Væksthuset (camellia greenhouse), Geografisk Have, Kolding

The Væksthus belongs to a garden that began as a nursery. According to lex.dk and the Danish Wikipedia, the nurseryman Aksel Olsen bought a plot called 'Sibirien' in 1917, about 14 tønder in size, in the south-east of Kolding; the garden's own website gives 1918 for the purchase. He imported plants newly discovered in East Asia by the hundred, then had the idea of dividing his garden into geographical regions. The garden says it has tested more than 6,000 species, of which about 2,000 still thrive. Since 1963 Kolding municipality has run it and opened it to the public for an admission fee.

The garden tells the story of its camellias. A text from February 2023 describes a collection unique in Denmark that includes 'Janet Waterhouse', named in 1952 by the Australian Eben Gowrie Waterhouse in honour of his wife. In November 2024 three old camellias given to the garden joined the greenhouse: they came from a private garden in Sdr. Bjert whose owner is the son of a Kolding nurseryman, and two of them descend from camellias grown by the Levison firm, founded in Kolding in 1893. They are the varieties 'Elegans' (which appeared in 1830 and was already in the collection), 'Mathotiana alba' (1850s, Belgium) and 'Dramagirl' (1950).

The Væksthus is a large glazed volume. On the photos of the official page, walls and roof alike are glass, and the garden boasts both its high ceiling ("højt til loftet") and the fact that it never rains inside. Lex.dk gives it about 600 m².

The interior is organised around a central area paved in brick, where tables are set out: the hire page counts up to 50 guests at the greenhouse's garden tables and 70 at long tables. On the photos, a small blue-faced basin, beds of exotic plants and camellias grown as trees line this space. A separate room, 'Afdeling 3', can be hired on its own (25 people at garden tables, 35 at long tables). The greenhouse is not heated in winter; the hire page places the winter season between 24 October and 31 March.

The greenhouse is above all the camellia house. The garden speaks of a large collection of camellia trees ("Kamelia træer") that open in profusion at the very start of spring, and of a collection it considers unique in Denmark: the plants are too delicate to spend a Danish winter outdoors. The main flowering falls in March and April, but some species and varieties start as early as autumn, such as the tea plant (Camellia sinensis), which the garden says can be seen in the greenhouse.

Several varieties are named in the garden's texts: 'Janet Waterhouse' and 'Merrillees', two pure-white double camellias raised by Eben G. Waterhouse, as well as 'Elegans', 'Mathotiana alba' and 'Dramagirl'. The rest of the planting is described in general terms ("eksotiske planter"); no inventory or plant count is published. An article of November 2024 also announced that the greenhouse would be lit, during the Kolding Light Festival, by a light and sound installation titled "Jorden gror til", designed by Nicoline Hagen of Aarhus.

The Væksthus stands near the garden's main entrance, next to the animal enclosure and the aviary. The garden's website invites visitors to see this "frodige" (lush) Væksthus among the park's attractions without saying on which days it is open; the greenhouse is also hired out for parties all year round, which may limit access on some days. Because it is unheated, the season matters: the camellias flower mainly in March and April, a few from autumn.

Around it the park offers its geographical departments (Japan, China, North America and South America, among others), the rosarium and the prize-winning rose garden, the Syvdalen valley with its 1.8 km Hjertesti (Heart Path), a bamboo grove and the enclosure where goats, hens and rabbits can be met.