Review: Botanical garden, Wrocław

Before I do the review I have an urgent question:

Do you or do you know anyone who is an English teacher?  I am doing a bit of work for a student who is writing her master's on the marking of texts in English, and this girl is looking for people to proof-read and mark ten pieces of text, each of them half to three quarters of a page.  There's 41 złoty in it for you (may not be too much, but this girl isn't that rich and needs helpful people.)

I will do some of the work she needs now, and shall write the review of the botanical garden later.  In between, if you are interested in doing the work please contact me at wroclawworkshops@googlemail.com

Review

One of my favourite places in Wrocław is the Botanical garden (Ogród botaniczny), whose website can be seen here.

It's a place that most tourists appear to miss, and many dwellers of Wrocław seem to to not know about.  When one thinks of Wrocław it's largely the city centre that gets mentioned, the Ostów Tumski area or the Centenary Hall; but I rarely hear about this place when people talk of 'must-sees' in Wrocław.  It can be found here.

I won’t write many words, just let the pictures convince you how nice it is:

 If you like Irises, you'll love the Ogród botaniczny

 

These flowers are really light to touch, like fur

 

Note the proximity of Ogród botaniczny to Ostrów Tumski

 

Monet would paint this.  FACT.

Not only plants live here.  In the summer you can hear a whole army/colony/knot (there are three different collective nouns for frogs) of frogs from miles away (well, from the nearby road

Incidentally, Polish people think that frogs make a 'gumgumgum' noise, 

not the 'ribbit' noise British people 'hear'

 

here are also many trees here, including trees that were planted here when this was known as Botanischer Garten (i.e. when what is Wrocław was in Breslau in Germany)

Convinced to go there yet?  It's difficult in these photos to convey the sheer visual assault on the eyes.  This is also of course a odourous experience, as well as an aural one (what with the frogs and many birds that live there.

There's a lot of flowers and plants I haven't included here; such as a multitude of geraniums, primroses, nasturtiums and gladioli; hostas, lavender, clematis and loads of flowers and plants whose names I don't know.

There are also greenhouses with tropical plants inside.  I was in one last Sunday and was amazed by the sheer beauty of the green that is inside there.  One section of one greenhouse has loads of cacti.

Of course, these pictures were taken in the summer and there are much less flowers now.  However, now (April) one can see magnolia, forsythia, daffodils and crocusi.

Tickets cost 10 złoty and 5 złoty (reductions).  There's a cafe there, and in the summer, a nice restaurant, where one can get Polish food like periogi, but also fish and chips :) 

NOTE: All photos have been done by me.  You're free to copy them, though I would appreciate you passing on this blog address by lieu of any kind of fee.