Vegetable Gardens, Botanical Gardens and Special Collections

Vegetable Gardens, Botanical Gardens and Special Collections is an itinerary designed to let the public know the gardens of the Network that are characterized by these specific features and to suggest the best moment to appreciate them.
Among vegetable gardens fall the famous vegetable gardens of the University of Milano, Padova, Palermo and Catania, but also little treasures like Giardino di Villa Parravicino Sossnovsky (Erba, CO), which can visit in June: a vegetable garden perfectly harmonized in the splendid monumental garden. Descending in Liguria I invite you to discover the Kitchen gardens of the marquise Durazzo of Villa Durazzo Pallavicini (Genoa Pegli), born by the will of the marquise Clelia Durres in 1794. At his death, both the villa and the vegetable garden, they were inherited by the nephew, Ignazio Pallavicini, to whom we owe the construction of the great Romantic Park that today distinguishes the estate of Pegli. The current layout of the garden, inaugurated in 2004, provides about 4500 square meters of exhibition space and about 1500 cultivated species.
In Lazio it is the garden of the Pope to fascinate. After the historic decision of Pope Francis to open to the public the summer residence of the Popes of the Pontifical Villas of Castel Gandolfo, here you can admire the huge rustic garden that occupies about half of the 55 hectares of the papal gardens.
Do not miss the characteristic kitchen gardens of the chefs of Villa d'Este in Cernobbio and Villa della Pergola in Alassio, to which the chefs, respectively Michele Zambanini and Giorgio Servetto, draw to prepare their delicacies. And again the vegetable gardens of aromatic plants of the Parco Giardino Sigurtà (Valeggio sul Mincio, VR) and de La Cervara (Santa Margherita Ligure, GE).
In Switzerland, on the other hand, in the greenery surrounding the historic orangery of the botanical garden Merian Gärten (Basel, CH), ancient varieties of vegetables, berries and ornamental historical plants are cultivated.

If the botanical gardens are your passion, the network Grandi Giardini Italiani boasts the majestic gardens of the Scottish captain Neil Mc.Eacharn who had bought from the Marquise of Sant'Elia with the ambition to create a complex botanical of international value: the Botanical Gardens of Villa Taranto (Verbania-Pallanza, VB). On the opposite shore, set in the gentle waters of Lake Maggiore, Isola Madre (Stresa, VB), known throughout the world for its refined botanical collections, ... is the most voluptuous place I've ever seen at world (G. Flaubert). On the Swiss shore of the lake instead the Isole di Brissago (Brissago, CH) dominate, whose gardens are home to over 1,700 species of Mediterranean plants, subtropical Asia, South Africa, the Americas and Oceania.
Back in Italy, in Lombardy you should not miss the famous botanical caskets of Villa Carlotta (Tremezzina, CO) and Villa Monastero (Varenna, LC) that overlook with superb beauty on the waters of Lake Como, in addition to the Parco della Fondazione Minoprio (Vertemate con Minoprio, CO), a natural reservoir of about 60 hectares of greenery. Moving to the province of Brescia is the Botanical Garden A. Heller in Gardone Riviera to fascinate. In its 10,000 square meters there are botanical species from every part of the world: a real ecological complex, without equal. In Lazio the invitation is to discover the Botanical Gardens of Stigliano (Canale Monterano, RM): a park of twenty hectares, completely restored by the Marchesa Umberta Patrizi Montoro.
Further south on the Isola d'Ischia, there are the amazing Giardini della Mortella born out of love and passion by Lady Walton, who here in 1956 called the famous landscape architect Russell Page to design the original layout of the garden integrating it between the picturesque volcanic rock formations.

Finally, the Network boasts Special Collections of undisputed interest. Here come those gardens that have their distinctive feature in a special flowering of wisteria, tulips, agapants or irises, or in an important collection of miniature and tall trees. You can not therefore remain indifferent to the charm of the tulips that cover with a thousand nuances, different every year, the splendid Park of the Castello di Pralormo (Pralormo, TO), on the occasion of Messer Tulipano (March 31 - May 1). Still the tulips bloom is protagonist at the Parco Giardino Sigurtà (Valeggio sul Mincio, VR) with Tulipanomania. In the months of March and April, the 600,000 square meters of the Parks are colored with over a million tulips!
The beginning of the Spring smells of wisteria and La Cervara (Santa Margherita Ligure, GE) dedicates every year an extraordinary opening to admire its pergola, while at Villa della Pergola (Alassio, SV), which boasts a important collection of thirtyfive varieties different in shape and color, a workshop is organized along a weekend to experiment, research, discover this plant symbol of Spring and Friendship. Villa della Pergola is also known for its collection of agapants, one of the largest in Europe, boasting over 430 varieties, superbly blooming between June and July.
And continuing to the south in the Marche, the Parco Storico Seghetti Panichi invites you to discover its blooms of irises and agapants; while in Tuscany, in Florence, the invitation is to walk under the pergola of the wisteria in bloom of the Giardino Bardini and get lost in the scent of the Iris of the gardens of Villa La Massa, an evocative place on the banks of the Arno river.

The Special Collections includes the Crespi Bonsai Museum (Parabiago, MI), Labirinto della Masone (Fontanellato, PR) and the Enea Tree Museum (Rapperswill - Jona, CH).
The first boasts an unequaled set of miniature giants. Born from the determination of Luigi Crespi has its flagship in the millennial Ficus retusa Linn. Arrived in Italy in 1986 by China, after a bargain lasting more than 10 years, this Ficus retusa Linn is a unique example of exceptional value in the world.
The second, the largest bamboo maze in the world, in its suggestive star plant covers 8 hectares of land, hosts thousands of different species of bamboo, about two meters in height.
The third is the result of a long work of collection and selection that bears the signature of the Swiss landscape architect and collector of trees of world renown Enzo Enea. Its collection boasts trees coming exclusively from species in the local climatic zone.

Grandi Giardini Italiani Srl

Grandi Giardini Italiani Srl