Orto Botanico Trieste

August 6, 2014

There is some kind of maintenance work going on at the condo next door that involves ear-piercing drilling into rocks. It is a bright breezy afternoon and so perfect for a walk in the Orto Botanico. I head up the hill to San Luigi and then down to the entrance of the garden, about a 10 minute walk. Luckily it is Wednesday and the garden is open until 17:00. Otherwise it is only open until 13:00.

The garden is in a lovely location up on a hill and with views of the Gulf of Trieste. There are a number of places where you can sit on wrought iron lawn furniture strategically placed with a view of the gardens. There are also two canopied pergolas that are visually beautifully situated. The whole garden is terraced with stone paths winding their way around.

There is a formal garden with boxwood, a green lawn and wood lawn chairs. As well there are a number of themed gardens including one that explains the geological history of the carso, a vegetable garden, ornamental plants.

The setting is beautiful with that view of the gulf, the terraces and the pergolas. Sadly it is not very well maintained and while there are name plaques for all the plants, a lot of plants seem to be missing. And sadly everything is quite overgrown.

However, it was a pleasant stroll overall.  The highlight was that I was able to see a pomegranate shrub. I had no idea how pomegranates grew. The shrub had beautiful orange-red, trumpet-shaped flowers that were in various stages of maturity. So I was able to see how a pomegranate developed from the perfect trumpet-shaped flower, to a bulbous shaped flower (which reminded me of a tadpole) to a tiny round pomegranate.