Friday, March 06, 2009

The Bergianska Botanical Gardens

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The Bergianska Botanical Gardens is situated in the semi-vicinity of the Stockholm University at Frescati, about 10 minutes by car or subway, 25 minutes by walk, from the city centre. In the summers the vast outdoor free land garden makes for wonderful strolls and botanical explorations.

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In the winters the major greenhouse Edvard Anderson (named after the glass wholesale dealer that donated the material for the building) with its tropical climate and plants makes for a lovely escape from the cold. The Edvard Anderson greenhouse was inaugurated 1995.

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The Victoria building was inaugurated in 1900 and was built to house the giant water lily Victoria from South America and other tropical plants. The water lily is in bloom twice for some few days every summer, this year I'm adamant to go see for myself.

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On the property there are quite a few other interesting, quaint buildings, like the Tower, built in 1908, rebuilt in 1915 for research purposes and as a look out tower. With few exceptions not open to the public.

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The Bergianska garden has its origin in a donation from the brothers Bergius to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Bergianska foundation was established in 1791. The gardens, formed as a garden school and horticultural science center, was in the beginning situated in the city and moved to its current place near the lake Brunnsviken in 1885. Where professor Wittrock constructed a botanical garden according to scientific principles.

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The Bergianska foundation still exists and run the gardens, its main trustees being Stockholm university and the Academy of Sciences. They of course run different biological science projects but they also have some interesting collections, the living ones can be seen in the gardens and the greenhouses, the others are only available to the public online.

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The purpose with the so called Nature's house (Naturens hus) is to educate and spread knowledge on nature and environmental issues to children and others.

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In the Edvard Anderson greenhouse there's a far from cosy café, but in the Old Orangery, on the other side of the walking path, there's a rather nice café during the summers. With a lovely rose and herbal garden. As well as cute duckies to share food with.

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Previous posts with photos from Bergianska can be found here, here, here and here. If you, like me, adore colours, flowers, nature's multiplicity and diversity this botanical haven is definitely a must visit, must stroll.

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Bergianska Botanical Gardens,
Veit Wittrocks väg 5, Stockholm
Park is open every day all year around, free of charge
Edvard Anderson greenhouse open every day 11-17 (11 am-5 pm)
For other opening hours see website (with content negotiation, I'm not sure how much of its content that's actually translated though)

4 comments:

Lavender and Vanilla Friends of the Gardens said...

When it says botanical gardens I have to have a look. This must be a splendid garden. The photos are lovely. Chicchorino looks ready for a salad.

aforkfulofspaghetti said...

I love botanical gardens. This is going on my itinerary for when I'm next in Stockholm - thanks for the tip!

stromsjo said...

I once spent some time trying to get a decent shot of Edvard Anderson's greenhouse. No luck.

Pia, thanks for generously sharing your world in words and photos.

Pia K said...

Yes, it is rather lovely, Titania, clearly I had no diea how vast its area was until last summer, and indoors in the EA greenhouse I hadn't been until earlier this year. Ages ago I visited here but then it looked quite different and my main goal then was to acquire some new plants in the nearby big flowershop.

I think you'll like it a lot, AFoS! Hope you'll get here when the weather is good and lots of flowers are in bloom, I think a bikeride there on those for-rent-on-the-street is just the thing actually...:)

Thanks for a kind comment, Per. It is a difficult building to capture, perhaps because it's not very pretty or just perhaps glass and light don't work well together. It clearly can't be because we're not photographically skilled enough, huh...;)

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