'Rosenfest' of The Palmengarten

We visited the Palmen Garten, a botanical garden in Frankfurt on the first weekend of June. When we arrived at the garden, we still had about a hour until its opening time. We walked to a gourmet deli, Petersen Gutes Essen about 10 minutes. The deli, which J found online, was small but neat and had a nice selection of baked goods. I had a sweet pastry. J had a savory sandwich and cappuccino. It was a lovely breakfast.

The Palmengarten is a municipal garden founding in 1868. Located in northwest of the Frankfurt down town, it has been an urban oasis over 150 years. Our first visit there was on the special day. It was a day during their 'Rosenfest' or Rose festival week.

The Rose garden was filled with various roses and their pleasant scent. We strolled around the pretty colorful flowers for a while.

After we appreciated the lovely rose garden, we explored the rest of the Palmngarten. The garden is almost 20 hectares in size. Around 13,000 species of plants grow in its outdoor space and under the roofs of the greenhouses. 

We ran into an Egyptian goose family near the rock garden. The babies were so cute!

There were turtles on the trunk in the pond. First we thought they were statues because they were completely still. Then we saw some turtles swimming at a different spot in the pond. We went back and watched the turtles on the trunk again. They changed their positions and a couple of them were moving. It was funny to discover they were real!

 

We also witnessed two birds aggressively intimidating each other. A swan over there was ignoring the drama and sticking out his/her tail out of water.  

Then we visited the greenhouses. One of them was the 19th century Palm House, the showpiece of the Palmengarten. Wonderful.

The Tropicarium was a greenhouse complex that comprises a total of 14 greenhouses of different sizes and heights and shows tropical plants around the world.

I liked the cactus room. They looked adorable. 

Also these little flowers were so sweet!

There were several food vendors around the fountain pond. I guess they were part of the rose festival. We got a mint lemonade from a Middle Eastern pastry shop and took a break by the pond. The drink was refreshing. By the way we bought some of their cookies and had them at home later. They were really good. I wish I remembered their name so that I could check if they have a store in or near Frankfurt...

Then we decided to have an early lunch there. I had a bowl of vegan stew and rice, which was good. I think J had a sausage platter. 

It was a lovely day out. I thought we visited all the greenhouses, except the Butterfly House, which I intentionally skipped, but later I found out that we didn't go to the Subantarctic House, which is dedicated to the flora from the regions near Antarctica, as well as the Alpine Houses, which shows non-hardy species from mountain regions all over the world. We have a reason to revisit the Palmengarten sometime, perhaps in the next rose season.