The Geneva Botanic Garden is a landmark for botany in the world. This botanical garden is now home to more than 16,000 species of plants and brings visitors closer to nature through educational and interactive experiences. SWITZERLAND THE CONSERVATORY AND BOTANICAL GARDEN OF GENEVA BY LIVIA DANESE The Conservatory and Botanical Garden of Geneva is a major institution for botanical research, conservation and development. It was founded in 1817 and was since then transferred to Parc de l’Ariana and opened to the public in 1904. The Garden hosts over 16000 different species of plants, trees and shrubs which are organized according to their habitat and marked with information panels. Geneva’s Botanical Garden is also appreciated today as a leisure park. The free entrance and the recreation areas allow anyone to rest and enjoy the tranquility of nature, while not leaving the city. The Garden organizes many different activities to introduce the visitors to nature and botany: one of the most relished is the Garden of smell and touch where people can interact with the plants which are chosen for their perfume and tactile interest. Some services, such as the picnic area, the playground and the small zoo, which also aids indigenous and endangered animals, are especially meant for families and children to enjoy. In short, the organization of the Botanical Garden is not only dedicated to the study and conservation of the flora but is also committed to guaranteeing visitors an all-round entertaining experience.The greenhouses too are arranged to show the many different ecosystems of the world and accompany visitors in an ideal journey through exotic surroundings. The Tropical Greenhouses are organized in four sections: the main greenhouse is dedicated to a range of species adapted to high temperature and humidity conditions, such as the giant water lilies. The second section reproduces the Canaries Island’s volcanic landscape with cacti and succulent plants growing on dark soil and lava rocks. The Bromilaceae greenhouse showcases a very interesting collection of Tillandsias which are referred to as “airplants” because they have no roots and derive their nutrients form moist, air and rain. The last section displays plants form tropical mountain areas. The Temperate house with its characteristic neoclassical glass dome contains Mediterranean type vegetation from around the world. A central staircase provides access to a high gallery which offers an impressive overall view. Finally the Victorian style Winter Garden is particularly noteworthy. Built in 1911, its elegant structure testifies the influence of the Industrial revolution on its glass and steel architecture. Today it houses an impressive collection of useful plants and a selection of tropical species. GALLERY Info: Official website Photo ©CRISTINA ARCHINTO more botanical gardens and nurseries Giardino Botanico Nuova Gussonea Orto Botanico di Catania Orto Botanico di Ginevra Centro Botanico Moutan Orto Botanico di Palermo Roseto di Roma Chicago Batanical Garden Parco Botanico Villa Rocca

A story set in the park of Villa Borghese in Rome, walking among its beautiful trees. SHORT STORIES SET A reconciling walk Text e photographs by Cristina Archinto She went out and the door slammed, more due to the draught from the stairs than to any specific will of her own, but that act certainly reflected her state of mind. Suddenly she found herself outside the house with no clear plan or purpose; she was furious. She looked around, upset and undecided as to what to do; she was certainly not in the mood for a museum and lacked the ability to concentrate on learning something. She cross ed the street almost without realizing it, avoiding being run over by mopeds, scooters and bicycles, unbearable in that city. She had already entered through that gate a few days earlier only to stop almost immediately and lighten up in front of works such as Bernini's Rape of Proserpine or Caravaggio's Cut of Lights at the Villa Borghese Museum, but this time she went straight ahead and entered the park. She walked along a boundary wall where low boxwood hedges and autumn flowers could be seen between steps. As she reached the end, she was attracted to the left by strong autumnal tones of majestic trees. As she approached, she immediately realised that she had arrived in the Platani Valley, a wonderful valley of ancient trees. Once rural, it was tamed into a garden in 1603 by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the favourite nephew of Pope Paul V. At that time it was a forest of more than forty oriental plane trees with a central basin and two small islands intended for the resting place of ducks and fine birds, including swans that the Cardinal had specially brought in from Brussels. Now there were only nine beautiful specimens left, which had survived for more than four hundred years and seemed to look sternly and wisely at you through their twisted branches and trunks. He continued along the valley with his gaze upwards, admiring these wonders but also keeping an eye out for the dogs that were running wild in this part of the garden. She approached a particularly curved specimen with a large slit in its trunk and looking at its gnarled branches reminded her of that 'Sensei' who a few years earlier had given a special Aikido lesson at his dojo. Two hours immersed in silence with only the rustle of the hakama, his words light, breathing wisdom. Of course now she was a little sorry that Jan was not there that day, they would have reminisced together. The anger was already fading as always, but this time she was more determined to hold on, she would not give in so easily that day. She continued along the valley looking up admiring those wonders but also keeping an eye out for the dogs that were running wild in this part of the garden. She approached a particularly curved specimen with a large slit in its trunk and looking at its gnarled branches reminded her of that 'Sensei' who a few years earlier had given a special Aikido lesson at his dojo. Two hours immersed in silence with only the rustle of the hakama, his words light, breathing wisdom. Of course now she was a little sorry that Jan was not there that day, they would have reminisced together. The anger was already fading as always, but this time she was more determined to hold on, she would not give in so easily that day. She continued along the valley, where she also passed some black walnut trees and horse chestnuts with a certain lift, only to be astonished again by a majestic specimen of hackberry tree with its fluttering leaves that were gradually leaving the branches and its broad, almost perfectly round crown. He, too, reminded her of someone. The art teacher at her high school, round and always smiling, who had taken her under his wing and had not only taught her how to draw but also some philosophies of life that she still used in difficult times. Beautiful person, who knows what had happened to her. She climbed the small hill to reach the small lake of Villa Borghese. A small pool of water embraced by a variety of remarkable trees. It was in 1766 when Prince Marcantonio IV Borghese, a descendant of Scipione, decided to expand the family park by creating the Giardino del Lago with a temple dedicated to the god of medicine Aesculapius. Like all the Borghesi, he too devoted himself, thanks to his huge family fortune and, it must be said in this case, especially that of his wife Princess Anna Maria Salviati, to the pleasures of the Roman aristocratic life, patronising new artists and works, thus enriching the family collection previously squandered by his father. It was he who had a poster put up in the park that read 'Whoever you are, O stranger, provided you are a free man, fear not here the fetters of laws. Walk where you will, seize what you desire, retire when it pleases you. Everything here is arranged for the enjoyment of the foreigner before the owner'. Indeed, the park, although private, had always been the scene of festivities and balls and was often open to citizens from all walks of life. He began the work of embellishing the park of the villa and his son Camillo, known perhaps more for his marriage to Pauline Bonaparte, finished the work. Of course, who knows what the pond must have been like in those days; gossiping ladies strolling under clear parasols, poets extolling their prose, lovers in the throes of love gushing their hot tears into the lake, or artists in the shade of oak trees portraying the beautiful panorama of the 'Villa delle Delizie'. In the meantime, she was enjoying that beautiful autumn landscape of tall pines, some bald cypresses already in warm tones, and that majestic cedar of Lebanon, all making themselves beautiful by reflecting in the lake. Even the little temple had that something. On one side there was also a centuries-old Quecia ilex that stood out for its height and broad foliage. She had never liked holm oaks, she found them sad and gloomy, like Christoffer, her lifelong melancholic and gloomy classmate, who had unnerved her with his grey aura for years. But certainly this was a spectacular specimen that perhaps made her reconsider. She also noticed an elderly lady giving bread to the ducks. She could never get over the unquestioning fascination of feeding animals, nor could she understand how Jan had not been able to remind his boss this morning that he was on holiday. It had taken them months to organise this Roman period, she was going to take a sabbatical, he was going to take his back leave and they were going to go to Rome for the autumn to discover the Eternal City, a dream in both their drawers, but in the end, he had left her alone again today, pass the other days, but not today! She wandered around the lake area again until he reached Piazza di Siena, a huge oval lawn surrounded by cypress trees as straight as spindles. The area was once occupied by a large 17th-century ragnaia, a grove of tall trees where nets were spread to catch small birds. Beautiful cypresses, he thought, they are linear! He smiled to himself at the stupid joke. The anger was definitely waning, surely the credit also went to this somewhat magical place, intrinsic in history made of stones and trees. He continued with his game, Björn no, Erik neither, Astrid? Yes of course, she is a cypress! Obviously tall but with that strange look, silent, because cypresses are certainly silent trees, but happy even if they don't show it. When I get back I'll tell her, who knows how her new project is progressing. Maybe I'll write to her later. After resting a little on the steps at the side of the square, she headed south and found herself in an amazing pine forest. Very tall trees, up to 20 metres tall, with bushy, umbrella-shaped crowns. The high sun intruded between the pine needles, making them almost transparent and silky, and the shadows of the straight trunks created abstract paintings on the green lawn. What a vision! Here, domestic pines were certainly trees that he valued highly, as did the ancient Romans, who spread them throughout the empire! Even today, the pine is considered a symbol of Italy, not least because the English call it Italian stone pine and the French call it Pin d'Italie , and it has even won the prestigious Royal Horicultural Society award. She wandered among the trees enraptured by such beauty. Who did the pines remind him of? Beautiful, tall, majestic but not arrogant, with beautiful bearing, also nice and generous with their pine nuts, and certainly honest, determined and robust. Who knows. She thought for a few minutes. Several names floated through her mind until Jan. Wow, that's really him. Moved and without even realising it, with a big smile on her face, she headed home, having already forgiven the love of her life; her beloved Pinus pinea GALLERY Photo ©CRISTINA ARCHINTO Other SET STORIES AND PARKS TO VISIT Priorato d'Orsan Parco Villa la Grange Parco di Sicurtà Jardin des Plantes Nantes Parco del Flauto Magico Parco di Bercy Parco del valentino

It was in 1808 that Francesco Melzi d'Eril, Duke of Lodi, Grand Councillor, guardian of the Kingdom of Italy and personal friend of Napoleon, decided to build his summer residence in Bellagio. Thus Villa Melzi d'Eril was born. The refined taste of the exotic that characterizes the Gardens finds its most graceful expression in the numerous species of historical camellias, today about 250, that can be admired in the park, especially near the two entrances, in Loppia and Bellagio. LOMBARDY VILLA MELZI GARDENS The geometrical taste of green Photographs Cristina Archinto Text Carla De Agostini I t was in 1808 that Francesco Melzi d'Eril, Duke of Lodi, Grand Councillor, Keeper of the Seals of the Kingdom of Italy and a personal friend of Napoleon's, decided to build his summer residence at Bellagio on land with a stupendous view of Lake Como. Thus Villa Melzi and its gardens were created, taking advantage of the natural terraces and the variety of views in which it is immersed, playing on the curved paths that cross the property throughout its extension and connect the points of interest, the architectural furnishings and the numerous sculptures with historical and mythological subjects placed among the rich vegetation. At the entrance to the property, in the direction of Bellagio, one reaches a small area laid out as an oriental garden, with a characteristic pond, surrounded by Japanese maples and camellias that create a brightly coloured ensemble. The garden alternates majestic century-old trees with exotic and rare species, grouped in wooded patches, planted in rows along the shore or isolated in the grassy carpet. The refined taste for the exotic that characterises the Villa Melzi Gardens finds its most graceful expression in the numerous species of historic camellias, now about 250, that can be admired in the park, especially near the two entrances, at Loppia and Bellagio. Many of them were born from seed and are mostly related to the main species of Camelia japonica, but a large number are cultivars of great historical-botanical interest, created in the nineteenth century. Villa Melzi also picks up the tradition of topiary art, which in Italy reached excellence in the late Renaissance. At that time, the taste and sensibility of Humanism, whose philosophy is based on the idea of Promethean man and his triumph over nature, inspired the creation of gardens carefully subordinated to the geometry of forms, then the rediscovery of the ars topiary with its pruning techniques to shape plants into decorative forms. This style has its roots in Roman times, with an influence from Greek art, when, in other words, thanks to the Empire, cultural trends were reunited and intertwined in the service of a new aesthetic. The first experiments were carried out in the new gardens of suburban villas, desired by aristocratic families. The Roman garden acquired an interweaving of poetry, sculpture and Hellenic painting, which gave rise to a truly new landscape composition, which would later become the basis of the Italian garden. In the gardens of Villa Melzi, symmetries can be appreciated, not only for their geometric taste but also to celebrate the beauty of the essential characteristics of nature itself: not only gardening but art, through the precise choice of colours and shapes, such as the umbrella pruning of the plane trees or the particular positioning of centuries-old trees and exotic species, where Ginkgo biloba, red beeches or camphor trees enhance the view around them, together with shrubs, rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias. Love and precision stand out at Villa Melzi, in the care of the greenery, in the architectural variety of parapets, balustrades, marble busts, in the galleries of citrus trees, which create an unusual and fascinating play of geometries, in which to lose oneself without paying attention to the passing of time. THE CAMALLIA IN HISTORY In Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera , the protagonist Fermina Daza refuses the camellia offered to her by Florentino saying that "it is a flower that pledges". And it was precisely as a pledge of love that camellias arrived in Italy in 1760, a gift from Admiral Nelson to Lady Emma Hamilton, who had them planted in the garden of the Royal Palace of Caserta. Very similar to the rose and large in size, the flowers of the camellia originate in China and Japan and belong to the Theaceae family. Ornamental camellias were immediately considered a rarity destined for the few, a display not only of power but also of refined tastes. Over time, the history of this flower has taken on many facets and meanings, but the most widespread is undoubtedly the symbol of love, devotion and esteem. The camellia achieved great fame with Alexandre Dumas' novel The Lady with the Camellias , first published in 1848, in which Marguerite Gautier was inspired by the courtesan Marie Duplessis, who used to pin a white or red camellia on her dress, depending on the season. This fashion shared by both men and women soon became a classy detail on the lapels of gentlemen and in the hair of ladies, and would remain pinned to their necklines for a long time. In 1923 Coco Chanel took to the catwalk for the first time dresses with broches (brooches) of white chiffon camellias, modelled on the Camelia japonica Alba plena , whose structure of overlapping petals is thought to have suggested to her the double C cross; in those same years Proust called them camélia à la boutonnière (Camellia in the buttonhole). Over time, the camellia went from being a flower of nobility and luxury to being more democratic, but in gardens it still retains its air of a refined flower. GALLERY Photo ©CRISTINA ARCHINTO LINK Official website More Gardens and Parks Parco giardini di Sicurtà Parco giardini di Sicurtà Gairdino di Villa Lante Villa Lante parco del Flauto Magico Parco Flauto Magico Bomarzo Parco Villa la Grange Labirinto della Masone Giardino di Kenroku-en Giardino dell'impossibile

Strolling through the Chicago Botanic Garden opens the gate to a brief Zen experience. This is so not only because of its dreamy and renowned Japanese garden to which I will refer hereafter, but because it is kept in a truly flawless state, to the point where one has to wonder if he is experiencing USA CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN Strolling through the Chicago Botanic Garden opens the gate to a brief Zen experience. This is so not only because of its dreamy and renowned Japanese garden to which I will refer hereafter, but because it is kept in a truly flawless state, to the point where one has to wonder if he is experiencing a new planet. No crumpled leaf, loose branch or arid flower is present to ruin the experience of the million visitors who wander through the garden undisturbed. Even in the vegetable area known for its propensity to untameness reigns the most geometrical order. The credit has to be undoubtedly appointed to the multitude of gardeners who commit to it every day, but the true capability behind the Chicago Botanic Garden lies in the 1300 volunteer. Equipped of gloves and small utensils these garden volunteers take care of the plants, earth or garden. You may see them in diverse arrays, employed in a multitude of tasks to which they commit with devotion and affection for the garden’s sake. If one cares to look attentively, one may notice that they are there not only for the wellbeing of the garden but primarily for their own creating a view that prompts oneself to kneel down and steal their job. I wonder why here we are not capable of organizing such a thing, many could gain from it. The garden itself can be praised for incomparable data, opened to the public only forty years ago it actively possesses 13.989 trees, 879.087 bulbs, 1.428.719 everlasting plants, 28.032 aquatic plants and 65.987 shrubs in nearly 156 hectares which are themselves subdivided in 27 different gardens and 4 raw areas. It also occupies 32 hectares of water channels between lakes and canals that encircle 9 islands and 255 species between sighted birds.Certainly one of the gardens most astounding areas is the Japanese garden, uncomparable in its varsity, it extends over almost 7 hectares of land. The latter is subdivided in three islands of which only one open to the public. The third, located in the center of the lake, is inaccessible and symbolizes a visible paradise which can never be reached. Meandering in this area one is submerged by irises, rododendrs and plumb trees but the presence of pine-bonsai can also be strongly perceived. These trees, symbolic for longevity in Japanese culture, are trimmed and cared for with uncomparable capability and are uncommonly planted in raw earth. However even the in-vase bonsai collection accommodates more than 200 samples exhibited illustriously in the Regenstein Center courtyard.The Chicago Botanic Garden has more than 50.000 members; individuals of all ages, interests and abilities who participate to programs of all sorts, taking lessons or walking through the park for free the whole year round. Furthermore the garden’s ‘Library of Lenhardt’ holds 110.000 volumes, of which one of the best national collections of rare botanical volumes. In conclusion this botanical garden is truly worth the while, not only for the botanical and scientific research areas, but mainly for its sociological approach to the experience. Its immaculate organization succeeds, capably engaging a vast sphere of diverse individuals, in creating a beautiful reality. Photo ©CRISTINA ARCHINTO Info: www.chicagobotanic.org more botanical gardens and nurseries Orto Botanico di Ginevra Orto Botanico di Ginevra Centro Botanico Moutan Orto Botanico di Palermo Giardino Esotico Pallanca Parco Botanico Villa Rocca Water Nursery Giardino Botanico di Hanbury

To contact us and who we are. Who we are Terrimago è una struttura che si avvale di diverse collaborazioni, professionisti e appassionati di territori e giardini, per i singoli progetti o per i servizi on line. Tutti servizi fotografici di Terrimago.com sono di Cristina Archinto . Collaborano Carla De Agostini, Livia Danese, Patrizia Staffico, Alessandra Valentinelli, Paco San , Stefania Bellingardi Beale, Greta Arancia Sanna, Alessandra Boraso. On line è possibile acquistare le pubblicazioni realizzate da Terrimago. ordine on line Contact By purchasing the book you will support Terrimago and its project to enhance and spread the culture and knowledge of gardens, botanical gardens and parks. The cost of the book is €26 each + €4 shipping within Italy. With the purchase of at least 3 copies, shipping is free. For payment we require a bank transfer, the data will be sent to you once the order form is received. I agree to the Terms and Conditions Send Your form has been sent successfully

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