Main Botanical Garden named after. N.V.

The Main Botanical Garden is a museum of living nature, a treasure trove of unique plants. The botanical garden contains a huge collection of plants from all over the world. Here you can see rare plants that are no longer found in the wild. GBS is the largest botanical garden in Europe. It covers an area of 331.5 hectares.

April 14, 1945 is the date of foundation of the Main Botanical Garden. An outstanding scientist - botanist, geneticist and breeder Nikolai Vasilyevich Tsitsin made a great contribution to the construction, development and formation. He was the director of the garden for 35 years. On December 2, 1991, the Main Botanical Garden was named after N.V. Tsitsin.

In spring and summer the garden blooms. At every step there are flowering bushes and trees.

I started my walk through the garden from the Vladykino metro station. Literally 3 minutes from the metro there is a small gate. I went through it. Since the territory is very large, and it’s simply not possible to explore everything in one day, I decided to take a right and go parallel to Botanicheskaya Street (see diagram).

At first it seems that you are in an ordinary forest park. The first feeling is that everything here has grown on its own, but this is only at first glance. Only later do you begin to understand that such naturalness is the result of the painstaking work of the garden’s staff. Conventionally, the garden is divided into six geographical zones: “European part of Russia”, “Caucasus”, “Central Asia”, “Siberia”, “Far East” and “Useful plants of natural flora”.

Not far from the entrance is the Laboratory building.

In front of the Laboratory building there is a large area with well-groomed lawns.

Beautiful glade

There is an observation deck on the shore of the pond in front of the Laboratory Building. Here, on their wedding day, newlyweds hang locks for good luck.

They say that it is especially beautiful here in the spring, when the rhododendrons bloom, and in the fall, when the heather blooms.

The road leads through an area of natural forest.

There are a lot of such feeders throughout the botanical garden.

Interesting pine.

On the way I went to the New Stock Greenhouse. This huge building is currently closed to visitors. It is planned to open for the 70th anniversary of the Main Botanical Garden in 2015. Through the glass you can see that many plants have already found their new home here.

The area around the greenhouse is beautifully decorated: nice paths, a fountain, flower beds.

Beautiful bright flowers in flower beds.

The peonies have already faded, and these are the libelias blooming.

And so, it seems, mint is blooming.

Next to the New Greenhouse there is an exhibition of floral and ornamental plants. This is a large fenced area. To enter here, you need to buy a ticket at the box office. The ticket office is next to the entrance to the exhibition.

There is a huge collection of perennials here: peonies, irises, daffodils and many other plants. I'm lucky. I came here during the lily blossom season.

I have never seen so many different shapes, sizes, and colors of lilies. This is amazing!

In addition to lilies, there are a lot of other very beautiful flowers on display.

Sunny bouquet.

Bright and very large rudbeckia.

A plant with an unusual delicate aroma.

It doesn't bloom, but it's also beautiful.

White Astilbe

Some kind of exotic

Cheerful daisies of different colors

Plants for alpine slides

Next to the exhibition of floral and ornamental plants is the Stock Greenhouse. It offers excursions for which you must register in advance.

The rose garden covers an area of 2.5 hectares. More than 270 types of roses are collected here. More than 6,000 bushes were planted.

The rose garden is framed by ancient oak trees. They protect delicate flowers from wind and frost in winter.

The magnificent delicate aroma of roses spreads throughout all the alleys of the garden.

Each rose is good in its own way.

Some roses are already fading, while others are just beginning to bloom.

Extraordinary beauty!

The rose garden area is beautifully decorated.

It's good to sit on a bench and enjoy the intoxicating aroma of the Queen of Flowers - the rose.

Here she is - the Queen of Roses.

The century-old oak is beautiful.

A small overgrown pond.

Behind it there is a view of a large pond.

Swimming in the pond and fishing is prohibited. You can only admire the beauty of nature.

Coastal plants are reflected in the water mirror.

The “Garden of Continuous Flowering” begins next to the pond.

I heard a delicate aroma.

Yes, it's jasmine!

Lots of lilacs. It must be very beautiful here in the spring.

There are vacationers under every tree.

There are many holidaymakers on Sunday. As in all Moscow parks, there are many cyclists.

Weeping willow on the shore of a pond.

The Ostankino Tower is very close.

Just beautiful carved leaves.

Finally, I got to the rare multi-stemmed Manchurian nut. Here he is in the clearing.

The look is exotic.

The nut is already ripe. Reminds me of a walnut.

There is always someone sitting, hanging, crawling on its branches...

I was a little taken in by the “Natural Flora” plant exposition.

In the Garden of Continuous Bloom, something is always blooming.

From the outside, you can’t always tell that the green oasis stretching over half of the Ostankino district is a botanical garden. It is very far from ideal and emasculated gardens, in which trees are planted branch by branch, and intricate landscape compositions are created from flowers. In GBS everything is natural and organic: Japanese cherry trees are adjacent to pine trees familiar to any Russian, and Chinese poplars are adjacent to lilacs.

Many visitors are unanimous in their opinion: GBS RAS resembles more a forest park than a garden. And yet, this park is not simple: you walk through the forest and you will see a landscaped rose garden, turn in the other direction and you will come out to a giant glass greenhouse. There is no need to crowd all the plants in one place - in the Main Botanical Garden, on its more than three hundred hectares, there is clearly room to roam. And what secrets can be found in it, we will now tell you.

Voices of Russian history

View of the Laboratory Building of the Main Botanical Garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences named after. Tsitsina and pond. Photo: Shutterstock.com

Part of the panorama of the Botanical Garden. Photo: Shutterstock.com

The building of the laboratory building of the Main Botanical Garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences named after. Tsitsina. Photo: Photobank Moscow-Live.ru

Memorial plaque. Photo: Photobank Moscow-Live.ru

In itself, the Main Botanical Garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences is a young institution. Next year he will turn only 75 - you must agree, not so much for such an impressive landscape ensemble. Its official date of birth is considered to be April 14, 1945, and its “father” is Academician Nikolai Vasilyevich Tsitsin, who became its first director (the garden still bears his name). It was from this time that strange plants brought from different parts of the world began to appear in the capital.

And yet it cannot be said that in the middle of the last century the botanical garden appeared out of nowhere. In fact, scientists and gardeners received a real gift - pristine forests, ready to accept new “overseas” neighbors. And although some plants in the garden have only been growing for a few decades, the local forests are the oldest. The first mention of them was found in the chronicles of 1584. Walking along the quiet alleys of the garden, try to feel all the grandeur of these places - by the way, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich himself, the father of Peter I, once hunted here.

Goering flowers

New greenhouse. Photo: AGN “Moscow”

Exposition of the Old Orangery. Photo: Shutterstock.com

Let's walk from the oak grove to the southwest and come out to the buildings of the New and Old Greenhouses. The first - a kind of futuristic version of the ancient Russian “barrel” - is still closed to the public. But the Old Stock Greenhouse, housed in a building from the 50s, is still in operation. It was this place that at one time became the first home for tropical and subtropical plants delivered to the USSR after the war. According to official information, the collection was based on plants purchased from German nurseries between 1945 and 1949. While the Moscow greenhouse was being built, they were in Potsdam Sans Souci, where they were carefully protected by a botanical group led by corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences P. A. Baranov. And now a semi-official detail: most of these plants were once the property of Hermann Goering, who, by the way, was not only the Chairman of the Reichstag, but also the chief huntsman of Germany. Over the years spent in the highest echelons of Nazi power, he managed to accumulate an extensive collection of rare plants brought from different parts of the world, including magnificent orchids, which became the pride of the Botanical Garden.

Subsequently, the collection of the Stock Greenhouse was replenished through expeditions to India and the countries of the Indian Ocean basin and, of course, through exchanges with other botanical gardens around the world. As a result, it is the largest collection in terms of the number of items in the GBS and one of the largest collections of tropical and subtropical plants in the country. The space inside the Old Greenhouse is divided into “geographical” exhibitions: Tropics of the Old and New Worlds, Dry Subtropics and Wet Subtropics, bringing together thousands of heat-loving plants from all over the world - from the Mediterranean to Japan. Among the oldest and most unusual is a 150-year-old giant from the genus Encephalartos. This group of plants grew on Earth back in the Jurassic period (during the era of dinosaurs!) and has survived to this day almost unchanged. Isn't this time travel?

Nature from all over the world

GBS RAS is a place where the whole world literally fits, at least botanically. It's no joke: in Soviet times, scientists went on expeditions every year - either to the Far East, then to India, or even to Cuba. Of course, not all of them take root, but the higher the value of foreign samples. Identifying them in the forest is not so easy, but rest assured: in the same arboretum, spread over 75 hectares, there are hidden many trees and shrubs from Central Asia, China, Japan, North America and the Mediterranean.

However, most of the flora of the botanical garden is domestic and from the countries of the former USSR. Reproducing it exactly and, most importantly, preserving it is one of the first priorities of the institution’s staff. A clear result of this work can be found in the eastern part of the garden, closer to VDNKh: here, on an area of 30 hectares, the collection of the flora department of the GBS is located, divided into separate exhibitions. Five of them are geographical, with characteristic plants and, interestingly, the landscape of a particular area. So, walking through one territory, you can admire the nature of the European part of Russia, Siberia, the Far East, Central Asia and the Caucasus. Can you figure out where everything is without a hint?

Garden of Continuous Bloom

Manchurian Walnut in the Botanical Garden. Photo: Shutterstock.com

They also like to call the “Garden of Continuous Flowering” a living calendar of plants, and not by chance. Such a romantic name fully justifies itself: from early spring to late autumn there is a real riot of colors here. As if by magic, trees, shrubs, grasses and flowers alternately change shades - from spring transparent white to autumn red and yellow. The effect of such a natural brush again lies in human skill: simply plants that bloom in the same period are collected in groups.

You can walk around the garden endlessly, and if you enter it from the Fund greenhouse, then at the end a worthy culmination will await you - a spreading and multi-stemmed Manchurian nut, as if straight from the pages of ancient legends.

Japanese garden

Photo: Sergey Vedyashkin / AGN “Moscow”

Photo: Alexander Avilov / AGN “Moscow”

During the cherry blossom season, people line up at the trees to take photos. Photo: Sergey Vedyashkin / AGN “Moscow”

In autumn, the Japanese Garden is no less beautiful. Photo: Shutterstock.com

From the Manchurian walnut to the northeast - and here we have, perhaps, the most popular exhibition of the Main Botanical Garden. Every year, the Japanese Garden attracts tens, or even hundreds of thousands of visitors - most of all, naturally, in the spring, when a huge territory of almost three hectares is painted a soft pink color. Yes, yes, these are cherry blossoms.

GBS boasts the most “northern” Japanese garden in the world. It was opened in 1987 according to the design of the architect K. Nakajima and with the support of the Japanese Embassy. The work was carried out for more than one year, the approach was the most thorough. Building materials from the Land of the Rising Sun, an authentic 150-year-old pagoda, which today is in the center of the landscape composition, a variety of flora and even a separate house for a tea ceremony (alas, this experience can only be experienced two days a year) - every detail reflects the oriental philosophy and purely Japanese character. By the way, in the 80s, the first sakura was planted in the garden by the then Japanese Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe. Almost thirty years later, a seedling grown from the seeds of this tree will be planted by his son, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The Japanese garden is open during the warm season, from April to October. Entrance to the territory is paid, excursions are available.

Revived rosary

View of the rose garden. Photo: Shutterstock.com

If in the spring everyone keeps their finger on the pulse in anticipation of the cherry blossoms, then in the summer the main object of attraction for visitors is the rose garden. A magnificent (and fragrant!) park with fountains and an elegant layout is located in the very south of GBS. It was broken in 1961, and popularity came immediately: it’s hard to believe, but then for ordinary citizens, roses in Moscow were a real curiosity. They say that the collection of the rosary was also received by the USSR from defeated Germany - as reparation.

However, this colorful oasis did not remain a symbol of a triumphant and well-organized country for long: in the 90s, the rose garden fell into terrible decline. Some of the flowers died, another part went into someone else's vases. The park was restored to its former glory only in 2011 - half a century after its first opening. Today, the rose garden has collected on one territory about 600 varieties of roses from different countries - from England to China. It traditionally works from May to October. Admission is paid.

You can walk in the botanical garden all year round (with the exception of exhibitions, which occur during the warm season), but, of course, the peak of GBS popularity occurs in spring and summer, when plants begin to bloom. The easiest way to get to the territory is from the Vladykino metro station or by bus from the VDNH metro station. Most of the entrances to the garden are located from Botanicheskaya Street.

In past centuries, the site of the Botanical Garden was the hunting ground of high-ranking persons. Representatives of the Russian royal dynasty loved to spend time in forests and groves. The forest areas belonged to the princes of Cherkassy, and later passed to Count Sheremetev. Under the famous Russian aristocrat Sheremetev, a passionate admirer of art, part of the green areas was converted into a fashionable English park with ponds and plant landscapes.

During Soviet times, an arboretum began to be created on the territory of the park. According to the pre-war project, the new landscape zone should have included the following lands:

VDNKh - exhibition of achievements of the national economy,
the Ostankino estate and the adjacent park of the same name,
parts of the Leonovo park area.

The diagrams and sketches suggested the creation of convenient land infrastructure: paths, paths, as well as a clear distribution of the territory into segments. The war prevented the project from being implemented; they returned to the creation of the arboretum shortly before the Victory, partially redoing the plan of the territory. Officially, the birth of the park dates back to 1945. The first director of the Botanical Garden was N.V. Tsitsin, whose name the arboretum still bears today.

Several years ago, a large-scale reconstruction was carried out at the Botanical Garden. The garden began to freely connect with the territory of the All-Russian Exhibition Center and Ostankino Park, the paths were restored, and the fountain systems were restored.

Collections of the Botanical Garden

A few years after the official opening, Soviet architects developed a new plan for the Botanical Garden with landscapes that included about two thousand different trees and other plantings. Over the next quarter of a century, all the main compositions of the arboretum were created, represented by:

flora of the territory of the USSR,
plants of the tropics and subtropics,
floral and decorative compositions.

Rose garden

Among the flower arrangements, the leading place is occupied by the rose garden, founded in the early 60s. Already in the first year of the garden’s existence, the “Morning of Moscow” variety, bred by Soviet breeders, received a prize at an exhibition in West Germany. One of the most beautiful rose gardens in Europe occupies an area of 2.5 hectares and is represented by a regular garden with a free layout of plant placement. The flower garden is surrounded on three sides by an oak grove, reliably protecting the delicate buds from winds and bad weather. In Soviet times, the rose garden exhibition included more than 5 thousand plants, representing several hundred different varieties.

The long-term history of the existence of the rose garden in the Botanical Garden has shown that in the conditions of the middle zone there are enough opportunities for the cultivation of rose bushes. In 2009, the rose garden was updated and reconstructed, the exhibition was replenished with thousands of new plants from the best European nurseries. All sectors of the rose garden are connected by a single lawn covering. When planting roses, special attention is paid to their arrangement in groups depending on the combination of colors and shades. The rose garden of the State Botanical Garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences presents the most resistant to low temperatures varieties. The main objective of the exhibition is to promote the best specimens suitable for reproduction in mid-latitude conditions.

The opening hours of the rose garden are from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on all days except Mondays. The rose exhibition is open to the public during the warm season, from mid-May to mid-October.

Japanese garden

The landscape exhibition “Japanese Garden” was opened in the arboretum in the 80s. The project was co-financed by the Japanese Embassy in Moscow; the exhibition plan was developed in close collaboration with leading Japanese designers. The result exceeded all expectations - a real corner of original Japanese nature and architecture appeared in Moscow. Decorative waterfalls, stone fountains, ponds, islands, pavilions and pagodas, as well as a landscape area represented by Japanese vegetation, transport visitors to the Land of the Rising Sun. Here they bloom at different times of the year:

sakura,
rhododendrons,
apricots,
spirea,
Brunner,
irises,
Kuril tea,
lavender,
forsythia.

In May, sakura blooms in the Japanese Garden for only a few days. At this time, the Japanese Garden is filled with a large number of visitors and photographers, so it is very difficult to get here. To see the flowering of the most famous Japanese plant with your own eyes, we recommend purchasing tickets in advance.

Maple and sakura festivals are held in the Japanese Garden, and an exhibition of the Rock Garden has been located near it for several years. The garden is open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 12 to 19 hours. On weekends and holidays, opening hours end an hour later. Monday and Thursday are sanitary days. The ticket price ranges from 20 to 200 rubles, depending on age and social category.

Stock greenhouse

The stock greenhouse of the Botanical Garden is notable for the fact that it is located in a huge glass structure the height of a 10-story building. In the evening, the greenhouse glows with illumination, like a huge alien ship. Inside there is one of the largest collections of tropical and subtropical plants in Europe. More than a thousand species of orchids alone are represented here, and the total exhibition includes more than five thousand plants, including over two hundred coastal and aquatic ones.

Access to the Stock Greenhouse building is open as part of an organized excursion, which can be purchased on our website.

How to get to the Botanical Garden

The Main Botanical Garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences is easily accessible by metro. From the Vladykino or VDNH stations you can walk to the Botanical Garden. Also, it is not difficult to get to the GBS RAS by ground transport - buses and trolleybuses. The opening hours of the Botanical Garden are from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The park is open from April 29 to October 19. The time and season of operation of individual exhibitions are regulated individually. Ticket prices depend on the type of excursion.

The Botanical Garden is a forested area in the north-east of Moscow, a favorite place for pensioners, rollerbladers and cyclists. As a rule, residents of nearby areas - Northern Administrative District and North-East Administrative District - come here for a walk. But there is something to see here, and the place is worth coming here especially from other parts of the capital.

The botanical garden was founded in 1945 on the site of preserved natural forests, such as the Ostankino and Leonovsky forests. If you believe official sources, then Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (remember the palace in Kolomenskoye?), the father of Peter I, hunted here.

If you are not a biologist-botanist and can barely distinguish a birch from an aspen, then at first glance the Botanical Garden will seem to you like an ordinary forest park, of which there are quite a few in Moscow. True, the area of the park is comparable to Sokolniki Square, but here the forest is wilder and denser, and there are fewer asphalt paths.

The first feeling from the Botanical Garden is that no one planted anything here on purpose, but everything grew on its own, everything is so natural and organic. Only after spending some time here do you begin to understand that the naturalness of the park is actually thought out to the smallest detail and is the result of the painstaking work of caring hands. And most importantly, it’s simply beautiful and quiet here, this becomes especially relevant when you get tired of the noise and dust of the city. The only thing that reminds you of where you are is the point.

You will have to fork out a little for the silence and beauty - entrance to the park is paid, although only from April 29 to mid-October. In April and October you can enter the garden for free. Although according to official information it is closed for planting work, I personally was there in April, and there were many visitors. But in winter the garden is definitely not open, and this is a little upsetting, because you could make great snowmen there or go skiing or sledding with your children.

Ticket price to visit the Botanical Garden – 50 rubles. for pedestrians and 100 for cyclists, the cost of tickets for schoolchildren and students is 30 rubles, no fee is charged for pensioners. The story with cyclists and rollerbladers is not clear. The official website of the Botanical Garden states that rollerblading and bicycles are prohibited in the park. At the same time, they are allowed in, and they even set a special price for the entrance ticket.

If you don't like to wander aimlessly looking at unfamiliar tree species, you can book an excursion. To do this, you need to gather a group of like-minded people and come to an agreement with the administration. The cost of the excursion, depending on the direction, is from 100 to 200 rubles. per person, for foreigners – 250 rubles.

Conventionally, the garden can be divided into several zones by region, which represent the flora of the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Far East, and Siberia. The park also includes a rose garden. Last summer it was rebuilt and remodeled, so I never got a chance to admire the roses.

The park has a greenhouse, a glass building the height of a ten-story building. Inside it, through the glass, you can see huge palm trees and some beautiful tropical flowers of bright colors. But, as far as I know, you can only get inside with a guided tour; entry is closed to individual visitors, so you just have to be content with spying on it from the street.

A very popular place in the park - Japanese garden. Entrance here is paid, 100-150 rubles. At the very beginning of May you can see cherry blossoms here. Flowering lasts only two to three days, and on these days there is usually a stir in the Japanese Garden - many professional photographers and just amateurs. In general, photographers have taken a liking to the Japanese Garden. Most likely, this is why the administration has raised prices for professional photography so much. So be careful, if employees see you, for example, with a tripod, they may ask you to pay. In general, everything here is quite strict - you can’t sit on the lawns, nor on the rocks.

There are several ponds in the park. Swimming and fishing are prohibited here - you can only admire the water. One of the reservoirs is located near the main entrance opposite the Laboratory building, the other is on the border with the territory of the All-Russian Exhibition Center. There are also several other small streams and ponds.

The main paths of the park are paved, there are also many dirt paths, which, by the way, are much less crowded, so if you want to find a secluded corner for a romantic date, turn onto the path. There are signs at every intersection in the park, so only someone suffering from topographical cretinism can get lost here.

There are always a lot of people on the main paths of the park. If the weather is good, then this happens not only on weekends, but also on weekdays. Therefore, the benches along them are almost always occupied. Many, contrary to the instructions of the Rules, are located directly on the lawns - I have never seen anyone being kicked out. In general, the people here are mostly intelligent, everything is very clean and tidy, there is almost no garbage.

In the Botanical Garden, for the first time in my life, I saw how snowdrops grow, maybe you will discover something new and unusual here.

How to get there from the metro:

Main Botanical Garden named after. N.V. Tsitsina is located a 5-minute walk from Vladykino metro station. You can also get here from the VDNH metro station by buses 24, 85, 803 and trolleybuses 9, 36.73. You can also get to the Botanical Garden from the metro station of the same name, but this is not very convenient - you have to travel a long way. In general, there are several entrances to the park: at the Vladykino metro station, from Botanicheskaya Street, from the side behind the Space pavilion, and there is also an entrance from Komarova Street. The park is large, so there are many entrances (see map below).

Stock greenhouse of the Main Botanical Garden named after N.V. Tsitsin RAS(“Moscow Tropics”) is a unique “museum” of living tropical and subtropical plants, where you can see and get acquainted with trees, herbs and shrubs from different continents.

The greenhouse exists as a scientific and educational center, on the basis of which work is carried out to study and preserve the biological diversity of tropical and subtropical plants. Its collections include several thousand species, including rare and endangered ones, obtained from botanical gardens in post-war Germany and as a result of exchange with other botanical gardens in different countries, as well as collected by Botanical Garden employees on expeditions. Despite such a long and dry name and serious tasks, in reality the Stock Greenhouse looks warm and homely - like a large indoor garden, and anyone can visit it.

It’s especially nice to come here in winter: regardless of the weather outside, the greenhouse always maintains a high temperature, and it will be a great find for those who yearn for summer on gloomy winter days!

Exposition

The greenhouse complex of the Botanical Garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences includes two buildings: the Old Stock Greenhouse and the New Stock Greenhouse, however, only one of them is accessible to the public - the Old one, which has been operating since 1954.

The space inside the greenhouse is divided into several exhibition sections, built according to a geographical principle. Each of them maintains its own temperature regime and humidity level throughout the year, as close as possible to the natural living conditions of plants.

. Tropics of the Old and New Worlds: here you can see various types of ficus and palm trees, huge bananas, cocoa trees, papaya and even a real baobab.

. Dry subtropics represented by plants of the Mediterranean, South Africa, Madagascar, Australia, North and South America. In this department you can see various types of succulents, xerophytes and cacti, aloe, acacia and eucalyptus trees, as well as a collection of azaleas and conifers.

. Humid subtropics divided into 3 separate exhibition sections. The first includes plants of the Canary Islands, South Africa, Japan, continental East Asia and South America: laurels, heathers and dracaenas, cypress and feijoa are available for inspection. The second showcases plants from Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand, while the third displays a large collection of rhododendron and camellia varieties.

The branches do not just show plants to visitors, they exist as a semblance of full-fledged ecosystems characteristic of the stated region. Between them there are concrete or crushed stone paths, which you can walk along when visiting on your own or on a guided tour, and in some places there are even cozy benches under the branches of exotic trees.

The main part of the exhibition is permanent, but there are also temporary exhibits that change places depending on the season or are brought to visitors during the flowering period. In addition, during the mass flowering of plants of a certain type, the greenhouse can host an exhibition of them: for example, flowering orchids, which attract a large number of visitors every year.

It is worth noting that the exhibition is replete with information signs with general information about the flora of the tropical and subtropical regions represented; however, the plants are mostly not labeled, so it is better to visit it with a guided tour.

History of the Stock Greenhouse

The Old Stock Greenhouse was opened in 1954.

According to a widespread legend, which has no documentary evidence, but seems quite reliable, the first collection of the greenhouse was based on the botanical collection of Hermann Goering, a prominent statesman and military figure of the Third Reich. Goering went down in history as the Chairman of the Reichstag and the Reich Minister of Aviation of Germany, but his biography also included other positions, including the Imperial Forester of Germany. Being a great lover of nature, Goering collected an extensive collection of orchids and other plants, which after the end of the Great Patriotic War was taken to the Soviet Union.

The collection subsequently expanded through exchanges with other botanical gardens around the world, as well as through expeditions to tropical and subtropical regions.

Gradually, the collections became cramped in the old building, and in 1992, construction began on the New Stock Greenhouse, much larger and more technologically advanced than the previous one. However, for various reasons, construction was soon frozen and resumed only in 2002. The building was completed in 2016, however, it was never opened to the public; It is unknown when the new greenhouse will become available to citizens.

Opening hours and visiting procedures

The exposition of tropical and subtropical plants in the Old Stock Greenhouse is open year-round. You can visit it individually or with a guided tour.

On weekends, visitors are offered free sightseeing tours without prior registration (subject to purchasing a ticket to the greenhouse). It is also possible to order thematic excursions: “Plants in myths and legends”, “Ferns and gymnosperms”, “The very best: tall, ancient, long-lived”, “Useful tropical and subtropical plants: food, technical, medicinal, phytoncidal and ornamental” and others.