Tropical Winter Festival in the Apothecary Garden

On the coldest weeks of the year, the Apothecary Garden invites you to submerge yourself into the atmosphere of the tropics. Three small Southern countries will be open in the Botanical Garden hothouses — a tropical forest with unique orchids, an equatorial swamp with pitcher plants, and a small desert, which brings together some remarkable flora from faraway arid lands. The festival is open until March 31, 2015.

4^th Winter Festival of Orchids

The annual winter festival of orchids opened on December 20 in the historic Palm Conservatory. It is bursting with thousands of blossoming plants with most incredible features: some of them impress with forms and colours, others glow in the dark, while others exude unbelievable odours — from dust, cheese, and burnt rubber, to wonderful southern fragrances.

The festival presents orchids from the garden’s own collection, as well as guests from Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, China, and Southeast Asia. Some of the breeds will be making their public debut - until now they have only been seen by selectionists.

Carnivorous Plants

This year the Carnivorous Plants Garden is opening. It turned part of the Palm Conservatory into a tropical swamp with a small waterfall. It is inhabited with over 200 pitcher plants. For millions of years they have been learning to catch and digest insects, amphibia, and even small rodents. There will be sessions of feeding plants with insects at the festival!

Desert Plants

The collection of flora from the Earth’s most arid places includes cacti, agaves, spurges, crassulas, and ‘living stones’ — lithops. To get the full impression, touching some plants is now permitted! Last year the festival had over 45,000 visitors.

About the Apothecary Garden

The Garden was founded in 1706 when Peter the Great ordered that a garden be created for medicinal plants. The herbs grown here were used both for medicine and for training future Russian doctors in botany. By the early 19^th century the garden included hundreds of varieties, which were valuable not only for medicinal use, but for research and educational purposes. In 1805 the garden was bought by Moscow State University and is still part of it today.

Contact information

Website of the Apothecary Garden

Address: Prospekt Mira, Vladenie 26. The entrance to the garden is located very close to Prospekt Mira metro station (Circle line).

Opening hours: 10 am — 7 pm

Ticket price: 200 roubles