The National Botanical Garden was founded in September 1935 as an academic research, conservation and educational Institution. The Garden is located in the central part of the city of Kyiv – on the historic hills of “Pechersk”, on an area of about 130 hectares, and it is rightfully called the “Blooming Heart” of Ukraine.
The large territory of the botanical garden combines a variety of plants from many botanical and geographical regions of the world, and the collection of living plants, consisting of about 17 thousand species, varieties and forms, makes it the largest garden in Ukraine.
The unsurpassed pearl of the Arboretum remains the Lilac Garden, the varietal variety of which reaches more than 120 varieties and about 50 promising hybrids of the most diverse colors and shades.
The National Botanical Garden was founded in September 1935 as an academic research, conservation and educational Institution. The Garden is located in the central part of the city of Kyiv – on the historic hills of “Pechersk”, on an area of about 130 hectares, and it is rightfully called the “Blooming Heart” of Ukraine.
The large territory of the botanical garden combines a variety of plants from many botanical and geographical regions of the world, and the collection of living plants, consisting of about 17 thousand species, varieties and forms, makes it the largest garden in Ukraine. Areas of different types of vegetation, relief, and landscape show plants of separate climatic zones. The flora of the temperate zone of Ukraine and Eurasia are shown as “Forests of the plain part of Ukraine”, “Ukrainian Carpathians”, “Steppes of Ukraine”, “Crimea”, as well as “Caucasus”, “Central Asia”, “Altai and Western Siberia” and “Far East”.
Of particular value are the collections of species, forms and varieties of woody and shrubby plants collected in the arboretum and presented according to a systematic principle. No one will be left indifferent by such parts of the arboretum as the Gymnosperms, Birch Grove, Magnolias, Legumes, Nuts, Lindens, Maples, Willows, gardens of garden jasmines and daisies, and ornamental apple trees.
However, the unsurpassed pearl of the Arboretum remains the Lilac Garden, the varietal variety of which reaches more than 120 varieties and about 50 promising hybrids of the most diverse colors and shades. The extremely successful placement of the syringarium on a gentle southeastern slope opens up a unique panorama of the Vydubyskyi Monastery, the Dnipro and the Transdnieper region and has become a favorite place for many visitors to the botanical garden who admire the views and enjoy the aromas of lilacs during flowering.
A number of collection and exhibition areas have been created in the garden where, along with species and varietal diversity of plants, visitors get to know the techniques of decorative horticulture and landscape design. These are areas such as “Parterre”, “Seasons”, “Mountain Garden”, “Climbing Plants”, “Rose Garden”, “Decorative Succulents Hill”, “Flower Hill”, “Topiary Art Site”, as well as those created in the last years ethnobotanical sites Austrian Alps, Korean, Indonesian, Tibetan, Japanese gardens.
Plants of various horticultural and botanical groups collected in the garden deserve special attention, including many new, uncommon introduced species. These are flower-decorative plants: peonies, astilbes, dahlias, chrysanthemums, irises, lilies, phloxes, etc. Both wild and cultivated fruit plants from 15 families and 32 genera grow on the plots of the orchard: peaches, apricots, quince, sod, henomeles, actinidia, Chinese lemongrass, gum and other plants. The botanical garden has the largest collections of energy, technical, fodder and raw material plants, new spicy, essential oil and rare vegetable crops in Ukraine.
The greenhouse complex allows visitors to immerse themselves in the flora of the tropics and subtropics and see palm trees, ficuses, orchids, azaleas, camellias, cacti, aloes, agaves and other succulents, as well as tangerines, oranges, citrons, feijoa, mangoes, figs, and pomegranates.
The greenhouses of the botanical garden are especially captivating with their beauty in the midst of winter cold, when azaleas, camellias, and orchids bloom en masse. The blooming season of azaleas and camellias (see images in Pictury Gallery 2) in the greenhouses normally begins at the end of February.
A special place in the greenhouses is occupied by a collection of Indian azalea cultivars, which has no analogy in other botanical gardens of Ukraine. The name “Indian Azalea” is commonly accepted in horticultural literature, but in fact, it refers to Rhododendron simsii Planch (syn. Azalea simsii, A. indica). It is during these winter days that visitors to the greenhouses can admire a magnificent multi-coloured palette of flowers.
Azaleas were introduced to the Kyiv Botanical Garden in 1946 from Germany (from Dresden and Crimmitschau) as 2- to 5-year-old plants. The 1951 Catalog of the Botanical Garden listed 35 cultivars of R. indicum. Today, the collection includes 86 azalea cultivars, among them 23 old German and Belgian varieties, 14 cultivars of modern selection, 30 cultivars and hybrids developed in our botanical garden, 3 Japanese azalea cultivars (from the Kurume azalea group), and 16 unidentified cultivars. The Indian azalea cultivars brought in 1946 have been preserved and continue to be cultivated to this day, including ‘Adventglockchen,’ ‘Adolf Grille,’ ‘Coelestine,’ ‘Concinnum,’ ‘Eclaireur,’ ‘Eri,’ ‘Ernst Thiers,’ ‘Hexe,’ ‘Madam Petrick,’ ‘Max Schäme,’ ‘Paul Schäme,’ ‘Prosper van den Dael,’ ‘Professeur Wolters,’ ‘Rubis de Meirelbeck,’ and ‘Vervaeneanum Album.’
The M.M. Gryshko National Botanical Garden holds the largest collection of camellias in Ukraine – 4 species of the Camellia genus and about 50 cultivars and hybrids of Japanese camellia. In the greenhouse complex, a special exhibition hall for azaleas and camellias has been created, where plants aged from 10 to 60 years form a continuous spectrum of blooming during the winter season.
Address:
M.M.Gryshko National Botanical Gardens of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
Sadovo-Botanichna Str., 1, Kyiv-01014, Ukraine
Tel. +38 044 285 4105
E-mail: nbg@nbg.kyiv.ua
Національний ботанічний сад ім. М.М. Гришка
Національна академія наук України
вул. Тімірязєвська, 1, Київ-01014, Україна
tel. +38 044 285 4105
e-mail: nbg@nbg.kyiv.ua
Directions: from the metro station “Pecherskaya” by bus No. 62 and trolleybus No. 14 to the final stop “Botanical Garden”.
Website: www.nbg.kyiv.ua (please use browser add for translation)
Opening times:
The garden is open to visitors seven days a week:
May – August from 8:30 to 21:00,
September – April from 8:30 until dusk
During the flowering period of lilacs and mass visits to the botanical garden during May the garden is open to visitors seven days a week from 7:00 to 22:00,
Ticket offices are open from 8:00 to 21:30, from 7:00 to 8:00 entrance tickets can be purchased only by bank transfer at the entrance.
The greenhouse complex is open to the public daily from 10:00 to 16:00. Tickets are sold at the entrance to the greenhouses, stopping at 15:30.
Sanitary days are Monday, Tuesday.
A map can be downloaded here.
Photos 1 – 19 by Ulrike Romeis, Dortmund (Germany). Photos 20 – 32 by NBG Kiev (Ukraine).
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