Garden tour
The Linnaeus Garden is a reconstruction of Uppsala University Botanical Garden as it looked in Linnaeus´ day. It is arranged according to Linnaeus´ own plan from 1745. All the plant species currently grown in the garden are known to have been cultivated by Linnaeus.
Sights in the Garden

1. Main Gate (Porta magna)

The original iron gates were rediscovered in the 1960s, having been kept in storage by the University, and were rehung in 1967. The ‘overthrow’ – the ornamental structure across the top – was not found, however, and a new one had to be made on the basis of Linnaeus’ description. On the side facing Svartbäcksgatan it is decorated with the lesser coat of arms of Sweden.
On the garden side the overthrow originally bore the arms of the Gyllenborg family, in acknowledgement of their patronage of the garden. The iron for the gates was donated by Count Fredrik Gyllenborg and is stamped with the mark of the Vattholma ironworks; at the time, his elder brother Carl Gyllenborg was Chancellor of the University.
2. The Fore Court
The plot of land immediately adjoining Svartbäcksgatan formed the forecourt to the Director’s Lodge. In Linnaeus’ day, there was a planting of unknown composition here. Now the area is dominated by eight large lime trees, planted in the 19th century. They symbolize Linnaeus, whose name was inspired by a lime that grew on his father’s family estate in Småland.
In May the forecourt is carpeted with Siberian corydalis Corydalis nobilis. The species was introduced in Sweden via seeds received by Linnaeus April 22 1765.
3. Perennial Parterre (Area perennis)
“The Perennial Parterre flaunts plants whose roots can quite easily endure even the harsh cold of our winters. Most of the native species may be counted among these, but a considerable number may also be added from the northern regions of America and Europe.”
Carl Linnaeus, Hortus Upsaliensis 1745
In the Perennial Parterre, species are planted according to the 24 classes in Linnaeus' sexual system. The plants' slate labels follow a design used by the Botanical Garden in 1864. It is not known what they looked like in Linnaeus' day.
The hedges surrounding Area perennis and Area annua are a mixture of mock orange, barberry, willow and spruce, all according to Linnaeus' description. In this way, various plant species suitable for hedges could be tried out and demonstrated to the students.
4. Annual Parterre (Area annua)

“The Annual Parterre is taken up by such plants as are sown outdoors in the summer and whose roots last for one or two years.”
Carl Linnaeus, Hortus Upsaliensis 1745
There are 44 beds in Area annua, and in keeping with Linnaeus' instructions, they are narrow enough to allow one person walking along them to weed them. Annual and biennial plants are grown in the flowerbeds. The biennials form a rosette of leaves in the first year, and flower in the second.
The gates of Area annua and Area perennis were locked in Linnaeus' day. Visitors eager for knowledge were thereby able to see the plants over the hedges, but hindered from purloining any. The visitor who wanted to see more was allowed to do so in the company of Linnaeus, the demonstrator or the gardener.
5. Garden Paths (Ambulacra)
The central path is lined with ornamental plants that were grown in and around Uppsala in the 18th century. In Linnaeus’ time, the path along the south-east side of the garden, the Ambulacrum tectum, was a covered walk, offering shade on sunny days. If visitors preferred to walk in the sun, they could choose the north-west path, the Ambulacrum subdiale.
Nowadays, wild strawberries and twinflower Linnaea borealis are grown in the flower bed close the the entrance. Linnaeus had great difficulty in getting twinflower to flourish in the garden and succeeded only in growing it in a flower pot.
6. River Pond (Aquarium fluviatile)
“In the River Pond, river and lake plants such as Hottonia, Hippuris, Myriophyllum, Potamogetones, Sagittaria, Utricularia, etc., are grown. The sides of the pond are covered with 20 different species of Carex.”
Carl Linnaeus, Hortus Upsaliensis 1745
The River Pond was deeper than the Marsh Pond but shallower than the Lake Pond. Different species of sedge grew along its sides, such as bladder sedge Carex vesicaria and cyperus sedge C. pseudocyperus. In the middle of the pond, mare’s tail Hippuris vulgaris, pondweeds Potamogeton-species, and arrowhead Sagittaria sagittifolia flourished.
Linnaeus argued that all cultivation should be based on knowledge of the plants’ natural habitats: climate, soil and humidity. His ponds were the first-ever ecological plantations in a botanical garden.
7. Lake Pond (Aquarium lacustre)
“The Lake Pond, which is star-shaped and an excellent masterpiece of the gardener’s, contains only plants with floating leaves, such as Nymphaea lutea and alba, Hydrocharis, etc.”
Carl Linnaeus, Hortus Upsaliensis 1745
The gardener who built the pond was named Dietrich Nietzel and had been recruited by Linnaeus from Holland. In front of the pond, Linnaeus placed a statue of Venus, bought in 1758 from Piperska trädgården in Stockholm. It caused a scandal in Uppsala, as the Medicean Venus was completely naked.
Common newts Triturus vulgaris prosper in the pond’s sun-warmed water. Linnaeus thought that they caused much damage in Uppsala’s fishponds, but that they could be got rid of by pouring salt into the water. Today it is a protected species.
8. Marsh (Aquarium palustre)
“The Marsh Pond is surrounded by walls or horizontally placed logs, which separate the water from solid ground; in between them is a space full of marsh mud, in which marsh plants have been planted.”
Carl Linnaeus, Hortus Upsaliensis 1745
Linnaeus’ three ponds were fed water from a spring flowing through the garden. The water was led from east to west through hollowed-out logs which had been buried in the ground. The Marsh Pond was the shallowest of the three and filled with marsh mud.
9. Monkey Huts
There were a number of different animals — the Vivarium — in Linnaeus’ botanical garden including guinea pigs, peacocks, parrots, hedgehogs and various species of monkey. A great favourite of Linnaeus was a tame raccoon, which entertained children and visitors with its pranks.
The small, grey huts on tall poles are monkey houses. When it was warm enough, Linnaeus’ monkeys would be allowed outside. They were chained to the metal railing which runs vertically along the pole and could thus climb up and down between the hut and the ground below.
10. Spring Parterre (Area vernalis)
“The Spring Parterre comprises such plant species as should be covered during the winter and which start to develop (occasionally protected by windows) as spring approaches. Among these are numerous plants from Siberia. This parterre has a frame for climbing plants such as Convolvuli, Ipomaea, marrows, etc.”
Carl von Linné, Hortus Upsaliensis 1745
Besides Siberian plants, the parterre included spring-flowering bulbs. In his “Blomsteralmanach” (Calendar of Flora) from 1755, Linnaeus notes on the 12th of April that spring crocus Crocus vernus, snowdrop Galanthus nivalis, and spring snowflake Leucojum vernum all began blooming on the same day that the wagtail returned and the frogs began croaking. During the summer, most of the spring flowers have withered and the flowerbeds lie waste.
11. Autumn Parterre (Area autumnalis)
“The Autumn Parterre shows a similar stock of plants [as the Spring Parterre],
which in winter are covered with cut spruce branches. We owe a considerable
number of these to Virginian soils.”
Carl Linnaeus, Hortus Upsaliensis 1745
Many species from "Virginia", i.e. eastern North America, are grown in the Autumn Parterre. One of them is coneflower Rudbeckia laciniata, named by Linnaeus after the founder of the Botanical Garden, Olof Rudbeck, and his son, Olof Rudbeck the Younger.
The last plant to blossom in the parterre is the autumn crocus Colchium autumnale, which according to Linnaeus will serve to remind the gardener to take the “Indian” plants indoors, as early autumn night frosts often occur between the 17th and 29th of August.
12. Orangery (Hybernaculum)
“A Winter house or hothouse, generally referred to as an Orangery, is the soul of the garden, without which no academic garden can survive.”
Carl Linnaeus Hortus Upsaliensis 1742
The orangery was built in 1744 to a plan by the architect Carl Hårleman. It was divided into three sections named after the divisions in Roman baths. Frigidarium was the coolest. Plants which spent the summer on the gravel ground in front of the orangery were kept in the Frigidarium during the winter. In the summer, it was used for lectures. Caldarium was warm and humid. Tropical plants were kept there. Tepidarium was the hot, dry department where succulents and plants from South Africa were grown.
When the botanical garden was abandoned in the early 19th century, the orangery was converted for other uses. It has not been used as a greenhouse since. There is an exhibition on the garden´s history in the southern wing.
13. Southern Parterre (Area meridionalis)
“The Southern Parterre is a large, open area covered with sand. It receives Flora that migrates south from the orangery, and is admirably neat with its flowerpots arranged in rows, which in winter, however, find more suitable lodgings in the Frigidarium.”
Carl Linnaeus, Hortus Upsaliensis 1745
In the summer, plants from the Frigidarium were brought out into the sun on the gravel-covered area in front of the orangery. There were rows of pots and tubs with figs, myrtle, peach, chestnut, mulberry and many, many more. There were also some plants which are grown outdoors today, such as white cedar Thuja occidentalis and alpine thistle Carlina acaulis. Their hardiness was not known in Linnaeus’ day; he thought they would not survive the winters in Uppsala.
14. Cold Frame (Solarium)
“The Solarium or Cold Frame corresponds to the vaporarium on the south side. These windows face westwards, and beneath them are shelves of gradually increasing height, on which pots of the most varied plants may be placed. By being thus placed, and by being warm, they mature faster and are protected, particularly at night, from the devastation of cold and storms. The solarium’s height is 3 1/2 ells.”
Carl Linnaeus, Hortus Upsaliensis 1745
Solarium was a cold frame two metres high, i. e. it was warmed exclusively by the sun’s rays. More sensitive plants were kept there in pots, protected from bad weather and night frosts. Plants from the orangery’s Tepidarium, such as bulbs and geraniums from South Africa and various succulents, were also kept in the solarium in the summer.
15. Forcing Frame (Vaporarium)
“The Vaporarium or Forcing Frame stands by the west side of the orangery. It is built of wood and equipped with slanting windows, and filled with horse-dung which is covered with tanner’s bark. Numerous pots may be seen here, filled with the finest sifted humus in which the seeds of tropical plants are sown. In the summer, thanks to the sun’s and the earth’s combined heat (as warm as in the horse’s belly), these seeds are brought to germination. The height of this hotbed reaches 3 1/2 ells.”
Carl Linnaeus, Hortus Upsaliensis 1745
This is where Linnaeus’ Vaporarium stood, a forcing frame two metres high used to force plants from seed. It was warmed partly by the sun’s rays and partly from below, when horse-dung and tanner’s bark “burned” together. It is not known exactly what the forcing frame looked like.
16. Apricarium
“The Apricarium lies to one side, facing the ponds, and is covered in windows. Succulents are moved here in the summer, in order that they be exposed to the rays of the sun.”
Carl Linnaeus, Hortus Upsaliensis 1745
Succulents which spent the winter in the Caldarium and Tepidarium of the orangery were moved out to the Apricarium in the summer, as it was sunnier there. In 1745, Linnaeus listed 46 different species that were kept there, including thirteen cacti, seven euphorbias, eleven species of aloe, and eleven mesembs.
Some of the flowerpots now kept in the Apricarium are old-fashioned. The tall patterned pot is a reconstruction based on shards found here in the Linnaeus Garden. The lower pot with feet is a copy of a pot in the Botanical Garden’s collections.

17. Trees and Shrubs (Arbores et frutices)
“The leaves pale on the trees: 1 the maple, 2 the oak, 3 the elm, 4 the lime, but they blush on the rowan. As soon as the ash’s leaves have fallen off, the plants from southern regions should be taken into the Winter houses, so that frosts will not harm them.”
Carl Linnaeus 1755, Blomsteralmanackan
Along the borders of the garden, Linnaeus had one specimen of every known Swedish species of tree planted, plus foreign trees such as false walnut Juglans regia and chestnut Castanea sativa. These trees served a practical purpose, by protecting the garden from the cold north winds of the Uppsala plain.
In the garden, Linnaeus studied when the trees came into leaf as well as in what order they shed them in the autumn. The oldest trees growing here today are some elms from the first half of the 19th century. The last Linnaean tree, a black poplar Populus nigra, fell in a storm in 1911.
18. Director's Lodge
The Director’s Lodge was built by Olof Rudbeck the Elder in 1693 as an official residence for his son Olof Rudbeck the Younger. Both were professors of medicine and botany and Directors of the Botanical Garden. When Linnaeus took over as Director in 1741, the building was ‘more like a den of thieves and an owl’s nest’, and major renovation work was required before he and his family could move in.
When the garden was abandoned as a botanical garden, the house was used instead as a residence for the University’s Director of Music. The last holder of that post to live here was the composer Hugo Alfvén. Since 1937 the building has housed the Linnaeus Museum, managed by the Swedish Linnaeus Society. Find out more at www.linnaeus.se.