Powsin Botanical Garden: 40 Hectares and the Largest Citrus Collection in Poland

Powsin is the most suburban edge of Wilanow, and its biggest attraction is a garden that some district residents do not even realize sits so close to home. The Botanical Garden of the Polish Academy of Sciences, full name the Center for Biological Diversity Conservation, covers almost 40 hectares at ul. Prawdziwka 2, of which 27 are open to visitors. It is one of the largest botanical gardens in Poland by the size of its public grounds.

Where it came from

The idea for a large, modern botanical garden in Warsaw dates back to 1928, when professors Boleslaw Hryniewiecki and Roman Kobendza first proposed it. The war interrupted those plans, but by 1948 the first project for a garden on the grounds of a former Golf Klub and a landed estate in Powsin, south of the capital, was already drawn up. The garden itself was formally established only in 1974, by a decision of the PAN presidium, and has grown with new collections ever since.

The biggest draw is the greenhouse complex, spread over two thousand square meters, home to roughly 1500 species and varieties of warm climate plants. This is where you will find the largest citrus collection in Poland, 32 taxa: lemons, oranges, mandarins, pomelos, limes, grapefruits, calamondins, citrons and murayas, flowering and fruiting all year round. Beyond the greenhouses, it is worth seeing the arboretum, the rose and perennial collections, the collection of Polish flora and a relatively new collection of mountain plants.

The garden is open every day, on weekdays from 10 to 20, and on weekends and holidays from 10 to 21, though hours tend to be shorter outside the summer season, so check the current schedule on site or by phone before planning a longer visit. A standard ticket costs 10 zloty on weekdays and 12 zloty on weekends, a reduced ticket 6 and 8 zloty respectively, and a family ticket, for two adults and two children, 25 zloty on weekdays and 35 zloty on weekends. Children under five and seniors over seventy five get in free, as does one chaperone per ten children in an organized group.

For families from Miasteczko Wilanow or Zawady, this is one of the few places in the district where you can plan a whole day out, not just an hour after work. The paths are long and mostly paved, so they work fine with a stroller, and the greenhouses give the kids something to do even on a rainy afternoon.