Botanical Garden St. Gallen
The Botanical Garden St. Gallen is located in Stephanshornstrasse 4, Neudorf, St. Gallen. It features 8000 labeled plants from all over the world in its open-air displays and several greenhouses. The park and the greenhouses are accessible free of charge during opening hours. History The first botanical garden in St. Gallen was established in 1878 in the municipal park east of the newly built Museum of Nature. The museum's director was the botanist and plant collector Friedrich Bernhard Wartmann, who desired to complement the exhibits of the museum with a living plant collection. He created the 6000 m2 (1.5 acres) garden (which also included an alpine garden) with his friend Theodor Schlatter (1847–1918), a botanist and teacher. The largest part of this display garden was demolished in 1918, to make space for the new Museum of History and Ethnology. The second botanical garden was built near the University of Teacher Education St. Gallen. It was demolished in 1934 due to construction work. The ground-breaking ceremony occurred by turning the first sod on 16 June 1945 in the Stephanshorn area of Neudorf, where the municipal nursery had been for decades. Initially, several school classes from St. Gallen and their biology teachers were involved in creating the garden, including the Head of the Gardening Office Paul Zülli. Subsequently, the expansion was managed and conducted mainly by the City of St. Gallen, who owned the park. In 1993, an architecturally noteworthy alpine house was built in the Botanical Garden. The new tropical house was built in 1998 and expanded in 2007 by erecting the orchid house. The open-air area was substantially refurbished in 2011. Description Open-air area The open-air area is divided in 20 departments, which are connected by walking paths. A pergola and some benches provide space for rest and contemplation. The departments contain cherry blossom and maple trees, perennial plants, an iris garden and flower beds with roses, narcissus plants, ferns and barberry plants, a raised-bed rock garden, a flower pot garden and a water garden as well as flower beds with varying themes. In the crop departments, poisonous and medicinal plants, useful plants and grasslands are shown. Geographical sections In the four geographical departments Alpinum, Europe, America and Asia typical plants of the respective regions are presented. The department Europe shows in terraced beds the diversity of the native Swiss flora and the wide range of flora in the very different European climates. In the America section, an Indian summer can be experienced on a small scale in autumn with the colorfully discolored leaves of the American trees and shrubs planted there. In the geographical section of Asia, 400 plant species grow from the steppe, forest and mountain areas with different Asian climates. In the center of this section there is a Japanese garden with a small pond and a stone lantern, which was modeled after the Imperial Garden. One of the most popular places to stay in the botanical garden is the pergola, which is densely covered with Asian