Augsburg in Germany was not on our original itinerary but, thanks to a train strike in France, we had changed course and headed for Central Germany and This interesting small city. I chose it from the many other possibilities because I had read about its Botanic Gardens with a highly praised Japanese Garden and a well known rose garden. We bought a 7.40 all day transport ticket for two, to get us onto Bus 32 which has a destination of Zoo and Botanic Gardens. Easy!
Entry fee for the gardens was 2.50 each and it was well worth every cent of that fee. Join us on our walk as I share some of my photos with you.
A formal side garden enhanced by fuchsias.
This avenue takes you through a long narrow piece of land from the car / bus park to the main garden site. To the right hand side of this avenue there are small garden rooms, each different, some formal, some very informal, each week designed.
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A much less formal side gardens inviting the visitor to stop and rest awhile.
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Eryngium bourgatii, a native of the Spanish Pyrenees.
In this garden we found several of these spiky beauties.
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A tiny visitor!
While taking a closer look at those beautiful veins, I noticed this tiny green spider.
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A waterfall in the Japanese Garden at Augsburg Botanic Gardens
But the main reason for coming to these gardens was to see the Japanese and the Rose Gardens…. And we were not disappointed with either. A small covered seating area allowed us to relax and really enjoy the peace of this water feature.
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Another view of the peaceful Japanese Gardens.
While sitting there in the shade and the peace of softly tumbling water, I took this scene as a video as well as a photo and it was here that I really began to appreciate the steady shot feature of my new Panasonic TZ 60. The video is excellent and I used no tripod.
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Another section of the Japanese Gardens
Further on in the Japanese Gardens the water feature becomes a shallow, pebble filled stream, winding its way besides a shady path… a delightful place to wander.
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The rose garden beyond a pond.
The stream eventually ends in a pond,
and beyond the pond is the rose garden.
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Part of the Rose Gardens.
Out from the shade and into a sunlit area, is the large and beautiful rose garden. It, too is designed around winding, wandering paths. There are many beauties here to enjoy.
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English bred rose: ‘Lilian Austin’ (Austin 1973)
Many rose breeders are acknowledged here. This beauty, bred by the Famous English rose breeder, David Austin, was first introduced in 1973. While many people prefer Austin’s double roses, I think this one still holds its own amongst his later hybrids.
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A bee finds this yellow rose too hard to resist!
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This bright orange rose changes colour as it ages and fades.
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Geraniums as border plants.
Of course , there are many more areas to enjoy in these Botanic Gardens and we spent a few, very happy hours wandering and enjoying the plants and their flowers. That, for both of us, is one of the real joys in life. We had seen plants such as geraniums in their native state as wild flowers in the mountain meadows in the early weeks of this trip, and now we enjoyed the horticultural versions, used to great effect as border plants.
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Another purple beauty.
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A closer look.
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Waterlilies
A large hot house of tropical plants included a pond filled with water lilies.
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One of the many fuchsias on display.
Just before we left the gardens, we found a section dedicated to fuchsias. These beautiful balletic blooms, developed by a grower in Great Britain, are named ‘Major Heaphy’. I couldn’t help but wonder about the suitability of the match between flower and name!
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A very old fuchsia
These beauties had a much more suitable name… ‘Deutsche Perle’. They were introduced to the gardening world way back in 1874 and are still show stoppers!
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Much as we would have like to stay longer in these delightful gardens, we couldn’t find a cafe or restaurant for lunch and the morning had long turned into afternoon. So, we headed back into the city centre to explore more of the city of Augsburg.
More of that anon
Jennie and David