Cool Living Wall

Living walls are a 'thing' of the moment (i.e. now and in recent years) and seems set to continue for awhile. I like the concept of it although I must confess I don't always like the finished product, from both professionals and amateurs, even if at first they look impeccable. Plus I still have lots of doubts on the longevity of most of them.

This living wall however, I liked a lot...

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Tropical Treat

I suppose it's time to bump off our Chelsea coverage from the top of our blog posts with another look into the Geneva Botanical Garden, focusing this time on their Tropical Glasshouse.

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Petit but Very Nice!

Whenever we visit a city we find out first if they have a botanical garden that will be convenient to visit. Our trip to Geneva was no exception and they do have a botanical garden that is rather centrally located, or at least a twenty minute leisurely walk from Mont Blanc bridge. 

Geneva Botanical Garden is bordered to the east by Lake Geneva and is directly connected by beautiful parks at the city's right bank (Quai Wilson lake promenade). It is worth bypassing public transport and just walk along the bank towards the botanical garden from the old town as the sceneries going there are beautiful.

The botanical garden turned out to be much, much better than we anticipated. In fact it is one of the nicest ones we have been to in Europe apart from the UK. It is petit but very nice! You can tell that it is a well funded one, not surprising considering that Geneva is a very affluent city in the first place. We spent a wonderful afternoon there exploring it's several glasshouses and outdoor spaces.

To start of a series of features is a quick look at the first glasshouse we saw as we entered this lovely garden - the Temperate Glasshouse.

A compact yet pretty glasshouse

A Phoenix canariensis is right in front of the main entrance to this glasshouse which is probably just wheeled straight in to it during the winter months.

Looking back from the entrance

Then looking in you are greeted by towering plants.

Each alcove is designated it's own climactic zone and planting scheme. Their plant collection is modest but they are well maintained.

And then there's the canopy/elevated walkway...

From there you get a different view of their 'spiky zones'...

After a good look around it was time to explore the other areas. Looking back...

Petit but very nice!

Mark :-)

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Danish Interlude

Spring is now in full swing and all of us gardeners are in a flurry of activity preparing the garden for the growing season ahead. With all the growth happening now I don't want to dwell too much over winter hence I'll keep this post short and sweet. Short for a botanical garden visit blog post anyway...

In March we had a long weekend in Copenhagen and naturally we paid their centrally located botanical garden a visit. March is on the cusp of spring already but it still felt wintry when we visited, but at least it was sunny.

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Xerophytes at Madeira Botanical Garden

One of the many places that we make sure we visit whenever we are in Madeira is their botanical garden. If Monte is great for staging, size, and atmosphere (but lacking in variety except for cycads), the botanical garden is a great complement to it due to the variety of plants that can be found in it.

Spikies and colourful bedding galore! I've given up waiting for that moment when no one was ambling along the view so this is the least populated photo I've managed to take.

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A Walk Through The Garden

Photos don't always make it easy to work out how parts of the garden relate to each other, so here's a short video walk though the garden. I need to be  a little less shakey holding the camera :)

Gaz

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Three Climate Greenhouse

On the final instalment of our feature on Hortus Botanicus in Amsterdam we'll be sharing photos of our walk through their most interesting greenhouse attraction - the Three Climate Greenhouse.

When I first started preparing to blog about this greenhouse my initial idea was to divide it into three individual posts. But then again it might be over stretching a topic a bit too much hence now only one post. As the name suggests the greenhouse is divided into three climactic zones: temperate, tropical, and arid.

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Palm Greenhouse at Hortus Botanicus

We continue our feature on Hortus Botanicus in Amsterdam with the second of their three greenhouse attractions - the Palm Greenhouse.

The building itself looks new so we were surprised to find out that it was built in 1912, making it just over a hundred years old. But it was renovated, and perhaps also restored in 2011 which probably explains why it is looking in very good condition.

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Butterflies and Baja California

We continue our tour of Hortus Botanicus in Amsterdam by featuring the first of their three greenhouse attractions - The Butterfly Greenhouse. The other two being the The Palm Greenhouse and Three Climate Greenhouse.

Keeping in mind how small this botanic garden is, their greenhouses are relatively small too but all has sufficient interests in them to merit a visit. And of the three, The Butterfly Greenhouse is the smallest. 

And speaking of threes, the butterflies are just in one of three adjoining greenhouses. The middle one is used for propagation and not open to the public. The outer ones though are open to visitors.

Baja California to the left and Butterflies to the right

Before we proceed to see the butterflies let's check out the Baja California one first...

Even though we haven't been I'm pretty sure that this greenhouse doesn't do this part of Mexico any justice at all but the plants inside are interesting enough to check out. Gotta love a greenhouse laden with spikies!

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Tiny, But Packs a Punch!

The Hortus Botanicus in Amsterdam is one of the oldest botanic gardens in the world and is located within the centre of the city which makes it very convenient to visit. And it is perhaps one of the smallest too, tiny even but it is relative to the size of the city rather than dominating it.

Tiny it may bet it certainly still packs a punch!

I'll let Wikipedia and it's own website do most of the talking when it comes to more information about it. For now let me share to you first some of the few photos we've taken outside before we give a tour of its three greenhouses on separate posts:

The entrance to the Three Climate Greenhouse

Winter still has its grip of the city and there's not much going on outside apart from the resilience of the evergreens. Phyllostachys to the left and Cortaderia to the right.

I thought it was a Schefflera at first but it was Daphniphyllum macropodum

Nice looking building but not open to the public, although parts of it can be hired for private parties. At other times I can imagine this is where most of their administration work is done.

Before we continue let's have a very quick look at their plant sales area first...

Hostas in leaf like it's late May already...

And Hydrangeas in bloom! This is Holland afterall...

Now on to other parts outside:

The Palm House, one of its three greenhouse attractions. The structure looks a lot newer than it's age of almost a hundred years old.

Winding paths with herbaceous beds in between

Carnivorous plants beds just outside the Three Climate Greenhouse. Hardy but scruffy!

Nice enough place to pause and sit. I wonder if next month the pansies will be replaced by tulips in bloom...

A small Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis) still in a cage??? We can't believe this gimmick is still being done!

Perhaps an instruction is written on the tag when they bought it saying - must be placed in a cage if to be planted in a botanic garden. Ah well, a little plant drama never did harm.

We only took a few photos outside especially as it seems winter still has its grip on the place but I can imagine change is about to happen pretty rapidly in the next few days. The biggest highlights of our visit were a look a look into their three greenhouse attractions which we'll feature on upcoming posts!

Mark :-)

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Botanical Garden of Barcelona

Nestled within the green and leafy Montjuic area of Barcelona (where the Olympic Stadium/Estadi Olimpic is also found) is the city's still rather obscure botanical garden. There are no glasshouses here, which makes it unique from many other botanical gardens we have visited before but instead the plants are all growing out in the open in designated areas such as Australia, California, South Africa, Canary Islands, and Chile. 

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Palm Crazy at the Palm Centre

So we had three choices this morning of what to primarily do today: go to Kew Gardens, go to a shopping mall and brave the sales again, or stay at home and do some gardening.

Ok, it's not a palm but a handsome specimen of Dasylirion serratifolium

All three started on equal footing but choosing one would be essential otherwise our sense of laziness would have prevailed and both of us could have easily stayed in bed all day (a luxury activity in its own right).

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Pretty on the Outside too...

As a conclusion to our previous two part feature on NYBG's Enid A. Haupt Conservatory (Part One and Part Two) we'll also share a few photos of the immediate surroundings of the glasshouse as well as highlight the structure itself. The weather was glorious the moment we stepped out from the conservatory and it was looking pretty on the outside too...

But first I can't help but admire the pots of Furcraea foetida 'Mediopicta' just outside the main entrance to the conservatory.

And the conservatory itself looks good!

Once you've completed your journey through a series of glasshouses, or at least go outside via the desert and temporary exhibition section you will be greeted by a huge pond that has a variety of aquatic plants growing in it.

A good selection of Nymphaeas, Nelumbos, and even Victoria amazonica can be found growing in this pond and the effect of them all together looks splendid!

The aquatic display looked amazing despite being past its prime. I can imagine how extra magnificent this pond must have been during the peak of summer just a few weeks earlier to our visit.

They have used some very nice plants too for their summer/seasonal display...

Solanum sp, at the back

A pair of Bismarckia nobilis

Gaudy colours and summer do go hand in hand!

After exploring this area we spent another hour exploring as much as we could of the rest of the botanical garden but it was a bit of a rush and we didn't take as many photos as we should have. The day we visited was our last day in the city and after our visit here we collected our luggage and headed for the airport to catch our flight home.

I'm sure we'll visit again sometime in the future. Hopefully quite soon!

Mark :-)

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