An Air Plant Lovers Dream: Botanical Gardens
Do you have the travel bug and a love for air plants? Some of the best trips are to botanical gardens where you can immerse yourself in nature even if you are in a city. Whether you are an avid air plant collector or someone just getting interested in air plants, you will have a wonderful time exploring the botanical gardens compiled in this post.
UNITED STATES GARDENS:
Bok Tower Gardens:
This beautiful 130 acre botanical garden features a beautiful display of over 30 Tillandsia species and is located in Lake Wales, FL. Well known in Florida as a beautiful place for a wedding, Bok Tower Gardens has a beautiful display of hanging air plants as well as numerous other air plant installations.
Selby Botanical Gardens:
Dubbed a “Living Museum,” the Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida boasts 15 acres full of Florida native bromeliads, Tillandsias, and 20,000 other plant varieties including an impressive orchid display.
University of Hawaii Botanical Gardens
https://manoa.hawaii.edu/lyonarboretum/gardens/
The Harold L. Lyon Arboretum is a 200-acre arboretum and botanical garden managed by the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and is nestled in the upper end of Mānoa Valley in Hawaiʻi. There you will find numerous bromeliad and tillandsia species as well as native Hawaiian plants, and one of the largest palm collections found in a botanical garden.
New York Botanical Gardens:
Founded in 1891, the New York Botanical Garden is a 250 acre site located in the Bronx, New York City. The garden has an extensive collection of over 1 million living plants.
At the heart of the garden is an old growth forest where you can walk through the largest existing remnant of the forest that covered New York City before the arrival of European settlers in the 17th century. The forest contains a bountiful variety of trees including oak, American beeches, cherry, birch, tulip, and white ash trees. Some of these trees are more than 200 years old.
INTERNATIONAL GARDENS
Utrecht Botanic Garden
https://www.uu.nl/en/utrecht-botanic-gardens
The Utrecht University Botanic Gardens consists of two locations since 1987: the main garden at Fort Hoofddijk in Uithof and the Von Gimborn Arboretum in Doorn. The history of living plant collections of Utrecht University dates back to the 17th century.
An interesting video about their Tillandsia collection:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JNF6SuJ5qo
Singapore Botanic Garden
The Singapore Botanic Garden, located on the fringe of Singapore's Orchard Road shopping district, is a 158 year old tropical garden and is the only tropical garden to be honored as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The garden boasts an ethnobotany garden, national orchid garden, rain forest, and a ginger garden.
Kew Gardens- Royal Botanic Gardens
https://www.kew.org/kew-gardens/attractions/princess-of-wales-conservatory
Just outside of London, is the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens. This garden houses the largest and most diverse collection of botanical and mycological species in the world. Founded in 1840, its living collections include more that 30,000 plants, and there are over seven million preserved plant specimens in the herbarium. It is one of London’s top tourist attractions and is a World Heritage Site.
The Princess of Wales Conservatory, one of the greenhouses at Kew Gardens, houses plants from 10 different climate zones including cacti, succulents, and tillandsia! Each of these 10 zones has computer-controlled climates.
Click here for an interesting look at their collections: https://www.kew.org/science/collections
This is just a small sampling of some of the beautiful botanical gardens in the United States and internationally where you can find air plants. Have you been to any of these gardens? Have you been to a garden that we haven't listed? We would love to know! Happy traveling plant friends!
