Cleveland Botanical Garden Flower Show Tickets Now on Sale at www.cbgarden.org

CLEVELAND, March 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Advance, discounted tickets to Cleveland Botanical Garden Flower Show, the largest outdoor flower show in North America, are now on sale through the Garden's website at http://www.cbgarden.org/. The show will be held over Memorial Day weekend, May 24 - 28, 2007. Advance prices are $12 for Garden members and $16 for nonmember through May 1, and after May 1, prices are $14 for Garden members and $20 for nonmembers. Tickets may be purchased through the Garden's website (http://www.cbgarden.org/) or by phone (In Cleveland: (216) 721-1600 or Toll Free: (888) 853-7091. Complete show details are also available at http:/// http://www.cbgarden.org/.)

Cleveland Botanical Garden is located in the heart of University Circle, Cleveland's celebrated cultural district, across from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The address is 11030 East Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio, 44106.

Presented by National City Private Client Group, the Show is modeled after the Royal Botanical Society's famed Chelsea Flower Show in London, and it is the only outdoor flower show honored with Major Show status by both National Garden Clubs, Inc. and Garden Club of America.

"Cleveland Botanical Garden Flower Show is one of the top major flower shows held in the United States and an important event for the city of Cleveland," says Natalie Ronayne, the Garden's executive director. "This year, we expect nearly 30,000 visitors. The show has grown from year to year in reputation and importance and promises a high level horticultural excellence. Nobody ever leaves the show without feeling inspired and armed with plenty of new and novel ideas for the home garden."

This year's theme, "Rhythm & Hues," celebrates the timeless, happy marriage of the garden and the musical arts. The creative teams planning the show will present the garden not only as a place to enjoy music, but as a creative space inspired by music and musical ideas.

At the heart of the show will be the eighteen glorious, all-new gardens of all shapes and sizes created especially for the show, including six major new gardens inspired by different genres of music that will remain on the Garden's grounds for two years, until the next Flower Show. These gardens include a formal opera garden, one inspired by Duke Ellington and The Cotton Club, a blues garden based on the classic song "The Thrill Is Gone," a country music garden paying tribute to Appalachia, a New Age music garden and even a salsa music garden. The Show also includes hundreds of world-class exhibits, both competitive and noncompetitive, in divisions ranging from horticulture, flower arranging, botanical jewelry, and nature photography. There is also a youth division.

One of the highlights of the show is always the bustling garden marketplace, featuring more than thirty purveyors of select gardening merchandise, much of which is available exclusively at the show. The select goods include unique plant material, home and garden accessories, statuary, botanical art, jewelry, clothing, and more.

For the first day of the show, superstar floral designer Pim van den Akker, from Delft, Holland, will enthrall the audience with the latest trends in floral design during a specially ticketed luncheon. In addition, the Cleveland Botanical Garden Flower Show Speaker Series is free with admission Friday, May 25 through Monday, May 28. The series introduces audiences to a diverse range of local and national gardening experts lecturing on a variety of current horticultural and gardening topics.

Those who have never been to Cleveland Botanical Garden will want to be sure to save time to enjoy the Garden's collection gardens, boasting some of the finest gardens in the entire Midwest in spring bloom, as well as the on- site Western Reserve Herb Society Herb Garden, one of the top herb gardens in the entire country.

"Copacabana," a colorful preview party featuring entertainment by students from Cleveland School of the Arts and Oberlin Conservatory of Music, will be held during the evening of Wednesday, May 23 beginning at 6:00 p.m. Tickets are available at $250, $500 and $1,000, with corporate tables of ten at $5,000 and $10,000. Call (216) 707-2818 to reserve tickets. Proceeds benefit Cleveland Botanical Garden's education and urban outreach programs.

Cleveland Botanical Garden, which began as the Garden Center of Greater Cleveland, the country's first urban garden center, celebrated its 75th anniversary year in 2005. A nonprofit garden, the institution is a national leader in urban horticulture and botanical education. From its 10-acre campus in University Circle to three inter-city learning gardens and dozens of outdoor classrooms at area schools, the Garden has introduced the benefits of gardening to thousands of people of all ages, interests, backgrounds and abilities. Since its founding in 1930, education has been the core of the Garden's mission, guiding expansion in recent years to include urban outreach, school programs that support national academic standards, and sustainable economic development. It has 6,000 members and bi-annually hosts the nation's largest outdoor flower show. The Garden's website is at http://www.cbgarden.org/.