Giardini Botanici Hanbury

The Hanbury Botanical Gardens ( Italian: Hanbury Botanical Gardens ) is a 18 -acre botanical garden in Italy. It is situated at Capo Mortola Inferiore at Mortola, community Ventimiglia, Imperia, in the Liguria region.

History

1867 Thomas Hanbury bought 18 acres of land and the Villa Orengo on Cape Mortola, which belongs to the municipality of Ventimiglia. Due to its sheltered climatic situation of the hillside with olive groves, vineyards and maquis was overgrown. Thomas Hanbury decided, with assistance from his brother Daniel Hanbury (1825-1875) and later the German gardener Ludwig winter to create a botanical garden. From 1894 to 1897 Kurt Dinter was curator of the Botanic Garden.

Already in 1883, the Index seminum about 600 different types of seeds. The third, published in 1912 catalog, containing 5800 species. Thomas Hanbury died in 1907, leaving to his son Cecil, the continuation of the garden. After the First World War, Lady Dorothy, Cecil Hanbury woman, the reconstruction of the garden devoted. In 1960, Lady Dorothy sold the garden to the Italian State. The Institute of Ligurian Studies tried to restore, but exceeded the requirements by far, the financial resources of the Institute, so that the garden was taken over by the University of Genoa in 1987.

Garden

The signposted path leads through the zone of the "Four Seasons" ( Quattro Stagioni ) the Aloenzone, the zone of Cyclamen, through the Japanese Garden ( Campana giapponese ), continues through the " Pergola", past the dragon fountain ( Fontana del Drago ), the Garden of odors ( Giardino dei profumi ) for " Mausoleum Moresco ," where the ashes were Sir Thomas Hanbury and his wife Lady Katherine Pease buried. A little further down the hill, cross the old Roman road Via Julia Augusta and reached after one has the old olive grove ( Viale degli Olivi ) and crosses the garden sage, and finally the coast.

The arduous way up through the pine forest, past South African acacias, the " Pozzo Veneto ". Halfway up the slope you cross the Australian Forest ( Foresta Australiana ) with eucalyptus trees from Queensland and Western Australia, until you reach the south-facing terrace, where you can visit the rose collection in the " Giardinetti ". Still, it is necessary to pass through the palm grove, "Viale delle Cycas " and the banana forest until you finally sighted the Peruvian pepper tree near the exit.

On 1 June 2006, the garden of UNESCO was included in the list of world cultural heritage.

• Cacti
• Pavilion
• Grave monument of Hanbury

Historical catalogs and descriptions

• Gustav Cronemeyer: Systematic catalog of plants growing in the open air in the garden of Thomas Hanbury, FLS: Palazzo Orengo, La Mortola, near Ventimiglia, Italy. G. A. King, Erfurt 1889.
• Kurt Dinter: Alphabetical catalog of plants growing in the open air in the garden of Thomas Hanbury, FLS: Palazzo Orengo, La Mortola, near Ventimiglia, Italy. Waser Brothers, Genoa 1897.
• Alwin Berger: Hortus mortolensis: Enumeratio plantarum in Horto Mortolensi cultarum. London 1912 (online).

• Friedrich A. Flückiger: La Mortola. A short description of the garden of Thomas Hanbury, Esq. Translated from German by Helen P. Sharpe, 1885 (online).
• George Edward Comerford Case: Riviera nature notes, a popular account of the more striking plants and animals of the Riviera and the Maritime Alps. 2nd edition, Bernard Quaritch, London, 1903 (online).