Top 10 most beautiful — and eccentric — gardens around the world
There are gorgeous public gardens in cities around the world, from the Netherlands’ tulip-strewn Keukenhof to British Columbia’s Butchart Gardens. But a public garden that’s both beautiful and … wildly eccentric?
You’ll find 10 contenders here that range from the math- and science-inspired Garden of Cosmic Speculation in Scotland to a butterfly garden inside Singapore’s airport and the fantastical Lost Gardens of Heligan in England. There’s Italy’s Torre Guinigi, a fortified medieval tower built in 1384 and topped with an ancient garden, reached by climbing 232 steps and filled with flowers and centuries-old holm oaks. And there’s San Francisco’s Salesforce Rooftop Park, a four-block expanse filled with mini-botanical gardens and a 1,200-foot art installation with 247 tiny, spouting fountains that are triggered by bus traffic below.
There’s Thailand’s Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Garden, which boasts gardens devoted to formal French and European landscapes, as well as cactuses, succulents, orchids and bromeliads. And dinosaurs. And its own small Stonehenge. And the tropical jungle landscape of Mexico’s Las Pozas is filled with surrealist sculptures, structures and M.C. Escher-esque staircases.
Here are 10 gardens to explore — from home or, eventually, in person.
1 Las Pozas, Xilitla, Mexico
2 Dubai Miracle Garden, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
3 Garden of Cosmic Speculation, Dumfries, Scotland
4 Torre Guinigi, Lucca, Italy
5 Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Garden, Pattaya, Thailand
6 Salesforce Rooftop Park, San Francisco 7 Lost Gardens of Heligan, Cornwall, England
8 Pinocchio Park, Collodi, Italy
9 Forestiere Underground Gardens, Fresno
10 Butterfly Garden, Changi Airport, Singapore