Break Your Cabin Fever With a Trip to a Tropical Greenhouse

Is your cabin fever out of control? Would you like to immerse yourself in tropical warmth? If so, you don't even have to buy an airline ticket: just take a short drive to the Cleveland Botanical Garden. 

Orchid Mania is the Cleveland Botanical Garden's annual orchid show, and this is its eighth year. The theme this year is “Purple Reign," an homage to this royal color commonly seen in the orchid world. 

In addition to the flowers, there are lots of other orchid-related events and workshops, including photography and art displays. You can also buy orchids directly from growers on March 5 and 6.  And don’t forget your camera, because there is an Orchid Mania photography contest on the Plain Dealer's website. Go to cleveland.com/orchids for more information.

Aside from the orchid show, the Botanical Garden has much to offer. The glasshouse features a rainforest and a desert garden with hundreds of species of plants, and dozens of species of butterflies, birds, reptiles and more. There are also numerous outdoor gardens.

While there, guests can enjoy a snack or lunch in the lovely, open atmosphere of the Garden Cafe. You can view their menu on the Garden's website.

This year’s Orchid Mania show will run from Feb. 26 through March 27. Admission price for nonmembers is $8.50 for adults and $3 for children 3 to 12. Kids under 3 are free. The show is open for visitors from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and from 12 to 5 p.m. on Sundays. It's closed on Mondays.

If you're not able to make it to the Botanical Garden, there is another, smaller greenhouse in Cleveland that you can visit. Rockefeller Park Greenhouse is open year-round and is a free, public greenhouse. This little gem of a greenhouse features a Latin American garden and a Talking Garden, among others. It's located on East 88 Street, off of Martin Luther King Drive.

Either way, escaping to a tropical paradise for a short time can make the remaining weeks of winter tolerable.