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Heralds of Spring
In the early spring time the lovely spring flowers we know so well - snowdrops, primroses, hellebores, crocuses, winter aconites - are blooming in the Botanical Garden .... A colourful carpet below the still leafless trees.
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Late spring in the Garden, April, May
The trees have already developed its foliage. Beneath them you will find ramsons exuding its charactestic odour. More and more plants are in bloom; pink peonies, common laburnum ...
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Blooming Summer
In summer the Garden lawns are covered with blooming flowers and shrubs, the garden beds are full of flowers in dazzling colours. We shall get familiar with and also draw a picture of the loveliest among them.
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Autum in the Garden
The leaves have assumed warm autumnal colours and are already beginning to fall away. We shall collect different leaves and shall also try to draw them. Among the maturing fruits there are some that we already know: nuts, tomatoes, beech nuts and acorn, chestnuts, and maple tree "helicopters". Late autumn is the time of different pumpkins - growing in our Garden are no less than 20 pumpkin species.
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Winter in the Botanical Garden
Much is to be seen in the Garden also during winter: witch hazel begins to bloom in January. Birds besiege the Garden feeding spots. We shall examine and name the seeds that they eat. During winter the tropical greenhouse turns into an almost impenetrable jungle because all of the plants that cannot stand the winter cold were moved there in autumn.
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Looking for Adventure
Who will be the first to find a snail shell? Whose cone is the biggest of all? How many of us must hold hands to form a circle around the linden tree aged 190 years? How does it feels to caress a tender newt? What does the goldfish feed on? Do snails also live in water? What colour is the waterlily? Let us take a look at a tulip flower! How does a peanut grow?
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Propagation of Plants
Who could not be interested in the development of a plant from its seed? Cutting up a juicy orange, an acid lemon, a large grapefruit, we remove their seeds and carefully put them into soil. We discuss the reason why the bottom of the flower pot has a hole in it, why a shard should be placed over the hole, why plants need water, how a new plant will develop from the seed. At minimal care tiny new plants will in some weeks shoot up from the kernels. Visit us again and learn how to transplant young plants that already have roots of their own.
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Fruits and Distribution of Plants
The plants of our part of the world as well as those of other countries terminate the growth period through the maturing of their fruits. Some fruits are widely known while others attract attention for their unusual shape. Some are edible while others may be worked into animal shapes. Some are encased in a hard shell, others are juicy and odorous. How many fruits are we going to enumerate?
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Taste and Smell of Plants, Condiments, Medicinal and Poisonous Herbs
We all know the smell of a salad dish or that of a freshly baked pizza. But how many among us know that the salad smells of garlic and and the pizza of origan? We shall try to identify the smells of different shampoos, creams, essential oils, perfumes beside the smells of live plants from which they are made.
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Plants and Animals in the Pool
In the warm morning hours we can go and observe all that lives in water. There are floating plants and underwater plants, snails, shells, water striders and water beetles, newts, frogs, dragonflies, fish, and - if it is our lucky day - we shall also see a tortoise sunbathing on waterlilies.
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Carnivorus Plants
Slovenia is also the home of some carnivorous plants. They feed on insects that get caught on the sticky drops forming on their leaves. Some of them are from foreign countries, say, pitcher plants that drown insects in their water-filled pitchers or flytraps whose folding leaves entrap an imprudent insect within seconds.
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Tropical Greenhouse
Though no monkeys fool around our jungle, banana trees thrive there quite splendidly. Bananas keep company to other famous plants: coffee, pepper, ananas plants, a gigantic monstera with edible fruits, a mimosa that folds up its leaves if touched, blooming orchids ....
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Prickly Plants
Even if the weather turns bad, there is no need for us to get wet. We shall go to see the cactuses in the greenhouse. We shall get familiar with various species of cactuses and euphorbias. Why are they so spiny, where do they grow in nature? And we shall draw a picture of them. Are there any animals that also prick?
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The Trees of Our Forests
How many trees do we recognize when taking a walk through a forest? Beech, oak, spruce? What about chestnut and cherry, maple and birch? What is the difference between spruce and fir? We shall take a look at some of our best known trees, collect their leaves and paste them beside the bark imprint that we shall also prepare here. In autum when leaves take on vivid colours and drop from trees, we shall make imprints of leaves.
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Work in the Garden, Tools and Professions
Here we shall examine different gardening tools. We shall try them out and help the gardener to lay out a garden bed with plants.
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Soil and Plants
Let us search for the animals living in compost and contributing to the decomposition of leaves and formation of soil.
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The Hour of Fairy Tales and Songs in the Botanical Garden
What was Little Red Ridinghood picking when encountering the wolf? What do the pansies and Cinderella's stepmother have in common? Who was the heroine called Rapunzel? Why did Sleeping Beauty fall asleep? Why do narcissi bend their heads? Why are wood anemones also called "little shirts"? Who knows the song about a watermelon? Slovenian as well as world literature has a rich fund of stories about plants. Children are familiar with fairy stories of this kind. Let them now learn also about the plants behind the fairy tales!
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Making Greeting Cards, Pictures made from flowers, Bouquets, Ikebana Arrangements
Dry flowers can be arranged into a bouquet or an ikebana that will decorate our home for a long time. Come to us before the spring or winter holidays, we shall design lovely "plant" greeting cards.
