conservation. Founded by Nichole Danser, a local teacher and passionate diver, ScubbleBubbles is looking at ways that Aruba communities can stem the loss of coral reefs by creating coral nurseries in new locations. Together, Smith and Danser plotted out a brand-new stretch of artificial reef the two organizations plan to start, just off the coast of Aruba’s De Palm Island. 

In a process similar to dividing and repotting plants, conservation groups like ScubbleBubbles are identifying coral types that are healthy and resistant to stress, and collecting small chunks to establish new colonies. “Corals grow at an incredibly slow pace, but these micro fragments are found to grow faster in small colonies, speeding up that process of coral growth,” says Smith, who learned about the process while supporting a similar coral recolonization project in the Caribbean last year. On this most recent trip, Smith spent his time mapping the reef site and working in ScubbleBubbles’ coral nurseries, where divers tend to dozens of coral “trees” representing nine different coral genotypes. 

Smith and Danser also came up with a name for the newest colony, Friends Reef. “We really wanted to make a statement about the roots of this partnership, so this is a way of highlighting the support we’ve got from Como Friends to make conservation work like this possible, the friendly partnership we have now with ScubbleBubbles, and then all of the little friends that live out on these reefs,” he says. “The name works on a lot of levels.”

Worldwide, coral reefs are facing mounting pressure from pollution, severe weather, overfishing, and weak enforcement of marine protections. While Aruba has been more insulated from hurricanes than many of its Caribbean neighbors, Smith says the ripple effects of collapsing coral reefs are real. Not only are healthy reefs critical to supporting fish populations, they’re just as important in supporting local economies, cultural traditions, and tourism. 

This fall, Como Life Support Operator Brittany Pedersen will continue work laying the foundation for Friends Reef, installing sturdy frames coated in epoxy and sand that give coral something to grab hold of and grow on. Future trips will focus on transplanting nursery-grown coral onto the new reef and assisting with research into accelerating coral growth, including studies on electrical stimulation underway at ScubbleBubbles’ new education space, the Coral Academy. If the project shows success, the goal is to share the learning with other coastal communities. “The idea is if your reefs are in trouble, we’ve got a footprint here that you can follow,” she says. 

Given the long life-cycle of coral, Smith says the partnership is not a quick fix. “When we’re talking about corals, we’re talking about colonies of animals that are very slow growing. These reefs aren’t created overnight, it takes millennia. This work is going to be generational.”  

And while Como is more than 2,000 miles away from the Caribbean, Smith believes this project is an important way to support Como Zoo’s conservation mission here at home: “This world’s much smaller than we think it is.”

A host of recent improvements at the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory are promoting  plant health and elevating the visitor experience at the same time.

Finding time to renovate a busy space is a challenge familiar to many homeowners. But at the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory, one of Minnesota’s most visited destinations, scheduling repairs is a next-level headache, says horticultural supervisor Ariel Dressler.

“When we look at the calendar, we’re usually booked for weddings and other events every week of the year,” she says. But when her staff saw an opening emerging between the end of June and the 4th of July holiday, campus leaders quickly seized the opportunity to schedule some long-awaited repairs in the Sunken Garden, Como’s busiest and most beautiful room.

To make the most of the limited time available, Como coordinated with multiple contractors at once. “We had one contractor to do glass repair, another to repair the vent motor and arms, and then, because we had the whole room scaffolded, we knew it was a chance to do a deep cleaning on the star lights, and to update the wiring,” she says. With the whole room in a state of upheaval, it was also a great time to send the bronze statue Play Days off to conservators to make a small repair to one of the frog spouts.

While visitors are unlikely to notice many of these improvements when the Sunken Garden reopens on June 9, horticulturists are excited by the repairs, all part of a series of infrastructure improvements made possible, in part, by Como Friends over the past year.

Creating better ventilation within the Conservatory’s gardens and growing spaces has been a particular focus as rising temperatures put stress on plants—even those accustomed to tropical climates. In recent months, the Sunken Garden, the Fern Room, and the Orchid House have all seen substantial repairs to ventilation systems that are tied to the Conservatory’s Priva system, the computerized control network that allows staff to automate and monitor temperatures and airflow across rooms.

“We’ve been through a couple of really hot summers where a sunny day can generate temperatures of 100 degrees in our Conservatory rooms, so any window you can open is much appreciated,” Dressler says, noting that new exhaust fans are also on the way for the Fern Room. “It’s hard to keep ferns happy during heat waves, so this will be a big improvement.”

In a structure made entirely of glass, creating shade for plants that require it is also critical. This season, the Orchid House got a major shade upgrade that’s protecting plants from leaf bleaching and other problems that come from overexposure. In the greenhouse, the Conservatory has replaced shades in two growing bays with systems that allow for taller plants while helping to melt snow and ice from the greenhouse roof. A new blackout curtain also allows horticulturists to precisely control daylight hours for chrysanthemums grown for Como’s Fall Flower Show and poinsettias grown for the Holiday Flower Show. 

While visitors may never notice new glass panes, vents, and shades, Dressler says they may notice the impact of these improvements in the months ahead. “It may not seem that exciting to our guests, but to gardeners we know these investments are really going to help the foliage appearance and plant health overall,” she says.  

Thank you for your support in helping the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory’s plants and gardens thrive!

How to have your best summer ever at Como Park Zoo & Conservatory

High season is officially here at Como Park Zoo & Conservatory, with a calendar full of fun and fascinating public programs, free concerts, and face-to-face experiences you won’t want to miss. Whether you’ve got just an hour to drop in, or a full day to play, check out this roster of what’s happening and when to make the most of your summer days.

Special Programs

For Blaze Credit Union CEO Dan Stoltz, supporting Como Park Zoo & Conservatory is all about making Minnesotans’ lives better

Meeting Sparky the sea lion is a memory that connects Minnesotans of all ages. Ever since Archie Brand’s seal training show made its debut at Como Zoo in 1956, the splashy aquatics show has been a fixture at Como, evolving through seven decades (and seven different Sparkys) to reflect an ever-deepening understanding of the fierce intelligence, fascinating behavior, and natural adaptations that make marine mammals so amazing. 

As Sparky and all the inhabitants of Como Harbor get set to dive into Como Zoo’s busy spring and summer season, Como Friends talked with one of her biggest fans, Dan Stoltz, the CEO of Blaze Credit Union, the member-owned cooperative that’s been the corporate sponsor of the Blaze Sparky Show since 2022. 

Tell us your own Como story. Did you visit when you were a kid?

Como is a really special place for me. I have so many great memories of my mom and dad putting us kids in the car to visit Como Zoo, getting up close to the animals, having a family picnic on the grounds, and seeing the Sparky show, of course. Growing up on the East Side of St. Paul, Como was an affordable place where we could come and have an awesome day. Now I’m blessed to have 11 grandchildren and we still come here regularly. I love seeing it all through their eyes now.

How did you become a Como Friends supporter?

Being involved in the community is something that came from my upbringing, and the idea that life’s about giving, not getting. That’s something we believe in at Blaze, really leaning into organizations that are impactful and influential in our community. Through friends, my wife and I started coming to the Sunset Affair gala and getting to know more about what was happening here. The fact that Como is free is important to this community. But the fact that it’s free and a first-class organization is what’s really amazing. That’s why they need local businesses and corporations to step up and say, “We want to be part of that.” When the opportunity to support the Sparky the sea lion show came up, it was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever made in my career. It was just a perfect marriage. 

Why was that? What about Como’s mission resonated so much with you?

Many companies have really long mission statements and value statements, but ours is two words: Better lives. Our core mission is not about making more money, it’s not about being the biggest, we just want to help make peoples’ lives better every day. That’s what Como Park Zoo & Conservatory does every day—it’s about bettering Minnesotans’ lives. You see it every time you visit, the diversity here, people of all ages, and from all walks of life, from the metro area, or from outside of it. Como just feels like a place that really pulls us all together. 

Corporate sponsorships are an obvious benefit for nonprofits like Como Friends, but how do they benefit businesses like yours? 

Putting on my CEO hat here for a second, we just feel like it’s a duty of organizations and businesses to give back to the communities that they serve. It is a pay-it-forward commitment, and so we as a company are always looking for organizations that are really making large impacts on people’s lives and Como Park Zoo & Conservatory checked all of those boxes. On the promotional side, we want Blaze to be seen investing visibly in things that matter, but that’s not because we expect an immediate return on investment. But I think there is a kind of respect that comes from the public when they see that your business is investing in the community and doing things for the right reasons. All generations care about this, but it seems to be especially true with the younger generation, who are looking to do business with companies that really care. 

Como is nearly 130 years old, and the Sparky the sea lion tradition goes back nearly 70 years. What do you think keeps people coming back? 

I think it’s that anyone can visit, any day, any time. In the economy right now, the two key words are volatility and uncertainty. But at Como, you can count on it. When you walk into the Zoo to see the animals, or visit the Conservatory to see the gardens, you just know it’s going to be a great experience.

Understanding the art and aesthetic behind Como’s elegant potted trees

With more than 100 potted trees—including one specimen that’s more than 450 years old—the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory’s bonsai collection is one of the best in the Midwest with a diverse range of species and styles. But one factor that really sets it apart from other collections may be Minnesota’s harsh winters. “I think our collection may be grown in the coldest climate of any botanical garden collection in the country,” says Reva Kos, the horticulturist who’s shaped the collection for two decades. “In California, you’ll see bonsai everywhere, but here it’s more challenging.”

But by spring, when the risk of frost subsides, Kos starts selecting the best trees in the collection for their big moment in the Mother’s Day Bonsai Show, slated for May 9 and 10. A long-standing Como tradition produced in partnership with members of the Minnesota Bonsai Society, the two-day exhibit features some of Como’s best specimens in the Ordway Gardens’ indoor display and outdoor vitrines, as well as favorites from private collections. As the state’s bonsai aficionados are putting the finishing touches on their most treasured trees, Como Friends asked Kos to share her tips and tricks for bonsai beginners.

Asian Roots: Bonsai has roots that go back to China in 700 AD where crafting elegant potted trees or pun-sai was only for the elite. By the 1200s, bonsai had become a mainstay of Japanese horticulture, spreading through Europe and the West by the late 19th century. As a result, every culture has a favored style, from the densely “helmeted” trees you might see in a European collection, to the airier American style influenced by California bonsai master John Yoshio Naka, who believed branches must “leave room for the birds to fly through.” No matter where they come from, Kos says, bonsai are typically planted in a soilless mixture of pumice, lava rock, and akadama, a granular clay-like material mined from the volcanic soil near Japan’s Mount Fuji. 

Pick the Right Plant: Almost any woody plant or shrub can be formed into a bonsai, but Kos urges beginners to make sure the plant you’re choosing will thrive in the conditions where it will live. “Bonsai are plants, so they generally do best outside, but there are some species that do very well indoors,” she says. “You want to try to mimic the temperature conditions that woody or herbaceous plants would need to grow outside, so if you’ve chosen a plant that requires a period of cold and dormancy to grow, try to create that at home.” If you’re planning to keep your bonsai indoors, tropical and subtropical plants like ficus and podocarpus are good choices for home growing. Ready for a faster start? This month, the Como Friends Gift Shop is featuring dozens of beginner bonsai for purchase. (Como Friends members enjoy 15 percent off every purchase!)

Find Design Inspiration: There are dozens of different bonsai styles, each with their own aesthetic goals. For instance, the forest-style bonsai (Yose-ue) features multiple plants in a staggered formation to create the sense of a deep forest in fine detail. Other styles of bonsai try to recreate the look of a wind-swept tree struggling to survive (Fukinagashi), an upright plant reaching straight for the sun (Chokkan), or the dip and flow of a cascading river (Kengai). Check out Instagram, Pinterest, and other sites for visual inspiration, as well as the many bonsai blogs that provide tips about training these potted trees over time.

Be Patient, Not Precious: As Como’s resident bonsai guru, Kos has the rare ability to see what a tree will look like in five or ten years, training individual trees for years at a time. While this kind of gardening takes great patience, she cautions against being overly precious with your plants. “Anyone can start a bonsai, but it’s harder to learn if you’re afraid to touch it. I really enjoy pruning, so you just have to have the confidence to trim and prune in the way you want it to grow,” she says. “Take your time, because if you’re in a hurry, you can kill your tree if you try to do everything at once. But don’t be afraid to experiment because that’s how you learn the most. When you make mistakes, that’s how you become better.”

Grow Your Community: Once your bonsai hobby takes root, consider joining the Minnesota Bonsai Society, an all-volunteer group whose members have a long history of support for the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory’s public collection of bonsai. “We have a mutually beneficial exchange, where they help provide volunteers who help us with our collection, while we help generate public interest in bonsai,” Kos says. “The Minnesota Bonsai Society is a great resource and their members are very helpful and excited to share their knowledge.”

With pollinator-friendly plantings and more sustainable landscape practices, horticulturists at the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory are role-modeling the ways you can invite more wildlife into your own backyard

Last fall, as the growing season came to a close, horticulturist Robin Takahashi made a point of keeping the Skipper Garden between Como Zoo’s bird yard and the orangutan habitat in a careful state of decay. Rather than raking up leaves and cutting dead foliage, she kept plant skeletons in place over the winter in hopes of creating an inviting home for the Dakota skipper (Hesperia dacotae), a critically endangered butterfly that was once native to Minnesota’s tall grass prairies. 

“Skipper butterflies, when they’re caterpillars, will wrap themselves up in a blade of grass and nibble on it, so you might never know they’re there,” she says. “Cutting back ornamental grasses in the fall can wipe out their habitat, so instead, I leave about 6 inches of grass into the spring.”

Skipper Butterfly photo taken by Volunteer for the Minnesota DNR

Encouraging Como visitors to invite more pollinators into their own backyards and landscapes is part of the mission of this year’s Party for the Planet, Como’s weekend-long Earth Day celebration powered by Xcel Energy, scheduled for April 25–26. But it’s also become a growing part of the design plan for the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory’s outdoor gardens. In recent years, Como’s been making a quiet but critical evolution toward more sustainable practices—both to attract the birds, bees, butterflies, and other pollinators that signal a healthy ecosystem, and to mitigate the present and future effects of climate change.

“Plants can get stressed out by the changes in climate that are really abrupt and dramatic,” explains Como’s Bryn Fleming, the horticultural supervisor who oversees all of the Conservatory’s exterior gardens. “For instance, as we’ve seen more really heavy rain in June over the last couple of seasons, a lot of home gardeners may be noticing that their lilacs are getting really cranky, and are more susceptible to a fungal disease that’s more prevalent when things are super wet and warm.” 

As Como horticulturists encounter these trends, they’re taking a close look at the care, feeding, and cultivation of every corner of Como’s 18-acre campus to ensure the flowers, plants, shrubs, and trees they install this season can be sustained for the long term. “It’s a process that every gardener should probably be doing right now,” Fleming says, “starting with the question, how much time do you actually have? How much water do you want to use, and how often? Are you planting something that’s prone to disease, and will you have to use chemicals to keep it looking great? In a way, it’s about being more realistic about what will last, and rethinking some of our choices as we go forward.”

That approach is well underway in the Minnesota Garden that greets visitors at Como’s front door. Originally installed a decade ago with native and adaptive plants, horticulturist Marie Day has been leading the garden’s evolution toward exclusively native plants, which have the advantage of requiring less water, and being more drought tolerant. 

The Enchanted Garden, opposite the Conservatory’s historic entrance, is also undergoing a shift. “In the past there has been a heavy reliance on traditional annual bedding plants, which require heavy amounts of weekly watering,” says assistant gardener Jake Frechette. “Now we are highlighting the power of perennials and self-sown annuals, and we also leave this garden standing over the winter, as the spent stems and leaves provide cover and the seedheads provide food over winter for the critters.”

Frechette has also been reimagining the steep slope around Como’s Frog Pond as an ornamental meadow, adding clover, wildflowers, and spring bulbs to a hard-to-mow section of traditional turf, while creating more inviting viewing spaces where visitors can spread a blanket. “It’s a great example of how you can turn your turf into a multispecies collection or garden,” says Fleming. “A lot of people are interested in moving away from grass in their lawns toward plants that can harbor more birds and insects, but it can be hard to envision. This is a great way of showing visitors what grass looks like when you don’t cut it and start incorporating other species.” 

All around Como Park Zoo & Conservatory, visitors may also notice new plantings of parsley, cilantro, dill, and fennel—ideal host plants for supporting black swallowtail caterpillars. “We are treating it as a little experiment, to see which herbs the local butterfly population prefers,” says horticulturist Rylee Werden. “While it’s more commonly known that adult butterflies need flowers for nectar to eat, those same insects need host plant foliage to eat, so planting extra herbs this year is a great way to support butterfly habitat throughout the season, and through their whole life cycle. It might help make gardeners less upset when a caterpillar is chomping their garden to know it will turn into a beautiful butterfly.”

Every Wednesday morning, Como volunteer Paul Storch arrives hours before Como’s public opening, drains the water from the pool at the center of the Palm Dome, collects the coins visitors have tossed in through the week, and contemplates “Crest of the Wave,” the beaux arts bronze created by sculptor Harriet Frishmuth. 

While the sculpture, famously modeled more than a century ago by the dancer Desha Delteil, has been delighting Como visitors for decades, Storch takes a more critical view. A retired museum conservator, he dusts and details the iconic artwork, while studying how the statue’s wax coating is standing up to the elements, noting where minerals and moisture might be building up. From there, he’ll go on to clean and polish the bronze plaques and brass kickplates all around the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory, one of the most beloved buildings on Minnesota’s roster of sites on the National Register of Historic Places.

Taking care of Como’s treasures is a team effort that requires the collaboration of Como’s maintenance staff, horticulturists, community volunteers, and outside contractors. Earlier this winter, all of those forces came together to tend to Como’s two most iconic sculptures, “Crest of the Wave” in the Palm Dome, and “Play Days” in the Sunken Garden. 

1). When decades of wear and tear split the copper tubes feeding water to the bubbling frogs on “Play Days,” Como entrusted their replacement to KCI Conservation, a Minneapolis-based art conservation firm. Following a short stay in the studio of conservators Laura Kubick and Kristin Cheronis, the statue was returned to the Sunken Garden for a coordinated treatment and training session about caring for the fountain bronzes.  

2). Como horticulturist Bryn Fleming helps give the statue a full cleaning, removing accumulated grime and buildup on the metal. During the process, older wax is stripped from the statue to allow conservators to reapply a new protective layer. 

3). Using a propane torch, conservators gently heat the bronze surface and apply a thin coat of hot wax. Once it dries, the surface is buffed for a second coat of cold wax. This layered wax system can protect the statue from moisture and other irritants for a year or longer.