Today we ventured out to find a garden—and although what we thought would be a 14 minute walk turned into a hilltop adventure, well, we’re in Italy, so it was all fine.
Established in 1803, the collection is not as historic or as grand at the one in Padova, but it’s a bucolic place, not well cared after, and overall, still a lot of fun. Since this university is also the owner of a large botanical garden at an estate along the Italian Riviera I will cut them plenty of slack. I cannot imagine the expense of maintaining both this property as well as the other. It alone is 44 acres so kudos to them.
Along our walk there was much to see.
“Love greetings”
Random Graptopetalum growing out of a wall.
Several levels of gardens. A common sight in many areas in Italy.
Fig tree growing out of a wall. Just random fruit.
Strelitzia (bird of paradise) grow well here.
Citrus aurantium ssp. Aurantium var. Myrtifolia (bitter orange).
Colletia spinosa.
Street trees—literally.
Tecomaria capensis (cape honeysuckle).
Dahlia imperialis (tree dahlia).
Unknown little yuccas.
Fremontodendron californium a long way from home.
Iris japonica.
Pinus nigra.
Pittosporum.
Not sure.
Wisteria.
White rose with Colletia cruciata.
Amorphophallus ‘Konjac’.
Arbutus andrachne (Greek strawberry tree).
Unknown Rhododendron.
Unknown Magnolia.
My favorite bulb: Leopoldia comosa aka Muscari comosum.
Magnolia tulipiflora.
Araucaria bidwillii (Bunya pine).
Weedy Oxalis.
Where they catalog and keep their plants. Many here are historically medicinal ones.
Tamarix gallica (French tamarix) with a bad haircut.
Vitis vinifera with a little green lizard. Can you see it?
Cercis siliquastrum (Judad tree).
Cycas revoluta (female).
Scilla peruviana.
Myrtus communis subsp. Tarentina.
Myrtus communis subsp. Tarentina.
Water plant collection.
And then we wandered back downhill to our apartment, encountering this lovely grotto in the courtyard of a palazzo along our way.
Amateur Bot-ann-ist 
Extraordinary photos….thank you so much!
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Thank you!
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Wow wow wow! Especially the Colletias! Colletia spinosa – what blossoms! Colletia cruciata – what spines! You’re having a wonderful visit – thank you for sharing this!
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Thanks for the eye candy! Seriously, it looks like everything is beautiful there no matter where you look. The plants, the architecture, the sky… I love the graptopetalum growing from the wall. Was that rose thornless? I just thought it would be funny if someone planted a thornless rose and then thought, “nope, needs thorns,” and planted the Colletia cruciata with it. That Scilla is beautiful! I had to look for others like that and found it might actually be Scilla dimartinoi. The very short peduncle and hairy leaf margins seem pretty distinctive. The no clue plant with white flowers and lobed leaves might be Crataegus monogyna.
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I thought that was mislabeled too. Glad you looked it up. I was in such a hurry to post last night before going to bed that I was to tired to do it. Overall, the labeling was so-so there but it was funny to see several native plants from back home. Not sure if the rose had thorns, and I feel dumb because I can’t remember it’s name. I’ve seen it before in Italy. Everything around here is lovely even when it is not. That’s part of the happiness of this place.
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So wonderful!!! The yucca, the wall growing graptopetalum, the street trees! Oh and that last shot…that sums up my memories of Italy right there. Poor Andrew was so afraid I was going to march right into those courtyards every time we passed one with an open door.
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An Italian garden appreciation group just shared the photo with their followers on Instagram. Made me so happy! I thought of you a lot yesterday with all those spiky plants.
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