News and Stories

Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden’s horticulture and local conservation teams were busy this year.  So busy that they should be at the top of anyone’s NICE list!

In addition to planting 120,000 tulips and 60,000 annuals on site at the Zoo, the horticulture team completed landscaping for Elephant Trek, Bear Ridge, New World Primates, and other new habitats. They also stepped off grounds on many occasions to plant community gardens, maintain existing gardens, and host native plant sales.

Those sales put 13,375 plants into the hands of local gardeners! Our Plant for Pollinators program provided guidance and resources for thousands of garden enthusiasts and won the 2025 Daisy Sticksel Conservation Award from the Ohio Association of Garden Clubs!

All of these activities were supported by volunteers and ZooTeens, who manned the Pollination Station all summer and interacted with hundreds of guests during the Zoo’s Monarch Fest.

Read the comprehensive 2025 Horticulture Highlights Report (by Associate Director of Horticulture Jerome Stenger) or see the condensed-but-still-impressive summary below.

ANNUAL PLANT TRIALS

The Annual Plant Trials Program has DOUBLED in volume over the last 3 years and is recognized as one of the top annual trial programs in the country.  Trialing of this magnitude is a year-round process that involves ordering, growing, planting, maintaining, tracking and reporting.

BY THE NUMBERS

• 60,000 total plants installed
• 887 varieties
• 31 providers donating material

HABITAT – SIAMANG POINT

The completion of Elephant Trek’s final phase included the installation of three new habitats (Siamang gibbon, Asian small-clawed otter and hornbill) and over 10,000 square feet of new ornamental landscapes.

BY THE NUMBERS

• 115 large trees
• 287 shrubs
• 1,116 perennials/grasses/vine
• 400 cubic yards of fresh soil
• A custom-built retaining wall using 60 tons of boulder

HABITAT – BEAR RIDGE

BY THE NUMBERS

COMMUNITY – Walnut Hills Reds Makeover

HOURS DONATED: 1,089

Dr. O’dell Owens Center for Learning offers a supportive, individualized educational environment for students in grades K-12 with complex emotional and behavioral needs through restorative practices and trauma-informed care. The space, formerly a paved bus turnaround, was converted into a 13,000 square foot interactive greenspace and outdoor classroom. It is the 4th Urban Learning Garden we’ve installed and our most ambitious since Rockdale Academy in 2021. It contains over 1,500 plants of 160 species.

Frederick Douglass Elementary School is a Pre-K through 6 grade CPS school with an enrollment of 250 children.  Our revitalization of an adjacent space involved heavy invasive species removal and installation of weedmat, gravel base, 12 raised beds with fresh soil, and defined landscape pockets. Classes and after-school groups will be able to produce and eat vegetables and herbs from this space for years to come. The 4,000-square-foot space includes 350 plants, including shade trees, pollinator plants and edible plants.

COMMUNITY – Wellness Gardens

Hamilton County Crisis Center

HOURS DONATED: 670

Through a partnership with Talbert House, we were able to reimagine a neglected backyard space at the new Hamilton County Crisis Center by converting it into a modern Wellness Garden. The Crisis Center is a centralized hub for crisis and recovery services which includes a primary care clinic, a pharmacy, and long-term support space for inpatients navigating behavioral health changes and transitions back into the community. Over 1,600 clients a year will have access to the 3,800-square-foot Wellness Garden that provides therapeutic engagement with nature. Over 600 plants of 60 species were used in the space. Plants not only have the power to educate but also to heal.

Hamilton County Youth Center

HOURS DONATED:192

In partnership with the Hamilton County Youth Center, we transformed a sterile courtyard space into a thriving and colorful Wellness Garden. The Youth Center holds 160 young people who are awaiting trial for serious offenses who can’t be released while awaiting legal proceedings. “The garden, it gives me a nice experience, being outside, getting fresh air,” one young person says. “It gives me a state of ecstasy, helps me flow, opens up my mind. It’s an experience I’d never had, being out here in the garden learning about plants, learning how to nurture plants.” These young people are now stewards of a garden with 250 plants of 35 different species.

COMMUNITY – Learning Garden
@Holloway House

HOURS DONATED: 205

The Holloway House Resource Center on Reading Rd. is a critical resource center for teen parents, offering housing, workforce training, financial coaching, health and wellness services, and more. In 2024 and 2025, we installed a Healing Garden and play area on one side of the house and a Learning Kitchen on the other. This included over 130 ornamental sensory plants and 80 vegetables and annual flowers to lushen the outdoor kitchen.

Learn about more community projects, gardens and gardening education at the Zoo, and amazing work being done at our off-site facilities in the full 2025 Horticulture Highlights Report.

Additional Project Photos