The Most Beautiful University Gardens
When speaking of university and college gardening, a lot of students might say they didn’t care about the beauty of those their schools own. Nevertheless, a beautiful garden might give a significant boost to one’s academic performance and mental state. Spending time in between green trees, rare bushes, and colorful flowers is one of the ways to get inspiration.
In case you are too tired to get inspired enough with a school garden, consider using a speedypaper discount to entrust your academic assignment to professionals. It is a solution for you to find more time to rest as you want. Still, a properly grown and maintained university garden can be not just another reference zone to botany or biology students but a resort for anyone else studying there, too.
Here below, you’ll see the most beautiful gardens from all over the world. Who knows, maybe you’ll find your school on the list. It’s important to say here that the article is not trying to rank the gardens according to particular grading criteria. It’s not a ranking at all. The content just represents the subjective, personal experience. So, your top of university gardens may be completely different.
Let’s see the botanic beauty of universities and colleges! Here are wonderful gardens maintained by the world’s famous educational facilities.
1. Auburn University: Donald E. Davis Arboretum (Alabama)
This arboretum has over three hundred plant species growing all over the southeast of the US. The location of the city lets it cross the fall line: the plain sandy coasts are bordered by the rocky highland zones. It means the Donald E. Davis Arboretum can cultivate the unusual set of botanic species flourishing above the fall line as well as below it.
To the north of the fall line, one can see limestone and sandstone outcrops. To the south, in turn, there are multiple plants from prairie, dune, and coastal bog zones. The diversity is stunning not only for botany students and experts. It will also impress an “average” visitor with no doubt.
2. Cambridge University (England)
The Botanic Garden of Cambridge University is among the most diverse ones all over the planet: over eight thousand plant species are growing here. The location’s first opening happened in the 1840s after they planned its large flat area to place the garden. Nowadays, it includes more than 40 acres of territory.
After the Sainsbury Laboratory was opened in 2011, the garden got its latest new plants. The lab is currently serving as the research facility. They use up-to-date equipment and analysis methods to study the properties of particular plant species there.
3. University of Coimbra (Portugal)
One day, Benedict monks gifted the land under this garden to the school. Beautiful terrace zones designed with the inspiration after certain periods of history unite as the more formal part of this facility. The exotic trees, including fifty different species of eucalyptus and bamboo woods, create another zone of this stunningly magnificent garden. This part of the University of Coimbra is surely worth seeing at least once in your life.
4. Rhode Island University in Kingston
This one is worth particular attention for sure. Here, one can see a garden with rhododendrons, azaleas, laurels growing around a hill covered with green grass. The outer line of the garden is set with an exceptional exhibition of dwarf conifer trees. It’s the Ericaceous Garden.
The other point worth noting here is the garden with exclusively white-colored blooming plants in it. The name is correlating with the concept: The White Garden. The white flora of perennials, Paper Birch, and shrubs are set around a wall with a circular space inside. If you are either a student or a visitor, the place is open for you to stay, learn, and get inspired. It’s truly charming.
5. University of California (Berkeley)
The next garden offers one of the widest collections of plans all over the US, too. Set among tall trees and high waterfalls of the University of California, this garden exhibits over 1 thousand sunflower species and 2.5 thousand cactus species cultivated there.
Additionally, local gardeners and scientists concentrate a lot on keeping endangered and rare species. Over 170 taxa growing here are on the California Native Plant Society list as rare plants or those on the edge of extinction. Next time when you’ll visit California, you should plan a visit to Berkeley for sure to see this wonderful garden.
6. University of Chicago (Illinois)
The botanic garden of Chicago University surrounds the whole campus of this facility. More than twelve gardens show the diversity of common and rare plans distributed throughout the Hyde Park campus, covering almost 220 acres of land.
Species worth noting are the Washington Elm (planted to honor George Washington’s 200th birthday in 1932), an entire collection of non-hybrid shrubs, and rare aralias.
7. University of Pennsylvania: Morris Arboretum (Philadelphia)
This one is the Pennsylvania state’s official arboretum. It is situated in Philadelphia, in the Chestnut Hill area. The location has a pond with swans, alleys, and rose gardens. Among all other structures, the glass fernery after Doris H. Hamilton is worth noting in particular.
Here, more than 500 fern species are cultivated. The fernery has existed since the year 1899, and it is the only structure of its type possible to find in North America referred to the Victorian era.
8. Clemson University (South Carolina)
The next botanical garden in this article has a lot to show, too. Here, one can see a set of nature-based visual art and sculpture artworks which is among the US largest gatherings.
Herb Parker’s The Crucible (one of the sculptures) is among multiple elements there that were crafted with exclusively natural components by the hands of worldwide artists, local students, or volunteers. The shaped pieces are then left “as they are” and set to become parts of the main natural exhibition.
9. Duke University in Durham: Sarah P. Duke Gardens (North Carolina)
The bloom period of magnolias in the Asian collection zone at this garden turns the entire area into one fantasy decoration. The site exhibits different Southeast Asian plant species placed along stone alleys and arched bridges.
One walking through them can also enjoy the magnificent landscapes of the area from the middle of the local pond. Additionally, visitors can become participants of a true Japanese tea ceremony in a fairy tale space of the garden. Come here and enjoy the new experience!
10. University of Vienna (Austria)
Over 11 thousand species are cultivated in the land of this Austrian garden. The collections placed there are concentrated on research and, of course, species preservation.
The public can access the area of tropical plants, but many other parts of the garden are not available for random visitors. There are greenhouses where only the Vienna University students and accredited researchers may enter. Multiple plant varieties from the eastern part of the country are considered as rare and endangered, so the school officials are taking special measures to save them.
To Conclude
These were ten really beautiful university gardens available to visit in the United States and European countries. Many other botanical resorts can be equally magnificent and worth your attention. Does your school have a garden around it?
