We continue our series of articles about the Peter the Great Botanical Garden in Saint Petersburg. Today, we'll focus on the tropical route. Recall that the garden also offers a water route, a subtropical route, and a Japanese garden tour.
How to Join the Tour
You can buy tickets at the entrance ticket office. You have two options: you can either purchase a general admission ticket for the park-dendrology area, which costs 100 rubles, or for 300 rubles, you can get a ticket for access to the open parts of the garden and one guided tour of your choice (summer 2018).
Tours are conducted daily except on Mondays. The schedule can be obtained at the ticket office when purchasing tickets.
Upon entering the area, you will need to proceed to the tour meeting point, which is the rotunda of the botanical garden. The guide will arrive at the appointed time, check tickets, and invite everyone to the starting point.
The tropical route takes you through the garden’s greenhouses. The total length of all greenhouses is approximately 1.5 kilometers, and the route covers about one-third of this distance.
The tour lasts about an hour and covers various thematic “zones”: showcasing plants from savannas and monsoon forests, humid tropical forests, arid regions of Africa and the Americas, higher spore and gymnosperm plants, and other representatives of tropical flora.
The plants impress with their diverse shapes and colors. During the tour, you can see how familiar bananas, cinnamon, and coffee grow. Among the more familiar tropical fruits here are mangoes, pineapples (which are quite small), and papayas. There is an endless variety of flowers, ornamental grasses, and vines.
The cactus greenhouse is also a point of interest. By the way, the largest cacti here, the echinocacti, were also seen in the Nong Nooch Tropical Garden in Pattaya.
Some plants are adorned with St. George ribbons, similar to those in the large palm greenhouse, indicating that the plant survived the Siege of Leningrad.
In summary:
- An intriguing tour through a tropical forest;
- Photography is allowed along the entire route;
- Be prepared for potentially high temperatures in the greenhouses on sunny summer days.
- Part 1. Peter the Great Botanical Garden
- Part 2. Water Route in the Botanical Garden
- Part 4. Subtropical Route in the Botanical Garden
