Flowers and herbs in University Botanical Garden Oslo Norway

The Botanical Garden (largest in Norway) is an oasis in east Oslo, home to exotic plants such as cacti, orchids and palms, and indigenous species, including Norwegian wild flowers. Among 1800 different plants arranged according to family and genus, you’ll find some 300 medicinal plans (the Economic Garden), some 1450 species of plants covering the mountain flora of Norway and of other mountainous areas such as Caucasia. Thousands of mountain plants flourish in The Rock Garden, cut through by waterfalls and 1450 species of mountain flora is one of the many highlights (click all pics to bigify and enjoy!):

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First a bit of history:
In 1812 the estate owner at that time, President of the Oslo Magistrate, Johan Lausen Bull, sold Tøyen back to the Danish-Norwegian king, Frederik the 6th, who donated Tøyen to the newly established University of Norway. The University Botanical Garden was founded in 1814. Most of the lands were however later sold. Today, the Garden covers about 115 hectares (37.5 acres). Three Natural History Museum buildings are located within the Garden.

I’m not a pro, so this won’t be a botanic expert showing you around. However I love nature, trees and flowers; here is from today’s quality time with my wife seen through my eyes or Nikon S2 lens:

The Rock Garden:
A miniature alpine landscape and the plants are hardy perennials, bulbs and shrubs from all over the world. They are arranged in series of European, America and then Asiatic:

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What also caught my eyes, was how beautiful the waterfall was and how much fun you can have in it:
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The Systematic Garden:
It aims to show the great variety of plants among Angiosperms. The species, genera and families are arranged to illustrate their evolutionary relationship:
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You can relax and enjoy in front of that section too:
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The Duck Pond:
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Both children and adults were fascinated by the ducks:
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The Dove Tree:
The tree comes from China and is an attraction in bloom. It was planted in the 50s and start blooming 30 years later:
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Ever since it has flowered each year and been a great pleasure to all visitors to the garden in May. It flowers only for about 10 days; Lucky we where there to be able to share with you:
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Quality time:
Of course I took a lot more pics and you may see them here on my Flickr account. I have, however saved the best to last; I was talking about quality time with my wife Diane (click to see her post from this garden visit!), didn’t I? So here is what she had prepared for us as a surprise:
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Diane’s shrimp salad sandwiches with a little bubbly ;-)


Want to see more? Well, come and visit then – I’ll gladly show you around!