Hershey Children's Garden - Cleveland Botanical Garden

Children can become immersed in hands-on activities like:

Searching for fish, frogs and turtles in the pond

Learning about veggie and herb gardens

Exploring and playing in nature’s playground

Creating in our sandbox

Learning how to care for plants with our water pump

The Hershey Children’s Garden was one of the first of its kind in the country when it opened in 1999, and it still serves as a model for children’s gardens around the world.

Things to discover

the treehouse

Encouraging exploration, imagination, and a connection to nature, The Treehouse offers young adventurers the chance to discover the wonders of the gardens below.

pond exploration

Grab your detective skills and see what wildlife you can find around the pond. Frogs, snakes, and other aquatic creatures call this habitat home, but please leave your nets at home – we’ll provide nets at designated times for pond dipping activities.

honeybee hive

Buzz over to the live honeybee hive and watch some of nature’s hardest workers in action. Discover how bees help plants thrive while getting a safe, up-close look at these incredible pollinators.

Goldenrod & Ironweed

Here are our two quintessential autumnal Ohio wildflowers. Although they aren’t the tamest of garden guests, at the back of a sunny pollinator plot, they are worth inviting to the party. There are also some sport-jacket and khakis cultivars that won’t frighten your more civilized garden guests.

CUP FLOWER (Silphium perfoliatum)

Their sunflower-like blooms and forthcoming seeds drive bees and birds crazy, and their clasping cup-like leaf bases capture rainwater for the thirsty critters. A patch of cup flowers are perfect kid plants: bright, big, buzzing with animal life, and great to hide in!

Anemones

“Anenome” derives from the Greek anemos for “wind.” And that’s apt because these yardstick-tall flowers borne on wiry stems gracefully dance into the slightest wind. And if you know them as “Japanese anemones” they are in truth from Hupeh province in China but naturalized and cherished in Japan.