Confusion is the order of the day and the uniqueness of a name is not always a criterion in Madrid. The neighborhood of La Latina is not in the district of Latina, the metro stop of Manuela Malasaña is not in Tribunal but in Leganés and in this city there is more than one botanical garden.
In the Madrid summer there is one that makes more noise (in all the polysemy of the expression), which is the one located in Ciudad Universitaria and that offers a music festival during almost every day of June and July. And then the other one, which in summer is emptied of tourists and still offers a day to go see it without paying a penny.
The Royal Botanical Garden was declared an artistic garden in 1942, it has a herbarium with more than one million specimens, ten thousand drawings and more than five thousand species of living plants. And you can visit for free if you know when. And when is Tuesdays from 10 am to 1 pm.
Not that visiting on Tuesday is going to get you out of poverty, since the full ticket price to see the garden and the exhibitions in the Villanueva Pavilion is 6€ and the entrance to the garden costs 4€.
The bonsais of a former President of the Government
The garden houses a collection of bonsais of peculiar belonging: it was a donation from the former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez. During his term in office (1982-1996), González became an important expert in bonsai care thanks to the support of landscape designer Luis Vallejo.
Its collection, considered the most famous in Spain according to the CSIC, includes both native species such as oaks and pines, as well as exotic specimens brought from Japan. In 1996, González donated more than one hundred bonsai to the CSIC, which took care of them until 2005, when they were transferred to the Royal Botanical Garden, where they are currently on display.
Royal Botanic Garden Times
The Royal Botanical Garden opens at 10 am and its closing times vary as follows:
- January and February: 18h
- March: 19h
- April: 20h
- May to August: 21h
- September: 20h
- October: 19h
- November and December: 18h