Planten un Blomen

Altstadt (old town)

Planten un Blomen
Not far away from “Jungfernstieg”, Exhibition Centre and St. Pauli in the middle of the city lies the beautiful park “Planten un Blomen”. The park was laid out under the management of the landscape gardener Karl Plomin between 1930 and 1935 for the Low German gardening show. The name descends from the Hamburg Low German for plants and flowers.
Planten un Blomen with a size of 47 hectares, is mainly a plant and flowers paradise, where we have many possibilities for a varied leisure activities.
Small brooks and lakes, unique topic gardens and the Mediterranean terraces promise us a relaxing day in the middle of the hurly-burly of the city.

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The Mediterranean terrace is situated in the "Old Botanical garden“. It was laid out by the landscape gardeners Karl Plomin, Raderschall and Günther Schulze. Southern and exotic plants grow here and people say this terrace is the sunniest place in Hamburg.

The Mediterranean terraces are together with the adjacent plant show houses under preservation order.

The embankment moat, a relic out of old fortress systems, lies below the Mediterranean terraces. The stretch of water gives a living space for fishes, ducks, water turtles and birds.

On the Mediterranean terrace - the embankment moat

Pavilion in the rose garden – roses - rose garden - lavender – rose arcades

In the nineties a rose garden was laid out in Planten un Blomen. Here 300 different variety of roses bloom on 5000 square metres. In the middle of the rose garden stands a pavilion, in which a specialist gives us advices for the purchase and the right care of the different types of roses.

The apothecary garden, which had been designed by the landscape gardener Karl Plomin, with support of the Hamburg pharmacist organization, presents medicinal herbs in its seven courtyards which give off their fragrance beyond the garden walls.

Entrance to the pharmacist garden - the courtyards in the pharmacist garden

From the beginning of May until September 30th regular guided tour take place in the apothecary garden, where we learn how important plants can be for our health.

The Hamburg Apothekerverein e.V. (pharmacist association) gives information about event appointments and more under the phone number 448 048 24 .

The Japanese garden with the tea-house and the Japanese landscape garden with rocks, plants, watercourses and quiet ponds form an East Asian work of art that allows us to gain an insight of a garden culture, which has just in its simplicity that special appeal to us.
Both gardens were designed by the Japanese landscape architect Yoshikuni Araki from Osaka.

Japanese garden - Japanese tea-house - Japanese landscape garden

Because of the beautifully arranged plant the park Planten un Blomen is an attractive outing point, but also a very popular place for families with children. A big landscape playground and a number of playgrounds which are partly equipped with water game gadget are waiting for the little park visitors.

Playground for the little ones - water-playground - playground in the old rampart

On Sundays and holidays between 1:00 pm and 5:00 pm the ponies are on trot in the big playground - it's time for pony riding!

The scenery in Planten un Blomen is not dominated by plants and flowers alone, water also plays a great role. Apart from numerous of small brooks, ponds and several water stairs there is a lake in the park, where you can admire the water organ every day from May until the end of September, a spectacle of illuminated water fountains and music.

A Lake in the park - water stairs - watercourse - the old town rampart

The old Hamburg rampart, which were built as a city fortification around Hamburg between 1616 and 1625, have been reorganized to public parks during the 1970s years. They are well-known today as "Planten un Blomen" „Alter Botanischer Garten“ (old botanic garden), “Kleine Wallanlagen" (small rampart) and „Große Wallanlagen“ (large rampart). These green zones became the big park Planten un Blomen although they lie separated through busy streets. The entire park was arranged in a way, that visitors do not have to cross one of the big streets in any place.

In winter old and young visitors have lots of fun on the open-air ice rink.
The ice rink in the “Große Wallanlage”, is used as a inline skating rink during summertime (from the middle of April until the end of September). With a total area of 4300 sqm it is one of the largest open air tracks of the world.

On the ice rink in the „Große Wallanlagen“ (large embankment)

Hamburg Inline Skating School - that's where Children and adults learn skating

There are more information about Planten un Blomen on the following links:

What goes on and where in "Planten un Blomen? Here is an overview

Ice skating in Planten un Blomen: Open air ice rink

Planten un Blomen - the homepage

At the Harbour