Botanical garden of Porto
Jardim Botanico do Porto
At Rayon de Serre, we are great lovers of botanical gardens. They are for us an inexhaustible source of reverie and wonder.
Tropical greenhouses, cold greenhouses, arboretums, French or English gardens, wooded areas that take us out of the city in a few steps, … we are enthusiastic about everything!
Of course, they are for us the opportunity to see the rarest tropical plants and to admire the most beautiful exotic plants.
When passing through a city, our steps inevitably lead us to these havens of peace.
In this article, we take you to the Botanical Garden of Porto. 🇵🇹
Long in the shadow of Lisbon, Porto is full of treasures, human, artistic, culinary and… botanical!
If you pay attention, you will see the most beautiful exotic hardy plants in the ground, Birds of Paradise, Cook pines and other plant wonders.
If the Crystal Palace gardens are, for good reason 😍, in every guidebook, the same cannot be said for the sublime Botanical Garden of Porto City and that, for a tropical plants fan, is a mystery !
A historical botanical garden
A little out of the way (15 minutes by bus from the historic center), the four hectares of this beautiful garden, created in 1951, are dominated by the elegant Casa Andresen, whose name evokes important figures of 20th century Portuguese literature (Sophia de Mello Breyner and Ruben A). If the part directly surrounding the house has faithfully preserved the romantic structure of the 19th century, rose garden and garden dos Jotas, for the rest of the park, get ready to travel.
In the greenhouse and outdoors, tropical and exotic plants abound! The collection of cacti and succulents surrounding the greenhouses is impressive and the orchid greenhouse will delight you.
One of our great pleasures, of course, is to contemplate mature specimens of the tropical plant varieties we offer.
On that note, we started with the classic, a spectacular Strelitzia nicolai here, an imposing Strelitzia reginae there, and then, later on, we had the joy of coming across :
– Chorisia speciosa (Silk floss tree) in bloom over 10 meters,
– Dracanea draco (Canary Islands dragon tree) still “young”, but already at more than 7/8 meters,
– a magnificent Alpinia zerumbet ( Shell ginger plant) in flowers of more than 3 meters.
Here are some pictures.
Canary Islands dragon tree
Formidable Canary Islands dragon tree ! If outside, as here, it can take spectacular proportions, it lends itself perfectly to the culture in pot. To the question what are the best tropical plants for the house? It is one of the best answers!
Shell ginger plant
Here is a tropical plant that we do not cross often enough in our verandas or our gardens (its rhizome survives until -10°C). Indeed, the Pink porcelain lilly, that’s its other little name, is not reduced to its superb bloom. Its foliage is superb, its fruits fun and a sweet cinnamon scent surrounds it. When we came across this clump in the undergrowth, we were speechless.
Silk floss tree
Here too, here is a hardy exotic tree that is too little known. In the botanical garden of Porto, three superb specimens surround the water piece below the tropical greenhouses and the collection of succulent plants. And at the end of October, what a show!
What to do after visiting the botanical garden?
We recommend that you visit the park in the morning. You will be able to stroll around at your leisure, but more importantly, you will be able to have lunch at the Maria Dentada Restaurant after your visit. Nestled under the Villa Andersen, this excellent restaurant offers simple and delicious cuisine.
Have a good visit !
