(ffm) In 1997, the Botanical Garden was still part of Goethe University, and the institution's coffers were, shall we say, a little tight. "We have so many plants left in the nursery because they are no longer needed, we could sell them," suggested an employee of the garden. Good idea, said his colleagues, and they organised the first open day, making the garden accessible to a wide audience for the first time. "With guided tours, a look behind the scenes, a children's programme, food, drinks and plant sales," recalls Manfred Wessel, the garden's technical director.
Since 2012, the Botanic Garden has belonged to the city of Frankfurt, and together with the Palmengarten it forms a single unit. On seven hectares, it displays around 4,000 plant species of Central Europe and similar climatic regions of Southern Europe, North America, East Asia, the Alpine European regions and the Caucasus, as well as various special collections and the "Senckenberg Medicinal Plant Garden", which is now barrier-free for blind and visually impaired people.
Financial necessity is no longer behind the open day, rather it has become a crowd pleaser. Gardening enthusiasts from Frankfurt and the surrounding area know: There is always a lot to experience at the Botanic Garden on the first Saturday in September, this year on September 7.
The program, "still completely improvised in 1997," as Wessel recalls, has stood the test of time. There are still guided tours through the plant world of the northern hemisphere, you can still visit the greenhouses, children and plant lovers get their money's worth. Kurt Ullrich invites to "Music at the pond", the NABU presents itself, sales booths with all kinds of homemade and literature, food and drinks and the plant sale round off the offer.
Last ran already at the first open day in the Botanical Garden so successful that a colleague came up with the idea to sell the plants when there are the most of them: in spring. "So we held the first plant exchange in May 1998," Wessel says. But that's another story - one just as successful as the open house, by the way.
The open house at the Botanical Garden, 72 Siesmayer St., will be held Saturday, Sept. 7, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event is free. Admission is free.
