Explore our Educational Programs
It’s easy to be dazzled by the breathtaking gardens and soaring Glasshouse, but Cleveland Botanical Garden is much more than a pretty face. At its core, the Garden is an educational institution with a powerful curriculum designed to affect systemic change in one of the nation’s most challenged urban centers and help us all become good stewards of the earth.
The Garden’s inviting 10-acre campus includes outdoor landscapes representing a variety of collections, from native wildflowers rescued from city development and now nestled into a shady forest glen, to a sunny fantasy garden for children, abundant with tall grasses and raspberry bushes as well as ponds, frogs, fountains and mazes. These outdoor landscapes provide gardeners with an endless source of information and inspiration, all in a remarkable urban setting.
Central to this campus is The Eleanor Armstrong Smith Glasshouse, recreating the spiny desert of Madagascar and the cloud forest region of Costa Rica, two of the planet’s most threatened ecosystems, available for study and exploration, not thousands of miles away, but right here in Cleveland. The Smith Glasshouse, the largest butterfly house in Northeast Ohio, is home to an amazing diversity of plant life and fascinating animals.
Campus facilities also include lecture halls, classrooms, and gallery spaces as well as the Eleanor Squire Library – one of the finest practical gardening libraries in the world with a collection of almost 19,000 volumes.
And it doesn’t end there. The Garden extends its educational reach far beyond its Garden Gates through partnerships with schools, colleges, universities, and community organizations across the state and around the world. On-site and off, the Garden is a rich educational environment that encourages people of all ages and backgrounds to immerse themselves in the wonders of the earth and gather together for a lifetime of enriching learning experiences.
We invite you to explore our vast array of educational programs and think of Cleveland Botanical Garden as one of Cleveland’s most engaging classrooms.
BotaniCool®
BotaniCool Kids®
KidsThriving in the City
Eleanor Squire Library
Horticultural Therapy