Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens has been listed in The New York Times’ Style Magazine’s Top 25 Gardens around the world that have changed the way we look at, and think about, plants.
Read the New York Times article here.
How the Gardens Were Chosen
As part of the American magazine’s T25 series, which features top 25 lists of various cultural and artistic topics, the must-see gardens list was compiled by a panel of six horticultural experts.
Each panelist was asked to nominate 10 must-see gardens and, on a video call in March, they spent almost four hours winnowing down that long list to a definitive 25.
The panel consisted of one of France’s best-known landscape designers, Louis Benech, and Deborah Needleman, a garden editor at House & Garden. Other panelists included Juliet Sargeant, the first Black woman to have a show garden at the Chelsea Flower Show, author Tim Richardson, The Japanese-born, New York-based architect and plant lover Toshiko Mori, and Delavan, an interior decorator and green thumb.
Kirstenbosch Ranked Among the Best in the World
Gardens from 20 countries were nominated, with Kirstenbosch being ranked amongst gardens in England, Italy, Belgium, Japan and more.
” While native gardening has only recently become mainstream in the United States, the concept is nothing new in South Africa. Case in point: this botanical garden in the Western Cape province, the first of its kind in the world dedicated entirely to indigenous flora, which was established over a century ago in 1913,” the article noted about Kirstenbosch.
About Kirstenbosch Gardens
Few gardens can match the sheer grandeur of the setting of Kirstenbosch, against the eastern slopes of Cape Town’s Table Mountain. The Kirstenbosch estate covers 528 hectares, of which 36 ha is cultivated and the rest is a protected area supporting natural forest and fynbos, and a wide variety of indigenous birds, animals, reptiles, frogs and invertebrates.
Kirstenbosch is adjacent to the Table Mountain National Park, and both form part of the Cape Floristic Region Protected Area that was proclaimed a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004. Kirstenbosch also manages two smaller reserves: the Edith Stevens Wetland Park on the Cape Flats and the Tinie Versfeld Wild Flower Reserve near Darling.
Kirstenbosch is open to the public to enjoy a picnic with family or friends, tackle one of the many hiking trails or take a leisurely stroll through the garden. It is also the ideal venue for popular Cape Town events such as the annual sunset concert series and The Galileo Open Air Cinema.
When: Daily, 8am – 7pm during summer (Sep-Mar), 8am – 6pm during winter (Apr-Aug).
Where: Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Rhodes Dr, Newlands, Cape Town
Cost: Standard Adult: R230, South African Residents & SADC Nationals South African Residents & SADC residents 18 years and older (with ID/proof of residency)*: R100, African residents outside SADC 18 years and older (with ID/proof of residency): R140, Students/learners of 18 years and older from a South African institute (with student card): R60, All children from 6 to 17 years: R40, All children under 6 years: Free
*South African residents over the age of 60 (with ID): Free on Tuesdays except on public holidays
Tel: 021 799 8782 / 021 799 8602
Email: [email protected]
Website: sanbi.org/gardens/kirstenboch
Facebook: @KirstenboschNBG
Instagram: kirstenbosch_nbg
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