This year, the Botanical Garden of Prague celebrates half a century since it was established. What is planned for the anniversary?
The Botanical Garden in Troja was founded on the 1st of January 1969; however, it did not open to the public until twenty-three years later. The initial exhibition - a landscaped area between the Botanic Garden’s administrative building in Nádvorní Street and the St. Clara Vineyard (vinice sv. Kláry) - was visited by some twenty thousand visitors over the season. Thus, the year 1992 was a turning point in the existence of a botanical garden. The people of Prague, for whom it was created, finally became aware of is existence. Since then, the garden has come a long way. It is continuously expanding, modernizing, and there are more and more exhibitions available to visitors as the years go by - whether it is the Japanese Garden, the heath along the wall of the vineyard, the exposition of Turkish flora, or the Mediterranean and Ornamental gardens ...
Last year was a record year
Another breakthrough was the opening of the Fata Morgana Greenhouse in 2004, which led to greatly increased interest in the Botanical Garden of Troja. Last year was a record year as 371,000 visitors came to the garden! “We appreciate this very much, and we want visitors to keep coming back to us. That's why we have prepared an interesting program for this jubilee season. We will continue the tradition of popular cactuses and carnivorous plants, and there will be also an exhibition of orchids in the Fata Morgana Greenhouse and a bonsai exhibition in the Japanese Garden”, said Bohumil Černý, the Director of the Botanic Garden of Prague.
The beauty of plants
The beauty of flora is the common theme for all the anniversary events. Visitors have a lot to look forward to. In March, orchids will start showing their refined and elegant beauty. It will be a magnificent exhibition. The one of a kind display was created by one of the best Czech florists, Klára Franc Vavříková.
“For the exhibition, which celebrates the charm and grandeur of orchids, she chose a circle. It symbolizes the connection of all living things in the circle of life. By disturbing this harmony, which is unfortunately often the case in today’s ecosystem, our planet loses its unique wealth of plant species," said Radka Pšeničková, the Botanical Garden’s Deputy for Marketing and PR.
Butterflies, bonsai, food festivals and plant Kama Sutra
A month later, the orchids will be replaced by lovely butterflies that will move to the tropical greenhouse of Fata Morgana for the sixteenth time. And as usual, their admirers will learn a lot of interesting information about them.
In May, you will be able to admire bonsai trees in the Japanese Garden. And because of the birthday celebrations, the garden will extend this popular exhibition for a week. Therefore, three full weekends will be filled with an accompanying programme that focuses on both bonsai art and Japanese culture. "We have two food festivals in the summer, an autumn exhibition of carnivorous plants and a traditional exhibition of pumpkins. At the end of the year, visitors will have the opportunity to look at the intimate life of plant reproduction, that is to say, Kama Sutra for plants”, Bohumil Černý concluded. For more information, please visit www.botanicka.cz - the page is in Czech, with limited English and German versions.
Books and calendar
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Prague Botanical Garden, two books were launched along with a 2019 calendar, which maps out the history of the establishment. The launching ceremony took place at the end of January. The first book, ‘Záhonové trvalky Botanické zahrady hl. m. Prahy’ (‘Garden perennials of the Prague Botanical Garden) by Iveta Bulánková and Petr Hanzelka, curators of perennial collections, was ceremoniously launched by Marta Jandová. The second book, ‘Květy Faty’ (‘Flowers of Fata’), is dedicated to botanical gems that are grown in Fata Morgana Greenhouse. The authors, Romana Rybková, Klára Lorencová and Eva Smržová, are the curators of the tropical collection, and the book was ceremoniously launched by the actress Anna Geislerová. The 2019 wall calendar, which captures the changes of the garden over the past half-century, was ceremoniously launched by the actress Markéta Hrubešová and the dancer Jovanka Vojtková.
You can buy both publications and the calendar at Fata Morgana Greenhouse, and from the Information Office from April onwards.
‘Květy Faty’ - price 349 CZK
‘Záhonové trvalky Botanické zahrady hl. m. Prahy’ - price 349 CZK
2019 wall calendar - price 150 CZK