Jardin des plantes d'Orléans, Botanical garden in Orléans, France
Jardin des plantes d'Orléans is a 3.5-hectare botanical garden in the Saint-Marceau district, south of the Loire. It holds a formal French-style garden, a rose garden, seven walled climatic gardens, an 1834 orangerie and tropical greenhouses with more than 60 plant families. A lawn carries Charles Dupaty's sculpture of Cadmos fighting the serpent.
The garden began in 1640 as a collection of medicinal plants maintained by the Apothecaries Society. It moved to its current location in 1834 to serve as a center for rare plant acclimatization.
The garden's name and layout recall its 1640 origin as a medicinal-plant garden kept by Orléans apothecaries inside the Saint-Laurent bastion. Oranges are grown in the 1834 orangerie, a tradition tied to the mild Loire valley climate. The rose garden, reduced in 2002, hosted the first international rose competition in September 1959.
The garden is open from 7:30 AM to 8:00 PM between April and September, with shorter hours during winter months. Admission is free throughout the year.
The garden's rose collection dates from 1958, when 1,500 cubic metres of scrub were cleared and 2,500 cubic metres of topsoil laid over 6,000 square metres for 7,500 rose bushes of some 400 varieties. The first international rose competition was held there in September 1959. In 2002 the rose garden was reduced and most bushes moved to the Jean-Dupont rose garden in Léon-Chénault park.
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