The Birmingham Botanical Gardens and Glasshouses is inviting visitors to beat the winter blues with A Taste of the Tropics on Sunday week, February 26.

A Taste of the Tropics will include The Rainforest Roadshow, which is setting up camp in the gardens' study centre.

Here visitors can meet and greet some fascinating creatures from the tropics, including scary pythons and tarantulas, as well as delightful meerkats and endearing pygmy hedgehogs (pictured right).

There will be competitions, prizes, quizzes, face painting and fascinating displays and talks all about the enchanting world of the tropics.

A Taste of the Tropics will also include some real tropical tasting in the garden suite from exotic fruits to tropical tipples and there will be a flower-arranging demonstration using gorgeous tropical blooms.