Tallinn Botanic Garden (), 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. is ...

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

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

. It is located on the right bank of the

Pirita River The Pirita () 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 estuary to the Gulf ...

, in the

Kloostrimetsa Kloostrimetsa (Estonian language, Estonian for "''Convent Forest''") is a subdistrict () 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 (''C ...

forest in

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

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 als ...

, 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 and most populous island in Estonia. Measuring , its population is 31,435 (as of January 2020). The main island of the West Estonian archipelago (Moonsund archipelago), it is located in the Baltic Sea, south of Hi ...

(since 1963) and an

arboretum An arboretum (: arboreta) is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees and shrubs of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arbor ...

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 (BGCI) and the Network of Botanic Gardens in the Baltic Sea region.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 from 1938 to 1940. Päts was one of the most influential politicians of the independent democratic Republic of Estonia, and during the two decades p ...

, the first President of Estonia.

Directors

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

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. is ...

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

History

Directors

Collections

See also

References

External links