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Tromsø Arctic-Alpine Botanic Garden

A fantastic experience!

This is what the Swedish King said after a visit to Tromsø Arctic-Alpine Botanic Garden a few years ago. He is not the only one enjoying a visit to our small, but very diverse botanic garden. It is so different that it has been included among 10 top gardens in the world, e.g. by the BBC and The Guardian.

In the Garden you will find small and colourful arctic species along with plants from alpine and cold areas around the whole world. They are cultivated in crevices and among rocks and boulders brought in with their original natural cover of lichens and mosses.

The Garden has 25 collections. The Saxifrage, Gentian, and Primula families, the Arctic, Himalaya, southernmost South America, and plants from old gardens in North Norway are particular impressive, according to visiting international experts. Many of the plants cannot be seen in other gardens. Please, read more about our plant collections here.

The most recent garden landscape is a large boulder ridge in the southern part of the Garden. In its dry and warm south-facing slope you can see plants originating from Turkey, Lebanon, South Africa and Chile. On the north-facing slope, only 10 m away, you can see snow-bed plants from Svalbard. One of these is the buttercup Ranunculus wilanderi, one of the rarest species in Europe. in the wild it is found in a single site near Kapp Thordsen on Svalbard.

Flowering normally starts in early May and continues until snow arrives in October. The Garden does not have any gates, admission is free, and access is 24 hours a day. Throughout the season we publish the Garden’s flowering highlights here. 

The Botanic Garden is one among four attractions. More to see and experience at Tromsø Museum,  Polarmuseet and MS Polstjerna