There are gardens and then there are GARDENS! The Botanical Garden in Gothenburg, Sweden, is one of the largest botanical gardens in Europe. It is situated in a formerly rural area, where an earlier great estate, named Stora Änggården, was located. Stora Änggården is the yellow villa built in 1812 , which is now located just above the greenhouses in the Botanical Garden.

Today, the garden consists of 420 acres, of which 100 acres are the proper garden with 16,000  different plant specimens. Now, the other unusual finding, is this garden now makes up the center of a garden neighborhood. The neighborhood is a garden village, within the city of Gothenburg. The homes to the north were added in the early 1900’s and the homes to the south were built in the 1920’s. The villas at the base of the Änggården were built between 1950 and 1965. So, wherever you walk here, you are in a garden………of some kind………if you get tired of the 100 acre setting you can always walk in the beautiful neighborhood….

We didn’t have time to walk all 100 acres ( but I would have liked to) and as you know from another post, it was cold and rainy when we arrived in Gothenburg, but just as we got to the Gardens, the sun came out and it was a beautiful day to explore!

Now, which way should we go first? Notice the garden elevations are given too!

Today, I’m going to show you the big picture……I will save the individual flower photos, (of which I took a bazillion for individual flower posts)…..for my onsies. Let’s go in ……….

You can see that the entrance is nicely sloped to create a beautiful effect.

I had to get a close up of the fish …….

and the butterflies………….

In this botanical garden, you walk from landscaped areas to woodlands to more landscaped areas………

some parts are on the high ground……..

OK, I’ll put a few flower photos in…….and show one of the many small cottages in the garden…..

There are plenty of places to sit and just enjoy the gardens……

What made this Botanical Garden so special to me? All the additional props that were brought to the garden from different parts of Sweden to make a vey unique experience. Gardening classes were taught in the old red schoolhouse……….

Spotless all around…….

The rows and rows and rows of flowers……

Which led you to the little red cottage sitting in the vegetable and herb gardens …….

with a spot to enjoy a picnic lunch………..

Plenty of water features too…..with more seating……..

and different levels to draw your attention……and more seating…..

We’ve made it to the original Stora Änggården home, circa 1812. Is it clouding up again? Oh, no! I’m not nearly done here!

I’ll take a quick peek at the Hotel Krypin on my way out……next to another manor house……

And I’ll make my way to the Garden Shop…….I have to have something from here…….

But, I’m afraid my time is up  and since the Swedes pride their punctuality, I have to move along…….but where else can you see beautiful gardens chocked full of landscaped village settings? I’ve never seen a garden like this one! A trip to Gothenburg is worth it, just to see this Botanical Garden!

PS Did you know there was a Michelin Green Guide? It’s like the Red Michelin Guide for Restaurants, except for other places of interest. The Green Michelin Guide uses a three-star step system for recommending sites from ‘worth a trip”, “worth a detour” and “interesting.”

I’d give the Gothenburg Botanical Garden 4 stars if I could! See you in another garden soon and I promise you will see lots of flowers from this garden in my future posts!