Cincinnati Zoo Offers Self-Guided Botanical Garden Tour and Special Playlist to Enjoy with Zoo Blooms

Posted March 30, 2021

Tunes & Blooms concerts are cancelled, but 100,000 tulips await!

                       CINCINNATI, OH (March 30, 2021) – It’s about to get colorful at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden as 100,000 spectacular tulips get ready for their close ups! Visitors can enjoy the bloomin’ awesome gardens daily during Zoo Blooms, presented by Performance Lexus and Performance Lexus Rivercenter, while listening to a curated Spotify playlist of past Tunes & Blooms artists or learning more about what they’re seeing with a new guided audio tour.

“The in-person Tunes & Blooms concerts are cancelled this year, but visitors who want tunes with their blooms can listen to our special playlist as they walk around the Zoo,” said Cincinnati Zoo director Thane Maynard.  “The gardens are spectacular with or without music, but this playlist is the next best thing to being able to enjoy live music at the Zoo.  We plan to bring the popular concerts back next year.”

  Another way to enhance your visit is with the Zoo’s new Zoo Blooms Walking Tour. Access the tour via the Echoes app, this link, or with the provided QR code, and you’ll be all set to get a tour of the botanical garden led by Cincinnati Zoo’s director of horticulture, Steve Foltz.  He will point out the best of the best in the garden, triggered by GPS when you physically walk inside a geofenced area. So, you can keep your device in your pocket and concentrate on the experience around you.

“We’re one of only two accredited botanical gardens in Ohio, and April is the best time to see our garden at its best,” said Maynard.  “We have one of the largest tulip displays in the Midwest, and every year I see a color that I haven’t seen before.  Our spring landscape also features more than a million daffodils, hyacinths, flowering trees, shrubs and more.”

If you want to impress your friends and family on your next visit, listen to the latest Cincinnati Zoo Tales podcast episode featuring a different kind of color commentary from Foltz.  You’ll get the inside scoop on what goes into planning and planting the magnificent garden beds at the Zoo.

“The tulips are starting to bloom now.  Cold weather may stall things later this week, but the gardens will be spectacular for several weeks after that,” said Foltz.  “Peak time is difficult to pinpoint, but you can’t go wrong if you visit April 7- April 15.”

Zoo Blooms is included with Zoo Admission, and all of the extras (podcast, tour, and playlist) are FREE. The Cincinnati Zoo opens daily at 10 a.m.  Reservations are required. Early Entry allows members to make reservations for 9 a.m and 9:30 a.m spots.  Reservations are not required for members from 2 p.m. – 4 p.m., Monday – Thursday.  Memberships are worth their wild and are on sale now! For more information, visit www.cincinnatizoo.org.

In accordance with CDC recommendations, visitors are required to wear masks while on Zoo property.