The Cleveland Botanical Garden occupies a hilltop on the edge of University Circle and combines ten acres of outdoor gardens with the Eleanor Armstrong Smith Glasshouse, a 18,000-square-foot biome that recreates two distinct environments — a Costa Rican cloud forest and the spiny desert of Madagascar — under one glass roof. The Madagascar room, dry and warm with lemurs, chameleons, and baobabs, is the rare botanical greenhouse that earns the word "transporting."
The outdoor gardens are organised around themes — Japanese, herb, rose, children's — and are at their best in May and September. A small library and shop occupy the entrance building.
Admission charged; combination tickets with the History Center next door are usually available. Closed Mondays in winter.