Actually there are 4 botanical gardens in Kiev, but 2 among them are the most popular. It is M.M. Gryshko National Botanical Garden and A.V. Fomin Botanical Garden. The Fomin one is situated near underground station Universytet. To get there you should walk out of underground station and turn right. And that’s it. This botanical garden is one of the oldest in Ukraine. It was found in 1839. Still Gryshko botanical garden is the largest and somewhat more popular. On every fair day and especially in summer tons of people head for this oasis, as Gryshko botanical garden is an island of green within busy city. On spring and summer holidays such as Victory day, Easter or Independence day you can barely find yourself a place to stay at one with nature, as people are crowding the whole garden. Well, I’m exaggerating just a little bit. With its 130 ha territory it’s impossible not to find yourself some free space.
By the way Gryshko National Botanical Garden’s address is Temeryazivska street 1. To get there you may get to the underground station Druzhby narodiv and then walk for about 10 minutes. The other way to get to the botanical garden and the easier one for those who’s going there for the first time is to get to the underground station Pecherska and then take a bus №62 or trolley bus №14 and go to the final stop called Botanical garden.
One of many things to see in the garden is its collection of lilacs and magnolias. Beautiful blossom of these plants attracts people from all over Ukraine to visit the garden. In the garden you can find 21 different kinds of lilac and there are only 28 kinds of it in the world. The territory of the garden is divided into floristic complexes, such as Ukrainian Carpathians, Plains of Ukraine, Crimea, Caucasus, Central Asia, Altai and Western Siberia, Far East. In every zone plants typical for particular region can be found. Geography and landscape of each territory were recreated as well. Also the garden has large collection of unique and rare tropical and subtropical plants that are represented in the greenhouse. The Botanical garden can impress us with more than 350 species of orchids. The total floor space of the greenhouse is over 5 thousand square meters.
The idea to create such a botanical garden first appeared in 1918, when Fomin garden already existed for a while. The construction began in 1935 and then was interrupted by the war, during which great part of collection was lost or damaged. The main idea of the garden was not merely esthetical, but even more it was scientific, as such garden is a place to store precious plants in a wild. M.M. Gryshko National Botanical Garden has plants from all over the world and in the greenhouses can be found the ones that became extinct.
But it’s fine if you want just to relax and lay on the grass for couple of hours with your family and friends. Botanical garden is a perfect place for such outdoor activities like games, dances, having a lunch on a fresh air.
The working hours for the botanical garden are as follows:
8:30 a.m. – 9 p.m. from May till August
8:00 a.m. and till dusk in period from September till April
The greenhouse within the Botanical garden works everyday 11 a.m. – 4 p.m., except Monday and Tuesday which are non-workdays.
The entry ticket price is 10 grivnas per adult and 5 grivnas per child.