The Botanical Garden
Oslo’s Green Oasis
Botanisk hage (The Botanical Garden) in Oslo is a beautiful and tranquil oasis in the heart of the city, offering visitors a chance to explore a diverse collection of plants from all over the world. Established in 1814, it is Norway’s oldest botanical garden and part of the Natural History Museum at the University of Oslo. The garden is not only a place of beauty and relaxation but also a center for education, conservation, and scientific research.
A Living Museum of Plants
Covering an area of 150 acres, the Botanical Garden features more than 5,500 plant species from different ecosystems. Visitors can stroll through lush greenery, colorful flower beds, and exotic greenhouses, making it a perfect escape from the urban hustle.
Foto: Stig Rune Pedersen (2008).
Highlights of the Botanical Garden
1. The Arboretum
🌳 A collection of Norwegian and international trees arranged to showcase various climates and landscapes.
🌿 Ancient trees, some of which are over 200 years old, providing shade and a sense of history.
2. The Viking Garden
🛡 A reconstructed Viking-era garden that displays plants used in Viking food, medicine, and crafts.
🌾 Learn about the plants that Norwegians cultivated over a thousand years ago.
3. The Palm House and Victoria House
🏡 Palm House (Palmehuset) – A stunning Victorian-style greenhouse with plants from tropical and Mediterranean climates.
💦 Victoria House – Home to giant water lilies and exotic rainforest plants, offering a glimpse of the Amazonian ecosystem.
4. The Rock Garden
🪨 Alpine plants from high-altitude regions, beautifully arranged among rocks and small waterfalls.
🌸 Rare and endangered plant species that thrive in cold climates.
5. The Scent Garden
🌿 A specially designed sensory garden with aromatic plants that invite visitors to experience nature through touch and smell.
More Than Just a Garden
The Botanical Garden is also a research and conservation center, dedicated to protecting Norway’s native flora and studying climate change’s impact on plant life. It plays a key role in educating visitors about biodiversity and sustainability.
Practical Information
📍 Location: Tøyen, Oslo
🕒 Opening Hours: Open daily, year-round (hours vary by season).
🎟 Admission: Free entrance (greenhouses may have a small fee).
🚆 How to Get There:
Metro (T-bane) Line 5 to Tøyen Station (5-minute walk).
Bus and tram services nearby.
Why Visit the Botanical Garden?
✅ Explore a beautiful collection of plants from around the world.
✅ Visit historic greenhouses with tropical and exotic species.
✅ Enjoy a peaceful walk through scenic gardens and landscapes.
✅ Learn about Viking-era plants and medicinal herbs.
✅ Perfect for nature lovers, families, and photography enthusiasts.
Whether you're looking for a quiet place to relax, a scenic walk, or a chance to learn about Norway’s plant life, Botanisk hage is a must-visit destination in Oslo! 🌿🌸✨
Botanical Garden – a living museum
Over 4,500 plant types from around the world. Thematic gardens, including two greenhouses.
Botanical Garden – a living museum
The garden is used actively in education, outreach and research at the museum. The plants are both grown in green houses and in the thematic gardens outside. The Botanical Garden conveys knowledge about the diversity of the plant kingdom and the importance of conserving it. Norwegian plants that are considered threatened and vulnerable are also kept in the garden. The Botanical Garden serves as an important recreational area in Oslo.
Explore the thematic gardens
All the plants are divided into thematic gardens, including our two greenhouses The Victoria House and The Palm House.
Theme Gardens
The Botanical Garden is divided into several thematic gardens in addition to The Arboretum that spans the majority of the garden. Read more about the thematic gardens below.
The Arboretum
An Arboretum is a collection of trees and bushes. The arboretum covers most of the Garden’s grounds, and surrounds all the other exhibited plant collections. In every season, you will find something beautiful to see and contemplate among the Garden’s trees and bushes.
The arboretum contains more than 900 different species, subspecies and cultivars, and there are more than 1200 trees altogether. Ever since the Garden was established 200 years ago, the trees have been planted according to a certain system. Trees in the same family are usually found near each other, although with many exceptions.
Strolling through the arboretum, you may find trees in spectacular bloom, each to its season. There are cherry trees, yellowwood, dove trees, robinias, catalpa, linden, elder and mock orange – and last but not least, the magnolia trees, some of which open their large white flowers in early spring before their leaves unfold.
On the western slopes you find the conifers. The walnut trees with their huge, pinnate leaves contribute an exotic look to the area, and the Garden’s only white mulberry tree is also found here. One of the unusual trees you’ll find in the Garden is the Temple Tree, Ginkgo biloba, native to East Asia. Ginkgo is a solitary survivor of an ancient kind of trees, it has no close relatives on Earth. The specimen next to the Victoria House was planted in 1870. Another “living fossil” is the dawn redwood, Metasequoia glyptostroboides. The whole genus was assumed to be extinct, until this one species was found alive and well in a secluded valley in China in 1946.
The Victoria House
The Victoria House is a veritable time capsule from the 1800s. At the time, most European botanical gardens wanted to grow and show the gigantic water lily from the Amazon. This was long before ordinary people had the opportunity to travel and experience exotic flowers in their natural setting – or see them on TV. The Victoria House here in our botanical garden opened in 1876.
In the central area, you will find the pool with water lilies. We cultivate the species Victoria cruziana or hybrids between it and Victoria amazonica. If you are lucky, you may also experience lotus in bloom. Otherwise, the room mainly consists of useful plants from tropical regions, where the climate is warm and humid. You know them from cooking and eating, but you may not know what the plants ginger, coffee, and cinnamon look like in nature.
The room on the right when you enter is dedicated to plants from subtropical regions. Some shed leaves when it is dry, and some survive as bulbs underground. Botanists at the Natural History Museum work on describing and mapping the flora in Eastern and Southern Africa. Many new species have been described. Some are endangered and may only exist in cultivation here at the museum. In this room, we cultivate some of them.
The room on the left showcases a selection of plant life in the canopies of the rainforest, in addition to carnivorous plants along one wall. Plants that live in the canopy are called epiphytes. Many of them are orchids or related to pineapples.
Queen Victoria
The queen of water lilies The Victoria water lily is named after Queen Victoria. The species Victoria amazonica grows in shallow water in quiet backwaters in the Amazon. It is one of the world's fastest-growing plants. A leaf can increase its diameter by 35 cm in a day and can support the weight of a child. The flower only opens for two nights. The first night it is female, the next it is male. There are three species of Victoria water lilies, Victoria cruziana from Paraguay, V. amazonica, formerly known as V. regia, and V. boliviana. The latter is native to Bolivia, where it grows in wetlands connected to the Amazon. The species was first described in 2022. The leaves can reach a width of up to 3.2 meters and are the largest in the genus. It is too large to be cultivated here.
The Norwegian author Johan Borgen (1902-1979) wrote the short story "Victoria Regia" (1954), in which parts of the plot take place in our greenhouse.
The Palm House
The Palm House opened in 1868 and has three rooms.
The center room is a living exhibit of the evolution of plants through millions of years. There are several cycads, ancient seed plants which were abundant on Earth before flowering plants evolved. You can also see a Wollemia nobilis, a conifer long thought to be extinct, but found alive and well in an Australian national park in 1994. A 50 million year old red sandstone from Svalbard with fossilized leaves is also on display. The leaves are remarkably similar to those found on today’s deciduous trees.
The room to the right is the Mediterranean room. Among many other interesting plants, you may find camellias and orange trees in full bloom in the middle of winter.
The room to the left contains cacti and other succulent plants from many parts of the world. The climate here is always dry, but may be cold at night and very hot in the afternoons.
The Palm House is too low for palms. But it once housed one famous palm, which grew here from 1815 to 2000. It was known as “Smith’s Palm”, grown from a seed collected on the Canary Islands by the Garden’s first director Christen Smith. It eventually grew so tall that several emergency measures were taken to make room for it, including raising the roof. Smith’s Palm was well known and a major attraction in the Garden until it died.
The Rock Garden
The Rock Garden is a miniature mountain landscape, with rocky ridges and hillsides surrounded by grass-covered valleys and slopes. Terrain, water and plants together create a vivid impression of the great diversity of plants found in mountainous areas all over the world.
The peak blooming season is spring/early summer, but there are always some plants in bloom or fruit throughout the season.
Practically all the plants are grown from seeds collected in the wild. All are perennials and are not moved indoors in winter. You will usually find between 1500 and 1700 different kinds of plants here.
The Rock Garden opened in 1989. Inspired by alpine garden in the Alps, it is divided into geographical areas. Plants from the same parts of the world are located together, with Europe at the bottom, Asia in the middle, and America at the top. The creek is artificial with circulating water. It ends in a small waterfall cascading into the bottom pond.
The Rock Garden is in continuous development and expansion. Plants are tested here every year, and not all of them make it; the plant selection is adjusted accordingly.
Long history
2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the official opening of The Rock Garden, June 4th 1989. The plans of establishing the garden dates back to the 1950's.
The construction of the garden started in 1968 and was supervised by the Botanical Garden manager of the time, professor Rolf Berg. The structures of the garden – such as the little streams, waterfalls and ponds – were artificially made by employees of the Botanical Garden over 20 years. Most of the work were limited to fall since the gardeners were occupied with ordinary gardening tasks during spring and summer. See historical photos from the building process in the image gallery below.
Source : Botanisk hage 1814-2014 – Historien om en hage, av Liv Borgen (Press)
The Scandinavian Ridge
On the Scandinavian ridge, we do not only show plants growing in Scandinavian mountains – we show you the mountain itself. Different rocks create different soils, and therefore different types of vegetation. Some plants prefer granite, others shale. The rocks have been brought here from many different places in Norway.
The ridge is a cooperative project between the Natural History Museum’s botanists, geologists and gardeners. We want to provide insight into the underlying conditions which create different habitats. There are marshy areas as well as areas dominated by sand and gravel. Such differences are important for the development of biological diversity.
Alpine plants grow slowly. Our Oslo location is not optimal for species like the pyramidal saxifrage, but we have very skillful gardeners who do their utmost to make them thrive. You also find mountain plants like alpine sagewort, rockfoil and the small fleawort Tephroseris integrifolia, which has only been found in a single location in Norway.
The Oslo Ridge
Photo: Ragna Bruland
On the Oslo Ridge, you find perennials from the coastal landscapes and islands of the inner Oslo fjord. The fjord and the protected location make the Oslo area a little warmer in spring and fall than the rest of the region.
Blooming in the spring are liverleaf (blue Hepatica), small pasque flower, wood anemone, buttercup anemone, cowslip and lilyofthevalley. Colorful eyecatchers in June/July are purple bloody crane’sbills, blue dragonheads, yellow willowleaved inulas and creamy white dropworts. Aromatic herbs like wild onion, thyme and oregano are also found here. Some of the around 100 species on the Oslo Ridge are threatened in nature due to afforestation and human wear and tear.
The preservation of viable populations of these threatened species is one of the most important tasks of the Botanical Garden. We serve as a living gene bank for dwarf thistle, rock cinquefoil, pea vetch, mountain clover, dragonhead and several other local, rare species.
Reverdin’s blue
A rare butterfly on the Oslo Ridge you also find licorice milkvetch. A very rare blue butterfly, Reverdin’s blue, is totally dependent on this plant – its larvae live only on this milkvetch. At present, it is uncertain whether there are any of these butterflies left, or if it is extinct in Norway.
The Herb Garden
Photo: Ingunn Cecilie Jensen
All the plants in the Herb Garden have been utilized by people, for a variety of purposes: Flavor and spice, medicine, fiber and dyeing. Culinary herbs stimulate appetite and aid digestion. Most culinary herbs have also been used as medicinal plants.
Many herbs are native to the Mediterranean and were brought north by monks in the Middle Ages. They taught people how to grow and use both medicinal and culinary herbs. Some of the plants escaped the confines of gardens and became established as wild plants in Norway.
A monastery garden of useful plants. Around the gazebo you will find American species, fiber plants, plants for dyeing and poisonous plants. The middle section is modelled after monastic cross-form gardens, and the plants here were common in European monastery and pothecary gardens.
At the low end of the Herb Garden there are raised beds with old species of food plants. The Herb Garden is at its best in late summer.
Photo: Ragna Bruland
Thirsty people
The entrance portals in the Herb Garden are covered in hops. Hops contain a bitter ompound and have been used in beer brewing for hundreds of years. Hops were also used to aid sleep, and as ersatz tobacco.
Thirsty horses
The hollowed stone in the center of the garden – now functioning as a fountain – was originally located by the barn. It was the drinking trough for the hard-working horses when Tøyen Manor was a farm. The last horse was sent to pasture in 1960, and tractors took over the horses’ role.
The Aromatic Garden
This small hexagonal garden is a delight for your nose – all the plants here are fragrant. Some have fragrant flowers, others aromatic leaves. Feel free to touch the plants in this garden! They are planted in raised beds, easily accessible for wheelchairbound visitors or for the visually impaired.
Some aromatic plant constituents, like menthol from mint and thymol from thyme, are used in manufacturing. They are used as additives for flavor and aroma in candy, confectionary, liquors, soaps, toothpaste and cough syrup.
Many of the plants in the Aromatic Garden are familiar culinary herbs such as basil, rosemary, oregano, summer savory and marjoram. The aromatic constituents are primarily volatile essential oils which easily evaporate. Plants with high contents of such oils often have other ingredients with physiological effects as well, and many of the plants in this garden are traditional medicinal herbs.
Why do plants smell?
The fragrances of plants are there to either attract or repel animals. Insects are lured to the plant to ensure its pollination. Repellent fragrances are the plants’ defense against parasites and other threatening organisms. – It’s the pleasant fragrances that dominate in the Aromatic Garden!
Great-granny's Garden
Great-granny’s garden is both a therapeutic garden and a living gene bank. The plants are traditional perennials, once very popular but rarely found in the horticultural trade today. They have been moved here from old gardens all over southeastern Norway. To be considered for
inclusion in this plant collection, the plants must have a known history going back to the 1950s or earlier.
These old perennials have great biological value. They have adapted to the local climate over a long time, and have qualities that may be missing in modern varieties. Great-granny’s garden is facilitated for visitors in wheelchairs, and also for visitors suffering from dementia.
The central area is shielded with shrubs, a low fence, and small gates, so visitors can safely stroll around on their own even if they have some problems with orientation. There are old fashioned benches and a small gazebo. The combination of visual impressions and fragrances familiar since childhood can awaken dormant memories and be a starting point for rewarding conversations.
The perennials are grouped according to geographical origin. Among many others, you will find primroses and cowslips, irises, daylilies, peonies, phlox and asters. Outside the picket fence you’ll find old varieties of fruit trees, hops and roses.
Primroses and other primulas
In the spring you’ll see a great display of primroses in Great-granny’s Garden, in many colors and shapes. The Primula genus has more than 500 wild species, and has been extensively cultivated and hybridized. They are very hardy and have long been very popular in Norwegian gardens,even in the tough climate of northern Norway.
Fresh fragrance by the cowshed
Southernwood has a strong camphor-like odor and was historically used as an air freshener or strewing herb. It has been cultivated in Norway since the 1600s. It was often planted by the door to the cowshed. Lightly rubbing your hands through the bush is an easy way to get rid of the cowshed odor.
From Thor Heyerdahl’s Garden
Thor Heyerdahl, famous explorer and skipper of the Kon-Tiki, grew up in Larvik. Day-lilies and Shasta daisies have been brought here to Great-granny’s Garden from the Heyerdahl family’s property. You find them near the gazebo.
The Systematic Garden
In the systematic garden all the plants are placed according to where they belong
on the tree of life. Kinship rules in this garden, and related species grow near each other. The garden layout has been revised in recent years, due to new knowledge of kinship resulting from modern DNA analyses.
The garden also features two shallow pools, one with waterlilies and one with various other aquatic plants.
The Systematic Garden is frequently used by school classes and students who learn about plant families, pollination and seed dispersal. There are about 600 different species in this garden, 60 of which are annuals which must be sown, grown and planted anew every year.
Get out of the rain!
Between the Systematic Garden and the Aromatic Garden, you find the Garden House, used to teach school classes. If there is no teaching going on, you are welcome to seek shelter here from the rain, and enjoy your packed lunch or picnic basket.
The Old Garden
Photo: Guri Dahl
The Old Garden was laid out in the 1950s as a formal garden of the kind that was popular in Europe before the Botanical Garden was established. Characteristic features of these gardens are topiary, water fountains, sculptures, and walking paths and lawns laid out in geometric patterns. The rest of the Botanical Garden is kept in the English garden style, which strives to imitate nature.
The Old Garden is a fine place for quiet contemplation. It is located on the south side of the yellow manor building, and enclosed by linden hedges.
The four seasons
The small sculptures surrounded by box hedges represent the four seasons. They are copies of sculptures found in a garden in the Toten district, and inspired by classical Greek art.
The Meadow
Meadows, which were not grazed but allowed to grow tall and then mowed with a scythe for winter hay, were once common all over Norway. Today the unique habitat of the unfertilized meadow has become a rarity.
Flower meadows are usually very speciesrich, and along with the plant diversity follows an equal diversity of insects. Many butterflies, bees and bumblebees are dependent on such meadows. In order to maintain this habitat and its diversity, the meadow must be mowed regularly. After mowing, raking and drying the hay, the meadow is not fertilized. A proper flower meadow is poor in nutrients, but rich in species.
A flowering meadow
Our meadow is not natural – the area was actually a fertilized lawn until 2012. At that time, the rich lawn soil was removed and replaced by meager soil, sand and gravel. Seeds are collected from meadows in nearby regions and propagated here, and the resulting diversity is representative for the traditional, local meadows. The meadow was expanded in 2018.
Chemical fertilizers, tree planting, afforestation, tractors and grass seeding have led to a decline in traditional meadows. Grazing is often used instead of mowing to keep the area open, but the animals have a very different effect on the plants. Their manure is a feast for a few, nutrienthungry species, and they soon take over and dominate where there used to be myriads of flower species who made do with much less nutrition.
Redlisted and Blacklisted plants
Redlisted and Blacklisted plants
Photo: Ingunn Cecilie Jensen
The norwegian redlist catalogues plants that are threatened in Norway, while the blacklist
concerns imported plants which spread so vigorously that they become a threat to our native flora. In a circular bed beside the Victoria greenhouse we grow examples from both lists, both the ones we wish to protect and the ones we want to keep in check.
The Botanical Garden is strongly engaged in the efforts to protect and conserve threatened species. We do extensive outreach to inform the public, we have a seed bank for vulnerable and threatened species, and we propagate and maintain populations of many threatened species native to our local area. We are also involved in eradicating the most problematic of the blacklisted species, particularly on the islands of the inner Oslo fjord.
The Viking garden
Photo: Axel Dalberg Poulsen
The Viking garden is an artistically designed part of the Botanical Garden. It was opened in 2014. You find it in the flat area below the Rock Garden. Within this 33 m long, grounded Viking ship, you can study plants, rocks and animal products which were commonly used iby the Vikings.
The garden was created in cooperation with our sister museum, the Cultural History Museum (which also belongs to the University of Oslo, and includes the famous Viking Ship Museum at Bygdøy).
The Viking Garden is a little time machine, bringing you back to the Viking era (793-1066 AD) – an important era in the Scandinavian cultural heritage. Intercultural exchange is nothing new: already a thousand years ago, the Vikings brought souvenirs from both the plant and the animal kingdoms back from their extensive travels. Their forays covered all of Europe and considerable distances into Russia and other countries east of the Mediterranean. Some plants were imported whole, others as seeds, including seeds inadvertently imported in the stabilizing ballast of the ships. Valuable Norwegian export products at that time included soap stone and grinding stones.
In August every year, the Botanical Garden organizes the Viking Day, with demonstrations of Viking cooking, wool dyeing, carving cooking pots from soap stone – and many other activities showing the importance of nature and natural resources at the time of the Vikings.
The Willow Garden
This is the children's kingdom – a child-friendly garden with fences, caves, sculptures and tunnels made from living willow. It was created in two days by a flock of volunteers and staff, and was a gift from the Friends of the Botanical Garden to our 200th anniversary in 2014. Many varieties of willow are used, and several different ways of pleating. Fences will become a dense and solid green wall, if new shoots is pleated back into the fence. If you prefer a more open fence with the pleating showing, the new shoots are pinched. The Willow Garden is first and foremost a garden for kids, but we also hope it will inspire visitors to use willow in their own gardens.
Popular willow sculputures
Willow sculptures by British artist Tom Hare are installed on several locations in the Botanical Garden. You may already have noticed the five gigantic maple fruits (samaras; often called whirlybirds) – they are found along the road from the manor house towards Great-granny’s Garden and the museum entrance. Hare is inspired by Alice in Wonderland, and likes to enlarge small objects in order to make grown-ups feel like children again. We leave it to you to discover the giant onions, apple and mushrooms. Animal figures are placed in the Viking Garden. Dried willow is a perishable material, and the sculptures will eventually break down – and give rise to new life as they are added to the Garden’s compost.
Guided tours in the Botanical Garden during summer
Get to know the garden and its history. Learn about selected trees, flowers, and other plants.
We offer guided tours in both English and Norwegian in the Botanical Garden each Sunday from 7th of July until 29th of September. The tours are free and duration is 1 hour. No registration beforehand is necessary.
Trees in the Botanical Garden
The Botanical Garden has a botanical purpose and is not a regular park. This means that the consideration for the plants, botany, and nature outweighs everything else.