Daniel Stowe Conservancy has recently undergone a bit of a transformation, and the new logo below is not the only change! In this blog post you’ll see how Sammie the Intern explores Daniel Stowe’s gardens, Butterfly Den, and water features. This is a great place for exploration any time of year with all ages.
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Written By Sammie Ross, NCST Intern 2025
Hi there! It’s Sammie again from one of the great Piedmont West Science Trail spots – the Daniel Stowe Conservancy.
When I was twelve years old, my grandma took me and my friend to the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens. I recall sitting in a Bojangles that morning snickering about how we would rather be doing something else, but I also recall how gorgeous it was, which if it was enough to stick in my pre-pubescent mind, it must’ve been a sight. That was almost nine years ago, and our most recent trip to the now Stowe Conservancy blew that visit out of the water.
Today, the Stowe Conservancy sits on 380 acres (about half the area of Central Park in New York City) of preserved land and boasts new amenities every day, including a distractingly attractive wedding venue, summer camps, tours, exhibits, and most importantly FLORA! The Conservancy has gotten a facelift, making clear to any returning visitors that plants never went out of style, even while architecture may.
Michele and I spent our day perusing the trail and stopping to take pictures at every opportunity, all the while talking about what flowers we wanted in our gardens. My standout favorite was the Swamp Rose Mallow, which looks like a huge Hibiscus bloom, and as I came to find out it was mind-blowingly used to make marshmallows back in the day. I can’t even process how cool that is, let alone the etymological prowess at play here, so I’ll just leave that factoid alone. (BTW – that is exactly the kind of insane fact I love to learn about, and one that would’ve been lost to me without our day in the gardens.)
Along with our own plant trivia (because of course, Stowe has that too) we made a show of running through fountains and taking inspiration from their signage. If there is ever a time to frolic on the clock, surely, it’s at a botanical garden. We walked along the Reagan Reflecting River featuring statues of migrating salmon on our way to the orchid exhibit and butterfly den.
I do recall the Butterfly Den from my previous trip though, because I was petrified of their little faces. This time, however, I put on a brave face, both because I was with my boss and because of how cool I’ve learned these creatures can be. This little greenhouse is filled with butterflies from all over the Southeast and features many native plants these little guys like. Special butterfly caretakers look out for them, and they were ready to chat with us all along the way. We were lucky enough to catch Dylan, a butterfly den volunteer, and take our stroll while hearing about Zebra butterflies and their lifecycles from a real enthusiast.
Learning about their lifecycle was just as fun as watching the little boy ask the volunteer in the front for something to catch them with, and something I wanted to share a little bit about here. My grandpa is a butterfly aficionado with his own butterfly highway stop, so growing up I saw my fair share of chrysalises in little mesh cages, but my interest only went so far as oohing and ahhing. All it took was a nice sign to ground that interest in some science.
Adult butterflies are fragile yet resilient creatures, and the preceding stages are even more so. Such fragile creatures tasked with the important job of pollinating make them even cooler, but I digress.
Let’s talk about the individual stages:
The egg stage is the most precarious because of how tiny they are but also because of how many eggs are laid at a time. Females can lay between 100-300 eggs and within 2 weeks those that hatch first will feast on their siblings for nutrients.
The larva or caterpillar stage is my favorite, not just because of the children’s book and my killer costume of the same famished character, but because it feels like their childhood stage. They’re eating like crazy to gather enough energy and nutrients for their transformation, sometimes even eating enough in a single day to double their weight. (Butterfly<Pats stomach!>)
The pupa, or chrysalis stage is a close second for me, but that is because of the philosophical musings a complete metamorphosis induces in me. This stage is where the caterpillar spends about 2 weeks changing, before emerging as a seemingly whole new creature. A fascinating transformation.
The final stage of an adult butterfly lasts only about 2-4 weeks. Of the 300 or so eggs laid, only about 8 will make it to this final stage. This is when they do their jobs as pollinators, or in the case of the Stowe butterflies, educate. Yet again, I have to say that this fragility and resilience is what attracts me to butterflies.
The Stowe Conservancy was an amazing trip with a fittingly amazing staff, exhibits, and gift shop. I ran through fountains, made the plants feel like celebrities with all the pictures we were taking, and conquered any residual butterfly fear all in one day. I will absolutely be back to Stowe Conservancy, and I can’t wait to see what else they have in store (like the literal castle we snooped on North Carolina’s own “Beanstalk Builders” in the process of building…I must know more). But I’m guessing that there will be a fun zipline or climbing course onsite soon.