Aarhus Botanical Gardens

Aarhus Botanical Gardens
Type	Botanical garden
Location	Aarhus, Denmark
Coordinates	56°09′38″N 10°11′27″E / 56.16056°N 10.19083°E / 56.16056; 10.19083Coordinates: 56°09′38″N 10°11′27″E / 56.16056°N 10.19083°E / 56.16056; 10.19083
Area	0.2 km2
Created	1875 (1875)
Operated by	Aarhus Municipality, Aarhus University and an ngo organization
Open	All year

Aarhus Botanical Gardens is a botanical garden in Aarhus, Denmark. It is located north of the Old Town open-air village museum and was founded in 1875. Nowadays it covers an area of 21.5 hectares (53 acres), with 5 hectares (12 acres) for the Old Town.

The park provides an attraction of interest to those who wish to inspect the thousands of plant species on display here. All are labelled in the Danish language and Latin. The landscape presenting the plants, are quite varied and there is also a large tropical greenhouse, where guided tours are available. The gardens have an openair amphitheatre, two small lakes, a children’s playground and it is all in all a popular location for picnics, gatherings and events of all kinds year round.

There have been a heavy renovation of the greenhouses in recent years and a large tropical dome have been added, amongst other facilities. The Greenhouses have been closed for the public since 2011 and will open in part in the beginning of 2014.

Budget cuts, change of status and the future

Aarhus municipality have found large parts of the botanical gardens too expensive in upkeep and manpower for several years. It was decided to stop the upkeep of the large rosegardens and the arboretum at one point and thereby end the parks status as a botanical garden, but civil protests postponed the city councils decisions for some years. In 2011 a group of citizens founded the ngo organization "Friends of The Botanical Gardens" and by 2012, they are now in charge of the daily chores of maintaining the rosegardens and arboretum, working for free. Aarhus University also took over part of the responsibility from Aarhus Municipality, through the Science Museums (in particular the Steno Museum) which operates the greenhouses.

Gallery

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  A walkingpath

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  The Amphitheatre

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  Construction of the new hothouse dome.

Sources

• Sustainable Hothouse Architectural company C.F. Møller (English)
• Aarhus Botanical Gardens Aarhus Municipality
• Success with volunteers maintaining beds in The Botanical Garden Aarhus Municipality (2013)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aarhus Botanical Gardens.

• The Greenhouses Steno museum (Aarhus university)
• Friends of The Botanical Garden The associations own homepage