Tallinn Botanic Garden ( et, Tallinna Botaanikaaed), is a

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

. It is located on the right bank of the

Pirita River The Pirita ( et, Pirita jõgi) is a long river in northern Estonia that drains into Tallinn Bay (part of the Gulf of Finland) in Pirita, Tallinn. The basin area of the Pirita is 799 km2. For the 1980 Summer Olympics held in Moscow, the ...

, in the

Kloostrimetsa Kloostrimetsa (Estonian for "''Convent Forest''") is a subdistrict ( et, asum) in the district of Pirita, Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. It's located north of the Pirita River and is mostly covered by the park forest Kloostrimets (''Cloister F ...

forest in

Pirita Pirita is one of the eight administrative districts ( et, linnaosa) of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. Pirita occupies a relatively big area, but compared to other districts of Tallinn its population of 17,592 (as of 1 November 2014) is relati ...

district. With an area of , it is the largest in Estonia.

History

The idea of founding a botanical garden in Tallinn first arose in the 1860s. It took almost 100 years for the idea to be realized. The garden was established on 1 December 1961 as a subordinate institution of the Academy of Sciences of the Estonian SSR and was developed over the following years. Major plant collections were planted during the first 20 years. The systematic open-air collections were opened for visitors in 1970 and the greenhouse collections in 1971. Originally, the main focus of research was the foreign species in Estonian context e.g. plant growth requirements and acclimatisation. From the 1970s research moved to the use of indigenous plant species in landscaping and horticulture (

Ülle Kukk Ülle Kukk (born 18 November 1937 in Tartu) is an Estonian botanist and conservationist. Education and career She was born in Tartu and graduated from the University of Tartu in 1960. 1960–1962 she continued to work in the university and ...

, Vaike Paju, Marianna Saar etc.) The Botanic Garden has added a number of sections, such as the Audaku experimental station in Viidumäe Nature Reserve on

Saaremaa Saaremaa is the largest island in Estonia, measuring . The main island of Saare County, it is located in the Baltic Sea, south of Hiiumaa island and west of Muhu island, and belongs to the West Estonian Archipelago. The capital of the island i ...

(since 1963) and an

arboretum An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, man ...

in Iru (1973–1994). Since 1992 Tallinn Botanic Garden is a member of the Association of Baltic Botanic Gardens (ABBG), and since 1994 the

Botanic Garden Conservation International Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) is a plant conservation biology, conservation Charitable organization, charity based in Kew, Surrey, England. It is a membership organisation, working with 800 botanic gardens in 118 countries, who ...

(BGCI) and the

Network of Botanic Gardens in the Baltic Sea region Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

.Botanic Gardens in the Baltic Sea region
/ref> In 1995, the responsibility for the Botanic Garden was transferred to the Tallinn city council. The territory of Tallinn Botanic garden occupy the land of the former farm of

Konstantin Päts Konstantin Päts (; – 18 January 1956) was an Estonian statesman and the country's president in 1938–1940. Päts was one of the most influential politicians of the independent democratic Republic of Estonia, and during the two decades pri ...

, the first President of Estonia.

Directors

Directors of the Botanic Garden have been: * Arnold Pukk (1961–1978) * Jüri Martin (1978–1988) *

Andres Tarand Andres Tarand (born 11 January 1940) is an Estonian geographer, climatologist and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Estonia from 1994 to 1995. He was also a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Social Democratic Party, pa ...

(1989–1990) * Heiki Tamm (1991–1997) * Jüri Ott (1997–2001) * Veiko Lõhmus (2001–2005) * Margus Kingisepp (2005–2009) * Karmen Kähr (2009–2017) * Urve Sinijärv (2018–present)

Collections

The Botanic Garden opened the doors to visitors to the systematically arranged outdoor collections in 1970, and the greenhouse collections a year later. The garden includes an

, rosary (rose garden) and

rock garden A rock garden, also known as a rockery and formerly as a rockwork, is a garden, or more often a part of a garden, with a landscaping framework of rocks, stones, and gravel, with planting appropriate to this setting. Usually these are small A ...

References

External links

*
Tallinn Botanic Garden
at BGCI Botanical gardens in Estonia

Botanical Garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

1961 establishments in Estonia Tourist attractions in Tallinn {{garden-stub

History

Directors

Collections

See also

References

External links