During your visit to the Cleveland Botanical Garden, explore 10 acres of gorgeous outdoor gardens and the 18,000-square-foot Eleanor Armstrong Smith Glasshouse. In the Guren Art Gallery, naturally inspired art of every kind is on display. In addition this Cleveland attraction features a café and gift shop.
Outdoor Gardens
Campsey Stauffer Gateway Garden
The Campsey Stauffer Gateway Garden’s vibrant and lush landscapes will greet you upon arrival to the Cleveland Botanical Garden. Opened 24 hours a day, this 2-acre entry garden is popular among Garden guests and University Circle neighbors alike with its trees, shrubs, perennials and water features.
C.K. Patrick Perennial Border
Stroll along the path of the C.K. Patrick Perennial Border, constantly alive with color and ideas and continuously changing. The C.K. Patrick Perennial Border Garden offers a collage of hues and texture from towering foxtail lilies to cool mountain bluet as well of plenty of take home inspiration for its visitors.
Elizabeth and Nona Evans Restorative Garden
Feel the gentle healing power of nature in the Elizabeth and Nona Evans Restorative Garden. As you make your way through this garden you can relax amid calming greenery, the sound of running water and the scents of lavender, mint and geranium. Chestnut oak and magnolia trees guide the way to this gardens three distinct areas: a quiet respite with a square lawn and restful reflecting pool, a multisensory sampler with annuals and perennials that you can see, touch and smell, and a third area of native stones, interesting plants and the soothing sound of water running over steep rocks and pebbles.
Inspiration Garden
Inspiration Garden will stir up the creativity within you. As you wander through the Kitchen Garden, Art Garden, Butterfly Garden, Sun Patio, the Small Conifer Garden, Shade Garden, Urban Retreat and Waterfall Garden, you will find new ways to incorporate the beauty and utility of what you see into your own garden.
Japanese Garden
The Japanese Garden will draw you into a deeper contemplation of the natural world and your place in it. Cross over a quaint bridge, stroll through a tea garden and take in the sweet smell of the wisteria-covered trellis. At the center of this Japanese mountainscape rendered in picture-perfect miniature is a dry cascade achieved with a classic composition of rocks, evergreen azaleas, and weather-beaten beach stones, surrounded by ornamental grasses, Austrian pines, Japanese maples, hemlocks and Asiatic lilies.
Katherine Philipp Geis Terrace
One of the best gathering places in the Cleveland Botanical Garden is the Katherine Philipp Geis Terrace. Delight in the 74-foot-long William E. Conway Family Reflecting pool featuring aquatic varieties of plants and water lilies, lovely lotuses and uncommonly beautiful mosaic plants native to Central and South America floating atop the pool’s inky water. In the summer palm and lime trees, birds of paradise and other tropical delights bring this popular gathering spot to life.
Mary Ann Sears Swetland Rose Garden
Dozens of varieties of roses are featured in the classical Mary Ann Sears Swetland Rose Garden. By turn a paradise of pink, a sanctuary of scarlet and a wonderland of white. Around every corner you will find new alluring sights and scents. When you reach the center of the rose garden, an octagonal pool, perfectly-chosen companion plantings, inviting benches, and cast iron arches covered in roses await you.
Paula and David Swetland Topiary Garden
In the Paula and David Swetland Topiary Garden you can delight in the silly and eccentric side of plants. Primarily comprised of young trees and shrubs, this curiously shaped garden will take you on a journey into the abstract world of beautiful and beautifully strange plant forms from living sculptures of evergreen to deciduous plants.
Western Reserve Herb Society Herb Garden
The splendor of a formal knot garden is the setting for herbs of all kinds. The Herb Garden, renowned as one of the most significant herb gardens in America, showcases around 3,500 plants. Delight in aromatic herbs and flowers grown throughout the centuries for their pleasing scents in the fragrance garden. In addition, the Western Reserve Herb Society Herb Garden includes a: trial and cutting garden, dye garden, historic rose garden, culinary garden, medicinal garden, terrace garden and garden of edible flowers.
Woodland Garden
The Woodland Garden is home to butterflies, song birds, wild flowers and more than 30 species of trees. Get lost in the Woodland Garden as you meander beneath a canopy of trees. You will discover brilliant bridges, tucked-away benches and other treasures hidden amid nature.
Eleanor Armstrong Smith Glasshouse
Explore two continents through one door. Unique among conservatories, the Glasshouse demonstrates how plants, animals, geology and climate interact in delicate balance. 350 species of exotic plants and 50 different types of butterflies, birds, reptiles and amphibians await you in the dry desert of Madagascar and the rainforest of Costa Rica.
Guren Art Gallery
Visit the second floor of the Guren Art Gallery to discover naturally inspired art of every kind. The art gallery regularly features changing works by local and national artists in many media. Painting, photography, sculptures, nontraditional media forms and student work are some of the examples of art that have been on display at Guren Art Gallery over the years.
The Garden Café and Geis Terrace
The Garden Café is just minutes from the Glasshouse and features a year-round menu that combines from-scratch flavor and artisanal foods. During the warm months of the year, enjoy soups, salads, sandwiches, chili and tempting, snacks and pastries at the Geis Terrace, located adjacent to the Garden Café.
Shopping in the Garden Store
Stop by the Garden Store at Cleveland Botanical Garden. Beautiful jackets, handbags, hats for the garden, fabulous fragrances, handcrafted sculptures and other items unique to the Cleveland Botanical Garden are available to purchase.