SOUTH DEERFIELD — Visitors will not only look back on 25 years of Magic Wings, but also look ahead to its next life with potential new owners Victoria Tubbs and Vytautas Sukys during an anniversary celebration on Saturday, Nov. 8, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Kathy Fiore, who currently owns the butterfly conservatory and gardens with her brother George Miller III, described the anniversary celebration as a “soft hand-over” of Magic Wings to Tubbs and Sukys, who are buying the property for $2.5 million, “butterflies included.” Tubbs said she hopes to close on the property by the end of November.
The conservatory has been for sale since 2014, with Fiore and Miller renewing their effort in 2021 through a Facebook announcement seeking “the perfect person (or group) to come in with dedication and passion to continue” the business. Now, more than four and half years later, Fiore said she trusts Tubbs and Sukys to continue Magic Wings’ mission.
“They’re coming in, they’re 25 years younger than us, they have energy, they have vision, they have passion,” Fiore said.
Tubbs first visited Magic Wings in April 2009 when she returned from Ireland to reunite with her now husband. Her husband had secretly planned on proposing in the mountains, but after learning that mountain trails are often closed in the cold, he searched for other local proposal spots on Google. Magic Wings popped up.
When Tubbs first walked into Magic Wings, a blindfold blocked her from seeing its butterflies.
Outside the conservatory, “It was gross, cold, wet, and then all of a sudden, the place smelled like fresh flowers, and it was warm — thank goodness it was warm,” Tubbs remembered over the phone on Wednesday.
Several years and a few kids later, Tubbs, a pastry chef, woke up in her Greenfield home in the middle of the night with Magic Wings on her mind.
“I know this is where my family is going to be,” Tubbs remembered thinking.
A month later, she decided to try purchasing the business with Sukys, her brother, who brings a background in aerospace engineering. Tubbs recruited Sukys to the Pioneer Valley from their home state of Michigan.
Fiore and Miller have been training Tubbs and Sukys on the ins and outs of running a butterfly conservatory to ease the transition.
“There’s definitely a lot more to it than just looking at pretty butterflies,” Fiore said over the phone on Tuesday. “Although that is a great part of it.”
Tubbs said many of the lessons were not new.
As a pastry chef, Tubbs worked at the now closed Yankee Pedlar Restaurant & Banquets, home to many events. She even fed frogs at Black Jungle Exotics in Greenfield, reminding her of the greenhouse at her family farm in Michigan.
“If I was a business, I think I’d be Magic Wings, because I have all this experience that is very, very weird and unique and niche,” Tubbs said. “Who knows how to breed gnats to feed dart frogs? Not many people!”
If everything goes as planned and she and her brother take over Magic Wings, Tubbs said she plans to install solar power and start classes on the lessons that butterflies can teach, like their critical roles in ecosystems.
“That’s another story that’s not being told,” Tubbs said. “I’m a lifelong learner. I just enjoy learning.”
“Because we are feeling really comfortable with the folks who are taking over, I think both of us are really looking forward to being able to go do whatever we want,” Fiore said, referring to herself and Miller. With more time to relax, she said she and her brother will finally be able to travel to the family house in Florida together after years of one traveling south while the other ran the conservatory.
But with 11 weddings already booked at Magic Wings for 2026, Fiore stressed, “I’m not going anywhere yet, that’s for sure.”
At Saturday’s celebration, visitors can enjoy free birthday cake, homemade cinnamon cider doughnuts and apple juice, or buy other food from the Social Butterfly pop-up cafe.
Admission prices will roll back to the rates that were in place when the conservatory first opened in 2000: $8 for adults, $7 for seniors over 62 years old, $5 for children ages 3 to 17 and students ages 18 to 22, and free for children under 3 years old.
At 2 p.m., Fiore and Miller will give a donation of $10,000 to the Northfield Regional Food Pantry to give back to the town where they grew up. Over the years, Fiore said she noticed the line of traffic at the food pantry stretch longer and longer.
“It’s Northfield. It’s hard for me to believe that there’s people with insecurity for food, but it’s everywhere,” Fiore said. “This is something that we can make a difference with, and I don’t think that that car line is going to be getting any shorter anytime soon.”
Along with music from a DJ, raffles, face painting, a photo booth, a magic show and balloon animals, a “Now and Then” display in the art gallery cafe will also be open for attendees to look back on 25 years of Magic Wings memories since Fiore and Miller’s father, George Miller Jr., built the property in 1999.
Fiore remembered her father telling her about his butterfly venture in 1999.
“It was kind of weird. He was a military guy his whole life and he was a contractor. He was this big, burly guy,” Fiore said, chuckling. But the burly man believed in butterflies, and a year later, Magic Wings opened its doors on Veterans Day.
“Just walking around the building, my father’s thumbprint is on everything. He built the whole thing,” Fiore said. “We always feel him here with us.”
Since it opened, more than 2 million people have walked through those doors not only to see the conservatory’s 4,000 butterflies, but also its lizards, frogs, exotic birds, tortoises and koi fish from Magic Wings’ later years, Fiore said.
When visitors step inside, Fiore said she sees a range of reactions, including the “bobbers and weavers,” as Fiore calls them, who tie up their sweatshirt hoods until only their eyes peek out and duck through the butterflies’ flight paths. Others tear up, some laugh hysterically, but most visitors walk in with their mouths agape as they absorb the hidden 80-degree tropical habitat in South Deerfield, Fiore said.
“It’s a complete tropical ecosystem that just happens to be in western Massachusetts,” Fiore said, comparing the conservatory’s air to that of Jamaica or Costa Rica. “You can see the beauty, you can smell it when you go in, you can smell the flowers and the greenery, and you can just feel the warmth.”
Along with countless employee events, the conservatory was also home to many family milestones, including Fiore and Miller’s parents’ 40th wedding anniversary, Fiore’s wedding and Miller’s wedding. While recalling these memories, Fiore eyed a picture of her parents smiling with a cake at the conservatory’s 10th anniversary.
“Magic Wings is a huge part of our lives and to be able to hand it over to another brother-sister duo is just remarkable,” Fiore said. “This was meant to be.”
