Giardini di Porpora

The luxuriant garden makes this magic Island unique, brimming with rare and exotic plants from every latitude, proof of the family's interest in botany over the centuries.
Originally it was a fruit orchard, then an olive grove followed by a citrus orchard. The Island took on its present aspect of romantic English park in the early nineteenth century.
Expert gardeners and botanists, assisted by the perfect mild climate, knowledgeably integrated the collections over time with new species, flowering continuously and exuberantly for visitors.

Created at the end of the Seventeenth century as a formal park and redesigned at the beginning of the 19th century in the romantic style of the English parks, it has always been loved and cared in particular by the Malingri Countesses.
Over the past 40 years, the current owners have taken care of the landscape aspect with the intent to always have different effects of color according to the seasons and the blooms, planting new flowering shrub species and varieties such as camellias and extending the collections of existing acidophilous species: rhododendrons, azaleas, Kalmie, Hydrangee and many others, in the undergrowth anemones, periwinkles, violets, bulbous plants and hundreds of hostas.

The hydrangea is one of the park's representative flowers. Countess Sofia loved this wonderful shrub and surrounded herself with it, introducing many varieties in different areas of the garden that still survive today.

Since 2008, the Fondazione Cosso, in its careful and respectful restoration of the Park, has undertaken a census of the species present, thanks to which it has been able to draw up a recovery plan and proceed with the placement of new specimens.

From mid-June until autumn, the hydrangea is the star: the bushes are laden with colourful and elegant inflorescences. Along the avenue, one can see Hydrangea macrophylla, in the variety ‘Otàksa', one of the first introduced in Europe, with its globular inflorescence, its soft colours responding to the characteristics of the soil, and Mariesi Perfecta, one of the first hybrids selected in France over a century ago, with its flat inflorescences with white flowers arranged in a crown around a blue or violet central part.

The romantic park of Grumello is embellished with blooms in every season including a rich collection of Hydrangeas, and dotted with secular trees, such as camphors, olee fragrans, sequoias, cedars and a specimen of Ginkgo biloba.
The hydrangea collection boasts over 120 varieties of Hydrangea, including several rare specimens, distributed along the main avenues and in some thematic areas of the romantic garden.

Enjoy yourself in the magic of Lake Como walking in the beautiful park of the Villa, where you can see ancient trees, giant hedges of camellias, rhododendrons and azaleas.



©Ph. Dario Fusaro; Archivio Grandi Giardini Italiani

The characteristics of the Garden of Villa Monastero are those common to Larian gardens at the end of the 19th century, in which interest in rarity prevails thanks to the inclusion of botanical novelties from all over the world. Of particular interest are the exotic tree species scattered throughout the garden, which also demonstrate Varenna's favourable climate.
Among the different species are numerous types of Jasminum and aromatic herbs, an extraordinary collection of English roses, another of rare species of Wisteria together with numerous types of oak, with various specimens of Hydrangea paniculata and Hydrangea quercifolia, as well as a special collection of ferns and multicoloured peonies, which stand alongside oleanders and evergreens on the lakeside promenade.

Merano's botanical garden is set apart by its extraordinary landscapes. The Gardens of Trauttmansdorff Castle encompasses more than twelve hectares and has an altitude differential of 100 meters.
During the main blooming period from April to May, Rhododendron Hill shines with more than a hundred varieties and species in a wide array of colours: pure white, various shades of yellow, salmon, pink, intense red and dark violet.
Trauttmansdorff's Hydrangea Collection, comprising about 280 different varietis, blooms in summer.
Large, lush flowerheads are interspersed among the flat inflorescences: the shades of colour range from white to pink to deep blue.

From May to July, in the fantastic views of Florence you'll be kidnapped in admiring 60 varieties of hydrangeas, cultivated with love exactly in their original flower beds where they were found before the restoration of the Gardens: under the pergola of wisteria.