Where to find summer all year round
The best greenhouses and tropical gardens in Moscow
you don't have to leave Moscow to look at exotic plants, visit the subtropical forest or take a stroll among the spreading palms. We've selected the biggest urban greenhouses in Moscow where you can find summer in any season.
The largest collection of exotic plants under one roof in Moscow is the Pharmacy garden. There are actually two greenhouses in the Pharmaceutical Garden – one for palms and one for water plants. The former contains giant tropical trees and predatory plants, and the latter offers a variety of water lilies with two-metre leaves and other moisture-loving flowers. Throughout the year, themed exhibitions are held in the garden, at which you can see a variety of varietal tulips, age-old bonsai trees and pumpkins of unusual shapes.
The Botanical garden's collections present plants from practically every continent and every climate zone of the planet. The central structure of the garden, the stock greenhouse, spent a long time in renovation and only recently opened to visitors in an expanded format: here, you can see plants that grow in forests, in the subtropics and tropics. It also features an artificial landscape with rocks, grottos and trekking paths. Sometimes it even rains or is enveloped in a thick mist.
Historically, the greenhouses in Tsaritsino grew fruits for the royal family, after that, they served as an experimental vegetable and berry growing lab. The complex had fallen into complete disrepair by the 1990s but was then renovated in accordance with historical drawings. Today, as it did centuries ago, it grows figs, pomegranates, citruses, grapes, pineapples, laurel and ginger, as well as ficuses, succulents and forest cacti.
The Zaradye florarium is very different from your standard winter garden: the plants sit in structures that have no soil, with nutrients being delivered by air (a growing method known as aeroponics). The plants are arranged in a spiral funnel which makes the complex look quite futuristic. The crops being grown here are constantly changing: they used to grow coffee and cacao here at one time as well as ficuses and philodendrons
The green greenhouse is housed in the building of the old Peter Schukin estate house. Visitors can see three hundred species of plants from the tropics and subtropics, including some carnivorous ones such as the sundew, venus flytrap and nepentes. The museum located here is also worth a visit: you will learn a lot about various plants during the visit to it.
The urban farm greenhouse targets preschoolers, offering them the chance to see how flowers and grass grow here as well as learn about poisonous and medicinal plants. It is also home to some unusual plants such as a hybrid of lemon and orange or the tree-like plant Strelitzia Nicholas.
Cover photo: the botanical garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences
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