Gardens In Spain
- To: m*@ucdavis.edu
- Subject: Gardens In Spain
- From: t*@eddy.u-net.com (Tim Longville)
- Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1999 19:04:29 GMT
Belated brief reply to Tom Sweich's query about places of botanical
interest in Spain (I hoped someone else might do the deed, with better
info. than mine):
Tom, I can't quite manage anything in Andalucia but if you're prepared
(and have time) to drop down below, to the Malaga area (by plane,
perhaps?), here are a couple of places I've been told are splendid
tho' I've never visited them myself.
In Malaga itself is the Jardin Botanico-Historico La Concepcion (tel
00-34-5-225-2148), founded in the 1850s by an Englishwoman, Amalia
Loring, wife of a Spanish industrial magnate. It's only been open to
the public since 1994. Apparently it has an amazing collection of
mature specimens of a wide range of semi-tropical genera, inc. 30+ spp
of palm. Apparently, too, it's not very easy to find or very well
known so you're quite likely to have the place to yourselves. The
slogan on the front of its brochure, Pierdete en El Eden, used to come
out in the English version as 'Get Lost In Eden' - which isn't not
quite what they intended to say, perhaps, but no doubt in one sense or
another (and maybe in more than one) true!
Conveniently close to Malaga airport is the Finca La Consula, looked
after by the same gardeners who look after La Concepcion. If you're by
then suffering from an overdose of heat or plants, it also has the
virtue of a hotel and restaurant school operating out of the original
farmhouse attached to the garden - and the school includes a
restaurant open to the public where the meals are supposed to be
splendid.
Sorry I don't have opening times for either or a tel. no. for La
Consula but hope the info is of some use, anyway, imperfect
though....etc. Have fun - I'm envious, stuck here in the depths of a
raw and sleety Angel Tear winter.
Tim Longville
Solway Coast, Cumbria, UK
Tim Longville
