News and Stories

110,000 tulips are reaching their peak bloom this week, and it is spectacular! You know this if you’ve enjoyed Zoo Blooms, presented by Macy’s, in the past. If you never have, get down here now! But don’t just be looking down at the tulips during your visit or you’ll be missing a lot what the Cincinnati Botanical Garden & Zoo has to offer. Tulips, after all, are just icing on the cake.

Take in the myriad of other plants coming into bloom—cherries, magnolias, and viburnums soon to be followed by serviceberries, crabapples, redbuds, dogwoods, and then more and more and more. As an accredited botanical garden, we are proud or our collection of 3500 species and selections, and all of it comes together to provide a full growing season of bloom, color, texture, and beauty.

As we speak, annuals in our trials program are being tended in the greenhouse. Roughly 40,000 of them. 250 or so different varieties. Many of them new to the market. These will be planted where the tulips are now as soon as we get past the danger of frost, about a month from now. Our growing perennials trialing program will bring us a succession of beautiful blooms from here on through October. Most of these plants are labeled so you can take ideas home to your garden.

So, come see our tulips because that is a must, but keep coming back to see how the gardens change throughout the year. It’s always different, and it’s always beautiful in its own way. Oh, and, hey, don’t be so blown away by our beautiful gardens that you forget about our wonderful collection of animals when you come to visit. They’re important too.