Zürich Botanical Garden (Old and New)

Hello everyone! Autumn is already here! Still wanna see some greens? Or are you a plants lover? There are basically 3 places you can go in Zürich if you love plants, flowers, forest or desert. The entrance to all the 3 gardens is free. The new botanical garden and city greenhouse have their own glasshouses so even in winter, you can still try to grab some green of spring or summer.

For more info such as address, opening hours and contact info for Zürich new botanical garden please click here.

For more info such as address, opening hours and contact info for Zürich old botanical garden please click here.

For more info such as address, opening hours and contact info for Zürich Stadtgärtnerei (greenhouse) please click here.

Now I’ll explain to you Zürich Botanical Garden and Zürich Old Botanical Garden, concerning how much time you should spend there, how to plan your visiting route, what are the suggested visiting spots (or houses) and what you should pay attention to there. As for Stadtgärtnerei (Zürich city green house), if you are interested please click here to read the other post, “Zürich Stadtgärtnerei (City Green House)”.

In general, Zürich Botanical Garden and Zürich City Greenhouse are really worth visiting if you are interested in tropical plants or flowers (or simply the experience of walking in the rain forest). Zürich Old Botanical Garden seems more like a park now. If you want to take a rest in the city, to enjoy some greens, considering the great location of Zürich Old Botanical Garden (in the city centre,next to Bahnhofstrasse), it’s worth visiting. Plus, Zürich Ethnographic Museum (for more info about this museum please read my previous post by clicking here) is also located in the garden. the However, if you wanna look at or study the plants, this is not a recommended garden compared to the two I mentioned above.

Now let’s start with the beautiful Zürich Botanical Garden.

1. Zürich Botanical Garden

The first picture is the map of the garden. You can get one from the bottom right entrance (there’s no garden map at the bottom left entrance). There are also some other papers introducing extreme plants or trees. It says it’s for children, but I think it’s also fun to know some things about these plants. I had a walk in the whole garden and I think it takes around 1.5-2.5 hours to finish. If you only pick up some parts that you are interested in probably it takes even less time. Now I will recommend some parts that I find interesting. I’ll just say the numbers in the map from the first picture so it’s easier for you to design your own route.

1. 4 – Mediterranean sea flower
2. 6 – Color plants
3. 11-14 – Alpine garden
4. 15 – Medical plants
5. 17 – Pond plants
6. 20 – Water plants
7. 21-23 – Tropical houses (21 – Dry land. 22 – Low land. 23 – Mountain woods)
8. 25 – Tropical water roses
9. 26 – Zürich forest

As you can see from the pictures above, there are 3 eye-catching glass houses. They are the 21-23 – Tropical houses (21 – Dry land. 22 – Low land. 23 – Mountain woods). I have to say it’s wonderful experience in them. There are beautiful trees, green plants and flowers, some of which I’ve never seen before and some of which I’ve only heard of before. Now finally I see the real plants instead of only pictures in textbooks. Be careful, the actually entrance is close to 25 – Tropical water roses instead of 24 – Corporation building.

After you enter the main building you will see 22 – Low land and 21 – Dry land is on your left and 23 – Mountain woods is on your right. Attention here, there’s no door to 21 – Dry land directly. You have to go through 22 – Low land first and then you can enter Dry land. When you exit Dry land, you will be in Low land again.

Now I’ll show you some pictures of the 3 tropical houses.

22 – Low land

21 – Dry land

23 – Mountain woods

2. Zürich Old Botanical Garden

The old botanical garden is easy to visit as it’s quite small compared to the new one. If you wanna go and have a look, don’t miss the pavilion and the bamboo path. Considering its convenient location, I would recommend it to people who wanna have a walk after lunch, have a picnic on the grass, or simply read a book in the sunny afternoon. As for the visiting time length, if you just wanna have a look then 20-30 mins is enough. If you wanna have a picnic or spend a relaxing afternoon here, then just be careful with the closing time. 🙂

Don’t forget that I mentioned before, Zürich Ethnographic Museum (for more info about this museum please read my previous post by clicking here) is in this garden, and there are landmarks guiding you here so I think you won’t miss it.

For more info such as address, opening hours and contact info for Zürich old botanical garden please click here.

Thank you for you visit to this post and I hope there’s always spring in your life. 🙂