Our trip to the "Flora of Cologne" with an orangery and sequoias in the heart of the city

Hi Hive friends!

Have you ever been to a botanical garden? I've been to several before, and this time a friend and I went to the botanical garden here in Cologne, which is super nice. We were there in the morning, so there were mostly retired people or young families there and it was very quiet. The garden is located in the north of Cologne, you can easily get there by train, but you should submit from the main station 40 minutes with a little walk. The garden is a whole 11.5 hectares, admittedly, it did not seem that big to me. It is known as the "Flora of Cologne". The goals of this large garden are primarily to combine education with garden art and culture, botany, the preservation of biological resources, and the promotion of science. We noticed this especially by walking through the Flora: Everywhere at the trees and flowers and masonry there was a description with a sign nearby, mostly additionally in English. We thought that was great, since we are not great plant experts, so the signs helped us.

Here you can see the entrance to the Flora; the entrance was free and there was no gatekeeper or anything like that.

This fancy sign at the entrance says that the two historic gatehouses were donated to the city of Cologne and they are now used as exhibition pavilions. The gatehouse was built in 1999 by the "Friends of the Botanical Garden in Cologne" and was also donated to the city of Cologne.

In the distance stands the glass palace, the Orangery, which was architecturally very remarkable for the time. It is made of cast iron and glass, the design of which was clearly based on London's "Crystal Palace" and Paris' "Jardin d'Hiver", as I found out later. There are paths to the left and right to get to the building; in the center is a large fountain with a garden area.

Can you see the sunglasses hanging from my overall? Unfortunately, I lost them on our walk through the flora, we looked for them a little longer but eventually gave up. Maybe a lucky walker has found them haha.

Here you can see the well in the middle of the garden, but no water has been let in yet.

On our way we passed the "green school" of Flora, it looked interesting, so we went inside. And the word school actually describes it very well: Here, teachers teach about 10,000 students a year about plant science. I thought to myself: I would have liked to have had something like this in school in the past! The goal is to impart knowledge to the children outside of school with fun and joy directly on the plants. The topics depend on the age of the students and on the seasons, which seems logical to me. Here, the experience with nature plays the biggest role.

The green school also featured a sort of covered patio at the far end with a small bench and a round "window" above it. I thought to myself, once lie in it certainly looks cool haha, times a bit of being a kid in the school.

The view of the small lake and the stairs that still went down behind the terrace were very beautiful, everything was so quiet. You could only hear the birds chirping and a few voices in the background from the other walkers.

We liked the reflection on the water and so we stayed on the bank for a while. In the middle of the lake a sculpture rose out of the water, but we could not see exactly what it was and the path to the nearby shore was closed off, so we could only take a photo from a distance.

These Chinese lilacs were planted along the stone wall and the color of the flowers was a beautiful light purple. At the same time, the flower stands in the optimal case bloom only about 2 months, so we must have been lucky.

Later we passed a redwood tree: it is one of the most famous trees in the world and its home is California. It can grow over 100m high and the diameter of the trunk can be up to 8m, quite a lot right? Some of them even become 3200 years old. The growth form is conical, as you might guess from the next pictures. Often they have a fireproof bark and are thus protected from forest fires.

Unfortunately, this small tree blooms only from July to September, which is why it looks a bit bare here. It is also relatively sensitive to frost and should stand sunny, probably the reason why here were no larger trees nearby. It can even grow up to 5m high and would have pink flowers. It is also called the "Lilac of the South" because it is common on the way south, for example when you have crossed the Alps.

This sculpture named "Girl with deer" was designed by sculptor Hans Wilhelm Wildermann on the occasion of the Sonderbund - exhibition in Cologne in 1912. Until 1939/40 it stood in the green areas of the former German Ring, today's ring roads in Cologne. These are bronze sculptures that were not melted down by the National Socialists and "survived". After the war it was finally exhibited in the Flora.

When we arrived at the palm trees, I thought briefly: if you just look at this photo without knowing the temperatures or the other pictures you could almost think you were further south lol.

Later we came to a second lake with a small rock on the other shore. Here there were many benches to sit around and so we let the sun shine on our fur for a short time, as they say haha.

This monument immediately caught our eye: You can see only the head, not the whole body. It shows the Empress Augusta and is made of Carrara marble and it was created to beautify the Kaiser Wilhem Ring in 1903. The pedestal, however, is new. She took over the patronage for the Flora and so she had to be immortalized in a monument.

Finally, I didn't want to deprive you of this photo, for me the colors of the flowers make it. In the flora there were everywhere these color games, I do not know if they were deliberately chosen or if it was pure coincidence, but it was nice to look at.
If you are in Cologne, you can also visit the zoo right next to the Flora, it is quite close by, as is the gondola, which takes you quickly to the banks of the Rhine.
Although I lost my sunglasses, we happily made our way home. It's great that the citizens are shown such garden art in the heart of Cologne and that the children are so involved with the green school.
I hope you enjoyed this little excursion,
have a nice day!