It’s about to get very hot in Cleveland!  This will be a great weekend to join both campuses before the heat of summer strikes us next week. 

Cleveland Botanical Garden

The must-see plants this week at the garden are the roses.  Our redesigned rose garden, which was installed in the fall of 2022, is really coming into its own.  The outer row of floribunda roses literally has every color in the rainbow.  This week, I was especially impressed with the deep red Rosa ‘Lava Flow’, yellow  Rosa Tupelo Honey™,  and plum Rosa Celestial Night™.  A walk around the Western Reserve Herb Society’s garden showed that while the historical rose collection has mostly senesced, the low-growing, tiny pink-flowered Rosa ‘The Fairy’ is at peak.  Other places to explore include the lush early summer foliage of hosta hill, and, if looking for a cool shady respite from the heat, visit the Japanese and Woodland gardens, situated in the deep ravine of the garden.

Holden Arboretum

If you love native plants, take a visit to the wildflower garden where you will find prickly pear cactus, which can be found growing in the wild in sandy sites in places like the Oak Openings region west of Toledo.  The yellow blooms are open and showy right now, and more will be opening this upcoming week. In the wildflower garden’s bog, spot the tiny flowers of American cranberry- this native vine in the heath family is named for these downward pointing light-pink blooms which resemble the bill of a crane. Finally, along the stream, be on the lookout for purple-flowering raspberry, a native northeast Ohio plant that deserves to be in more Ohio home landscapes.  Finally, if you love hummingbirds, visit the trumpet honeysuckles that are scattered throughout our butterfly garden.  If you sit quietly on the Gardner terrace for a while, you’ll be sure to see a hummingbird visit these plants growing along the railing.

Enjoy the gardens this week and be sure to stay cool as summer weather arrives.  Happy botanizing!