Summer is coming to an end, but that doesn’t mean you have to put aside tours and new things. It can certainly be continued in the autumn, going to known and perhaps not yet visited places. One of the destinations for a sunny weekend trip can be the National Botanical Garden in Salaspils.
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Plant health orienteering game
To make the visit to the National Botanical Garden even more interesting, every visitor can also get involved in gambling with various tasks, informs Gunita Ķiesnere, the project manager of Botania. The task of the game is to use worksheets to find certain plants in the garden, get acquainted with information about them and complete the crossword puzzle. The submitted crossword puzzles then participate in a prize draw. But you can’t be too late, you will only be able to participate in the game until October 1. More information can be found in the National Botanical Garden website.
Plant and craft fair
Very soon, on September 12, the traditional plant and craft fair will take place in the garden. During this time, everyone will be able to get acquainted with the news of the nursery and buy not only traditional, but also rare, difficult to propagate and exotic plants. There will also be an opportunity to buy various handicrafts and delicacies of home producers, G. Ķiesnere points out. More information available here.
A fabulous walk in the thuja alley
For a long time now, the entrance gate to the botanical garden has been located opposite the Salaspils railway station. If once the path from the gate to the office premises was bordered by a hedge of sheared thuja, now these thuja are more than 70 years old and they have created an impressive alley. Enjoying a walk along the thuja-shaded trail will inadvertently bring to mind legends and fairy tales, says the project manager of Botania.
Dahlias in all colors of the rainbow
Rarely does a flower boast such a variety of shapes and colors as a dahlia. The botanical garden collection contains more than 350 varieties of dahlias, and about half of them are created in Latvia. Latvian dahlia breeders have a rich imagination, so they are pleased not only with the colors and shapes of the flowers, but also with the names. In the garden you can see dahlias with such interesting names as ‘April drops’, ‘Sweet life’ and ‘Rainbow of hope’. But the enjoyment of dahlias should not be delayed, because they will bloom only until the first frosts.
Full tree with sausages
The three-thorned glacier is a large tree that has been growing in the botanical garden for 70 years. From afar, it seems that hundreds of tempting sausages are drying in the wind on wooden branches. However, it can be seen nearby that they are large, brown pods, in which the seeds of glacia grow. The ripe pods are hard and leathery on the outside, but on the inside there is a soft, sweet, green mass that North American Indians eat like candy. In addition, no less impressive is the glacial trunk, which is covered with countless thorns in the sharpness of the needle. Thorns were originally formed to protect the plant from huge mammals (such as mammoths) that lived in the Pleistocene. Therefore, be careful with ice cream, G. Ķiesnere points out.
Flower queen roses
There is no denying that roses are the favorite flowers of more than one person. That is why they are called flower queens. But it turns out that they are not only beautiful, but also very practical. Roses can be used to grow pergolas, which are often used to decorate gardens and alleys. Roses can also cover the soil and create a hedge. Dome and miniature, stringing, deciduous and bushy – more than 350 rose varieties bloom in the rosary of the botanical garden all summer. Each of them has been tested and recognized as suitable for Latvian conditions, notes the project manager of “Botania”. Each visitor can watch their favorite flower and learn its name and origin.
Maple leaf secrets
The shape and size of the maple leaf is usually associated with the most common species in Latvia – the common maple Acer platanoides, but there are other species that may not yet be known. In the botanical garden, everyone can find a completely different maple: an American native maple maple with the largest leaves up to 60 cm in size, or Montpellier maple from the Mediterranean coast, whose small leaves are good if 5 cm in diameter. The garden collection includes about 80 different maple species and varieties. In addition, maples can not only be viewed, but explored in depth. On the interactive stand next to the maple plantations you can get an idea and information about the diversity of their leaves and fruits, reports G. Ķiesnere.
The origins of sugar – sugar cane
Rarely has any plant affected the world to such an extent as sugar cane. It produces more than 70% of the world’s sugar. In the conservatory of the Botanical Garden it is possible to get to know this important grass better. One can appreciate its thick stem and imagine the strength it takes for a plantation worker to bend the hopper to the ground and machinize it instead of knotting it to the ground itself. Today, however, this work is more often performed by harvesters, which collect up to 300 tons of sugar cane per day. The harvested crop is then transported to sugar factories, where the stalks are crushed and the juice extracted from them is turned into sweet crystals. The residue is used in the paper and building materials industry.
Banana – tree or herb?
It is often heard that bananas grow on trees. Are you sure? No, bananas are herbs, explains G. Ķiesnere. They could resemble trees only because of their size. Bananas do not have a trunk like trees: their huge leaves are supported by tightly collapsed leaf sheaths. One shoot bears fruit only once in a lifetime and then dies. Banana blooms and fruit formation in our latitudes are a big event that will soon be able to be experienced in the botanical garden. At present, two whole plants have bloomed in the conservatory, and it will be possible to trace the flowers and fruits at different stages of development for several more months.
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