Skalničková zahrada Hlubočepy, Botanical garden in Hlubočepy, Prague, Czech Republic

Skalničková zahrada Hlubočepy is a rock garden and arboretum of about 2,000 m² in an old limestone quarry at the edge of the Prokopské údolí valley. Visitors enter through a roughly 30-metre rocky corridor between rock walls, then find quarry-face plantings, crevice beds, a damp bed of carnivorous plants and a small pond with a root-zone filter. Around 2,000 alpine plants and woody species grow here, mainly Eurasian.

In the second half of the 19th century the site served as a stone dump during construction of the Smíchov railway station. In the 1950s the Halada couple founded the rock garden on this shale rubble and natural limestone rock of a former quarry. In 2016 Prague 5 blocked a private purchase aimed at building a villa, and the revitalised garden opened to the public on 8 May 2019.

Locals call it Haladova zahrádka, after the Halada family who founded and still tend it; Milan Halada lives on the site. Stop 16 of the Údolím Dalejského potoka nature trail, marked by an information board beside the iron gate, carries that name. The garden is planted mainly with Eurasian species.

Access is through an iron gate about 70 metres uphill from the corner of Na Placích and K Dalejím, on cycle route A122; a roughly 30-metre rocky corridor leads into the former quarry. The garden is divided into numbered stations with fixed information boards, and a printed colour plan with a recommended route is available. Paths are stony and uneven, so wear sturdy shoes.

The garden uses natural rock formations to create different microclimates that allow alpine plants to grow throughout the year. This approach lets the garden maintain a remarkably varied collection of mountain plants that would be difficult to cultivate otherwise in this region.