Virtual Garden Visits Are The Next Best Thing to Being There!
Written by Ilona Biro, FOAG Volunteer
One of my favourite things to do while travelling is to visit local gardens, and while the pandemic has nixed any garden tours this year, the internet fills the gap with many excellent virtual tours. They showcase some of the world’s most spectacular gardens at their peak, when they are most breathtaking to visit, and you can “travel” many kilometres without sore feet at the end of it all!
So sit back, relax with a glass of your favourite summer wine, and fill your screen with gorgeous gardens from around the world.
Using the interactive map, explore one of Britain’s most diverse and interesting gardens and get loads of inspiration for garden planning and plant selections. Explore all areas of The RHS’s Wisley garden online, including the Glasshouse, Wisteria Walk, Rock Garden and The Mixed Borders. You can also get an aerial view of the gardens, shot during the autumn season. Use the link above to explore using the map or this one, which links to highlights of one of the world’s largest plant collections.
United States Botanical Garden
This is a virtual tour created by hundreds of Google images allowing you to walk the pathways of the country’s oldest botanical garden. The United States Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C., is one of the oldest botanic gardens in the country, founded in 1820. With help from Google Maps, the garden created an interactive virtual tour of its outdoor plants, as well as inside its conservatory. The conservatory includes a wide variety of plants and flowers, including a tropical jungle, desert succulents, orchids, rare and endangered plants and habitats, and more.
This Renaissance castle in the Loire Valley is home to one of France’s most beautiful gardens. The vast landscape includes water gardens, a hedge maze, two ornamentals gardens, a kitchen garden and so much more. I was left wondering if it would be possible to miniaturize the knot garden to fit in a downtown Toronto backyard lot! It’ll have to wait until next year.
Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden
A delightful video that takes viewers to this lush tropical garden on the big island of Hawaii. This garden includes more than 2,000 species of tropical plants, and features acres of jungle trails, streams and waterfalls. The gardens are also home to diverse species of wildlife, including geckos, Mynah birds, Hawaiian hawks, and Hawaiian monk seals. This beautiful video tour offers a peek into different parts of the garden, complete with a relaxing soundtrack.
Right now, Kew Gardens is offering an online hub for exploring its many attractions, including the Tropical Nursery, the Palm House, and the Princess of Wales Conservatory. There are loads of videos covering every inch of these world famous gardens on the Youtube channel, but this video in particular is interesting for FOAG volunteers who spend so much time in our own Palm House.
Giardini Botanici Villa Taranto
You might have heard of Lake Maggiore and its magnificent homes. South of the Alps and north of Milan, Giardini Botanici Villa Taranto sits on the shore of Lake Maggiore where herbaceous eucalyptus and giant Amazon lilies grow alongside Japanese maples. Clicking on their interactive garden map will take you from the terraced gardens to the dahlias. Pour yourself a glass of Italian wine and choose your own adventure.
