Rockefeller Park Greenhouse

While Elycia, Ivan, and Milo were out I wanted to show them all my favorite things about Cleveland. Nearly all of those things involve bikes, or food. Bikes were out of the questions with Milo and by Wednesday we didn’t want to eat anymore so I was kind of stumped about what to do. Jeff suggested the Rockefeller Park Greenhouse. I had heard of it, of course, but had never been there. I was under the impression it was super small, and not exactly worth a visit.

I was 100% completely wrong. This place is AMAZING. It was built in 1905, used originally to grow plants for the city. This place is stunning inside and out. There are multiple rooms with different themes, and tons and tons of plants. Parking and admission are free. You basically have no excuse to not love this place.

We spent a ton of time in there, way longer than any of us thought we would. Like I said, I always assumed it was really small. I remember reading a review of the greenhouse that said something about how it was a waste of time and that just kind of stuck with me. While the greenhouse isn’t massive by any means, you can easily spend a few hours admiring everything, especially if you have a camera with you!

I was most enthralled with the desert room, well duh. I went through there at least five times. My favorite plant in the whole place was a century plant, seen above. I didn’t really know much about them but due to the size and name assumed it must be super old. I did some research when I got home and read that century plants actually only live to be 10-30 years old. They’re native to Arizona so I’ve got my fingers crossed to see some of those babies on our road trip next month! I would LOVE to see one in the wild.

This is easily one of my new favorite spots in Cleveland. An absolute must if you’re in the area. It’s a great spot to spend an afternoon. It’s free and possibly best of all, we only saw a total of five other people during our whole visit. That’s my kind of place!
xoxo