Diomedes Botanical Garden, Athens, Greece

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Hilary

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Diomedes Botanical Garden, Athens, Greece
« on: November 15, 2017, 06:55:32 PM »
In October we joined a group of my husband’s old school friends who live in Athens at the entrance to the Diomedes Botanical Garden at Haidari near Daphi to the west of Athens.

We had been once before to this garden with the MEDITERRANEAN GARDEN SOCIETY many years ago and so far I have not found any photos of that occasion.

Diana Farr Louis wrote an account of a visit there in 2011 which you can find on the branch page of the MGS website. The account is on the second page. I was able to name a couple of the plants I took photos of from her account.

http://www.mediterraneangardensociety.org/branches-gr-b.html

The English version of the Diomedes Botanical Garden website can be found here.

http://www.diomedes-bg.uoa.gr/start-en.html

Here are a few photos of the entrance and Historic Plants Section. More to follow
MGS member
Living in Korinthos, Greece.
No garden but two balconies, one facing south and the other north.
Most of my plants are succulents which need little care

Hilary

  • Hero Member
Re: Diomedes Botanical Garden, Athens, Greece
« Reply #1 on: November 16, 2017, 03:45:26 PM »
Diomedes Botanical Garden part 2
Next we arrived at the Ornamental Plants Section

There is a line of trees along one side of this section, including, among others,    Ginkgo biloba, Cercis siliquastrum, Judas tree, Duranta erectum bushes, probably an Acacia farnesiana, Sweet Acacia and many other firm favourites for Mediterranean gardens. Our knowledgeable guide centered his talk at this point on the Ginkgo biloba   which fascinated everyone.

The flower beds in the lawns were rather short of flowers it being autumn. I did see a Trachelium caeruleum, Blue Throatwort which Oron, of this Forum, kindly identified also a lone Canna flower.

Growing up the pergola was a Bauhinia yunnanensis, Orchid Vine, which I was able to identify from the article by Diana Farr Louis which I mentioned yesterday.
Pampas Grass, Cortaderia selloana, dominated one of the lawns and there was a rose collection in another.

The line of ornamental trees can be seen in the photo which shows the rose bed.

I love it when there are labels and one of the rules of the garden states, I quote
Quote
“Misplacing or damaging the Garden signs or the tags identifying the plant species, besides the inconvenience it causes to visitors, is extremely costly for the Garden and troublesome to the maintenance personnel.”
MGS member
Living in Korinthos, Greece.
No garden but two balconies, one facing south and the other north.
Most of my plants are succulents which need little care

Hilary

  • Hero Member
Re: Diomedes Botanical Garden, Athens, Greece
« Reply #2 on: November 17, 2017, 06:54:01 AM »
Diomedes Botanical garden part 3
I quote
Quote
“Finally, a lot of aquatic and hydrophilic species of global interest grow in the continually flowing water of the 25 pools”

After the Ornamental Plants Section we moved on to look at some of the plants growing in the pools.

Nelumbo nucifera, Indian Lotus, only seed heads to be admired as it was autumn.
Lemna minor, Common Duckweed, which we were told, we are going to eat when we live in space. 

I read about both these plants on Kewscience, Plants of the World online.
However, I don’t know if it is allowed to copy/ paste their address but it is easily found
MGS member
Living in Korinthos, Greece.
No garden but two balconies, one facing south and the other north.
Most of my plants are succulents which need little care

Hilary

  • Hero Member
Re: Diomedes Botanical Garden, Athens, Greece
« Reply #3 on: November 20, 2017, 06:48:43 PM »
Diomedes Botanical Garden part 4
After the water feature we came to a clump of Bamboo which our guide told us about.
I am afraid I was too busy trying to take, unsuccessful, photos of a nearby tree to listen to him properly.
That way I know nothing about Bamboo and have no good photos of the tree!
MGS member
Living in Korinthos, Greece.
No garden but two balconies, one facing south and the other north.
Most of my plants are succulents which need little care

Hilary

  • Hero Member
Re: Diomedes Botanical Garden, Athens, Greece
« Reply #4 on: November 21, 2017, 06:56:30 AM »
Diomedes Botanical Garden part 5

The Cactus Collection

This would appear to be a new feature of the garden with the larger and hardier plants outside and smaller ones inside a plastic greenhouse. The greenhouse is usually locked and from the notices outside it would appear that school groups visit this garden

A notice with Lucky Luke on his horse saying
“Children, Beware of  the cactus.They sting”
Παιδιά, προσέχετε  τους κάκτους….τσιμπάνε.
And in another section a notice with a cactus stating
” Be careful, I sting”   
Προσοχή τσιμπάω

The small cactus inside the greenhouse  were planted on waist high beds and labelled.
 
MGS member
Living in Korinthos, Greece.
No garden but two balconies, one facing south and the other north.
Most of my plants are succulents which need little care

Hilary

  • Hero Member
Re: Diomedes Botanical Garden, Athens, Greece
« Reply #5 on: November 22, 2017, 06:03:46 AM »
Diomedes Botanical garden part 6

At last the trees.

After the guided tour was over I asked our knowledgeable guide if there was a Cedar of Lebanon anywhere. He gladly pointed me in the right direction telling me  many times that they were labelled, and so they were.

I was rather disappointed as I wanted a photo of a large, old, specimen tree for the Plants of the world on postage stamps  thread on this Forum instead there were three or four young trees in a rather narrow space.

 Never mind I took a few photos of the trees and of course the label
MGS member
Living in Korinthos, Greece.
No garden but two balconies, one facing south and the other north.
Most of my plants are succulents which need little care

Hilary

  • Hero Member
Re: Diomedes Botanical Garden, Athens, Greece
« Reply #6 on: November 23, 2017, 06:40:28 AM »
Diomedes Botanical Garden part 7

If I had done my homework I would have known that the Arboretum is divided into 6 subsections where many interesting trees can be seen.

Here are the last few photos mostly of anonymous trees

The Diomedes garden is mentioned a few times in
 THE MEDITERRANEAN GARDEN
Especially issue number 73, July 2013 where on page 67 in the SUNDRIES section there is a piece about a rock garden
MYRTO APERGHIS: AN MGS MEMBER REMEMBERED
MGS member
Living in Korinthos, Greece.
No garden but two balconies, one facing south and the other north.
Most of my plants are succulents which need little care