Cleveland Botanical Gardens

Over the weekend we traveled to Ohio for a friends wedding. Before our trip, I did a quick Google search of places to visit in north eastern Ohio and found the Cleveland Botanical Gardens. The Botanical Garden consists of ten acres of different outdoor gardens, as well as the Eleanor Armstrong Smith Glass House, two indoor rooms that replicate the environments of the rainforests of Costa Rica and the spiny desert of Madagascar.
Inside the "Cloud Forest" they did an incredible job of making it feel like you were really walking around outside. There were also bridges up above the trees that gave us a bird's eye view of the forest below.




These leafcutter ants are really doing a number on the plant in the left corner of the photo. If you look closely, you can see them carrying their leaf pieces across the vine in the next picture.



The Cloud Forest was filled with beautiful butterflies...





This tiny bird lives in the Madagascar section of the Glass House,


along with a VERY slow chameleon



and a Mossy Tailed Leaf Gecko.


Outside, the spring flowers were in bloom. The hostas are coming up and getting ready to cover the tulips after their blooms fade.


The Japanese Garden was beautiful... I have new plans for my hill garden at home!