Botanical Garden of Sochi: a priceless pantry of southern nature

The Botanical Garden of Sochi is a unique monument not only to the flora of southern latitudes, but also to landscape art. Today, this is a great holiday destination for guests and residents of the resort region. On its territory grows more than two thousand the most diverse species and varieties of trees and shrubs brought from Australia and Japan, America and the Mediterranean countries. At the moment, the arboretum is subordinate to the Sochi National Park.

Landscape

The Botanical Garden of Sochi occupies an area of more than 50 hectares. The park is designed in different styles. The center is a tribute to the palace delights. This is a white staircase, generously decorated with stucco, balustrades, plaster sculptures and luxurious terraces. The rest of the garden looks a bit simpler.

Forest tracts are harmoniously combined with open meadow spaces. The rare specimens of exotic shrubs serve as natural framing for recreational areas. This unique Sochi park is especially beautiful in March. On its territory a summer house, the so-called hunting lodge, has a flower greenhouse, farm buildings.

Structure

The modern arboretum consists of three parts. The lower one is the youngest. It is located opposite the main park. To get into it, you need to cross the highway. In this part of the park, mostly pine and cypress trees grow. You can also meet daylilies, bamboo thickets, roses and fragrant magnolias. Address of the Botanical Garden in Sochi: Kurortny prospect, house 74.

In the middle park leads a long underground passage. Perhaps, this is the oldest and interesting, in terms of botany, the garden area. It presents more than eight dozen pines brought here from the most remote corners of the world. And he can boast of rare varieties of palm trees that successfully hibernate in the Russian subtropics and blossom in the arboretum of Sochi in March.

Perfectly feels and sequoia dendron. Present only, its relatives live more than six thousand years and reach a hundred meters in height! In the park grow crooks, yuccas, agaves, nymphaeus, papyri, hyacinths.

The upper zone of the Sochi Botanical Garden is also considered relatively young. It was defeated after the end of the Great Patriotic War. All the plants in this part of the park are organized in accordance with the geography of their growth.

sights

The first sight that meets the path of a traveler who finds himself in the arboretum is the colonnade of the entrance group. It is decorated with balusters and granite pots. A monument to Sergei Nikolaevich Khudekov was also located nearby. He is the founding father of the park.

The paths in the park are paved with tiles. There are stone and granite sidewalks leading inside the rotund. Placed massive pedestals with lions on them. Everywhere flower beds and flower beds. In order not to hurry and inspect most of the territory, it will take a whole day to devote to it.

Old gazebos, towering above the pointed caps of palm trees, beckon with coolness. They offer a charming view of the garden and the surrounding area. Next to the priceless botanical samples are information signs. They reveal the full name of the plant, the country of its origin and the approximate age.

Manor house

In the old part of the park is the house of Sergei Khudekov. Today in the villa "Hope" operates a park museum. Another attraction of the arboretum is the Japanese garden. In it, slowly trickle streams of brooks through which graceful wooden bridges are thrown.

Once in Obzornoye Polyana, do not deny yourself the pleasure of staying and enjoying the panorama of Central Sochi. Behind the high-rise city building, a dense ring encircling the resort, one can see the blueest Black Sea.

The Palm Alley is another unique place that hides the tropical bowels of the Botanical Garden. The Sochi arboretum also includes Grove Sequoia, Glade Dwarf, dolmens, a stone grotto, a greenhouse and an enclosure containing ostriches.

Historical reference

As for the history of the origin of this unusual park, it takes us to the beginning of the XX century. It was then that Sergei Nikolaevich purchased 50 hectares of land. They stretched along the highway, the next from Sochi to Sukhumi. The site was located two kilometers from the city limits of the resort. To work on the project of the park, and later on its implementation, the best gardeners and landscape designers of the time were invited to life.

The first seedlings of trees were taken to the Botanical Garden of Sochi from the parks of nearby southern cities. A large number of samples were brought from Yalta and Sukhumi. Later, Mediterranean plants were purchased.

In 1917, Sergei Khudekov left his estate and the park that belonged to him. The land was fragmented into small plots and sold. Until the 1920s the estate was in the power of the White Guards. Just a few years, the richest collection of plants was destroyed, and the house itself was plundered. Restoration of arboretum began in 1924 after the final change of power in the country.