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The Botanical Garden is All Around the Zoo
Welcome to one of the most unique garden experiences in the country! The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden is one of only a handful of hybrid Zoo/Botanical Gardens in the world, and amongst those, the only one to achieve Level IV accreditation from the Arbnet Arboretum Accreditation Program. Enjoy our colorful pathways, our spacious and naturalistic habitats, and gain inspiration for your home landscapes through our well-labelled plant collection. Although the Botanical Garden is all around you, read on to learn about some of our featured gardens!
Asian Waterfall Garden
Explore the headwaters of Elephant Trek in the Komminsk Family Asian Waterfall Garden, a flowing, meditative space with winding paths and botanical surprises at every turn. The garden is anchored by one of the oldest trees on Zoo property, a stately Red Elm. Many unique plants native to the Eastern U.S. mingle with tropical Asian plants such as Elephant Ears (get it?) and Chinese fan palms to create an immersive palette that celebrates extreme plant diversity. As you leave the garden and follow the currents into Elephant Trek, take note of the Tom Yum Garden at Siamang Point and the general use of southern magnolias, hibiscus and pawpaw that lend tropical vibes to our Midwestern climate.
Floral Display Gardens
The Floral Display Gardens, comprised of our famous tulip displays and renowned Annual Trials Program, line the main path throughout the Zoo. Every fall, we plant over 100,000 tulips which bloom throughout April and are then changed out for over 900 varieties of annual plants, which are evaluated for garden performance and ecological value. The preeminent floral display takes place in the large circular bed between the Vine Street Village entry plaza and the historic Reptile House.
Bear Ridge Adventure Trail
The plant palette of Bear Ridge pays homage to the Appalachian mixed mesophytic forest ecoregion and the cove forests tucked throughout. These forests, which are well represented in southeastern Ohio, are the most biodiverse areas in the state. Working off the old infrastructure of the Zoo’s “Bear Hill”, which conveniently portrays the limestone rock face of a gorge, we were able to bring the area to life. Walking through the habitat will hopefully bring to mind a hike in Adams County, Clifton Gorge, or maybe even the Smokies.
The Adventure Trail is an immersive botanical experience, a planting to step into as opposed to look at. The brief loop takes you through a densely planted micro-forest containing 30 trees, 40 shrubs and a groundcover layer of ferns, grasses, sedges, wildflowers and spring ephemerals, nestled in a raised planter roughly the size of six parking spaces. The canopy includes a bevy of oaks (scarlet, white, chinkapin), sugar maple, and Appalachian staples like sassafras, holly, sourwood, fringetree and bigleaf magnolia. Other unique plants include dog hobble, strawberry bush, wintergreen, false aloe and Virginia bluebells.
Roo Valley Exit Gardens
As you cross the bridge overlooking the Little Blue Penguins, you walk onto the roof of the penguins indoor holding area that doubles as a luscious pollinator garden. As you wind out of Roo Valley, the palette shifts to a shady woodland planting that blends seamlessly into the Bald Eagle habitat across the main path. Our landscape designs go to great lengths to transition smoothly from space to space. We pay great attention to visual coherence and flow within our landscapes. These plant choices subtly guide the visitor experience.
Erkenbrecher Avenue Gardens
The parking lot expansion along Erkenbrecher Ave. has allowed us to extend our botanical garden outside the fence in fresh, creative ways; colorful welcome beds featuring thousands of our Annual Trials Program plants and sweeps of mixed native perennials and shrubs interplanted beneath trees that lower urban temperatures on hot summer days. The plant diversity in our parking lots sets the tone for the botanical experience to come.
Native Plants Garden
This garden, located near the Passenger Pigeon Memorial contains many interesting native plants, many of which would have been favorite food sources for passenger pigeons. From early spring ephemerals to trees such as the bigleaf magnolias (Magnolia macrophylla), you can see and enjoy a smattering of native plants in a naturalistic garden.
Many of the plants are host plants for butterflies and moths. You might notice a colony of pawpaw trees (Asimina triloba), which is one of just a few host plants for the Zebra Swallowtail (Protographium marcellus), and spicebush (Lindera benzoin), which hosts the Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio Troilus).
Butterfly Garden
Walking downhill, the Butterfly Garden extends from the Passenger Pigeon Memorial to the World of Insects on the left side of the path.
This garden features many favorite plants of butterflies. Of particular note is the Dutchman’s Pipevine (Aristolochia tomentosa) that grows up into the pines at the back of the bed. This vine is the host to the Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor) and sometimes you will see them up feeding on the perennials and annuals and then flying up into the vines to lay eggs. Somewhat hidden in this garden are two rare native plants, prickly ash (Xanthoxylem Americanum) and hoptree (Ptelea trifoliata), which host the Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes).
Endangered Species Garden
The Plant Division of the Center for Research of Endangered Wildlife (CREW) conducts research dedicated to propagating and preserving endangered plants. The Endangered Species Propagation Program uses tissue culture to grow rare species which have challenged traditional methods of propagation. In 2005, the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden became a member of the Center for Plant Conservation (CPC). By partnering with the Center for Plant Conservation and botanical gardens around the country, CREW is applying these techniques to make plants available for research and reintroduction.
The horticulture Department via the Native Plant Program works closely with CREW, often growing plants in our nursery to use in our gardens and to plant back into the wild.
Education Rain Garden
Located outside of the Harold C. Schott Education Building is one of the area’s biggest and best rain gardens. Containing a tremendous diversity of mostly native plants, this garden provides continuous beauty while also attracting insects, birds, and other wildlife.
If you look closely, you’ll spot three shallow basins within the garden. All of the rain that falls on the Education building’s roof, much of the parking lot, and the garden itself is directed into these three depressions. The water then percolates into the soil rather than emptying into Cincinnati’s combined sewage system, which overflows untreated into the Ohio River during heavier rain events.
Shade Trees
Throughout the Zoo, you’ll find beautiful shade trees that provide relief from the hot sun. The bigger trees are not hard to find but if you might also notice many oaks, maples, lindens, zelkovas, elms, and other large species that were more recently planted and are still young. Although we monitor and care for older trees, and do our best to protect them from construction projects and other causes of stress, we know that a certain number of them will fail in future years. This is one of the reasons we so plant so many new shade trees. They will carry on the important job of shading the Zoo’s guests and animals into the future.
Bamboo Groves
You’ll notice a lot of bamboo growing at the Zoo. While bamboo is not a plant for home landscapes because of its aggressive spreading, it is—if sited correctly and contained—a great plant for the Zoo. Not only does it provide geographically appropriate ambiance to Asian and African exhibits, but it is also terrific at screening buildings and service areas, which helps create a better visitor experience. But even more than that, bamboo is a favorite food for many of our animals and, with guidance, our keepers often cut shoots as special treats.
