University of Turku Botanical Garden greenhouses (Ruissalo)

The University of Turku Botanical Garden was founded in 1924 at Iso-Heikkilä. In 1956 it moved to the island of Ruissalo, where it remains. The present greenhouses were designed in 1998 by the architect Jarmo Saarinen; they form a modern building that groups six houses with different climates together with a café. The garden, which receives about 40,000 visitors a year, has switched to renewable heat produced in Finland.

Condition surveys have nevertheless revealed structural problems: the local press reports subsidence in the greenhouses and glazing and roofs in need of renewal, and the university mentions the replacement of building services and automation. A major renovation, costed at more than 6 million euros, is scheduled for 2026 to 2028; it covers the greenhouses, the entrance halls and part of the working areas, and preparations began in August 2026. The work is to proceed one greenhouse at a time so that at least some remain open, while the plants are moved to temporary premises or protected in place, with the aim of saving as much of the collection as possible. The daily Turun Sanomat warns, however, that part of the greenhouses' splendour will be lost for decades.

The complex designed by Jarmo Saarinen brings together six greenhouses, each set to its own climate, around entrance halls and a café. The largest is the New World tropics house, arranged around a large pool and completed by an orchid gallery. The Araucaria house reproduces a subtropical climate, while the winter garden is kept at 8 to 10 °C during the cold season, a cool atmosphere that contrasts with the humid warmth of the two tropical houses.

Before the renovation, surveys found subsidence in the greenhouses and the need to renew the glazed structures, the roofs, the building services and the automation. The works planned for 2026 to 2028 are to deal with the houses one after another, so that at least some remain open, and the outdoor garden stays open throughout.

The six greenhouses display more than 2,500 species or taxa, out of over 5,000 species and varieties in the garden as a whole. In the New World tropics the large pool holds the giant water lily Victoria cruziana, with leaves more than a metre across, along with water hyacinth and water lettuce; around it grow sugar cane, tamarillo, banana, cacao and many epiphytes. Cockatiels and budgerigars fly freely, and koi and South American cichlids live in the water. The Old World tropics gather coffee, pepper, cinnamon, camphor, mango, abaca, figs with aerial roots and staghorn ferns.

The Araucaria house shelters living fossils such as tree ferns and cycads, with eucalyptus, casuarinas, acacias, tillandsias and mountain orchids from the Andes. The succulent house combines American cacti, including the golden barrel cactus and pereskias, with euphorbias, aloes, lithops, the myrrh tree and Madagascar's Didiereaceae. The winter garden brings together camellias, winter jasmine, rockroses, angel's trumpets, a coast redwood and carnivorous plants, and the Mediterranean house shows oleander, pomegranate, Peruvian pepper tree, carob and bougainvillea.

The garden lies on the island of Ruissalo, at Ruissalon puistotie 215. Allow about an hour and a half for the six greenhouses; the outdoor garden, with its useful plants, flower meadows, exotic trees and shrubs and three artificial ponds of water lilies, calls for a further walk in the warmer months. During the 2026–2028 renovation the work moves from one greenhouse to the next, so some houses may be closed while the outdoor garden remains open as usual, and it is worth checking the garden's website before setting out. The café offers a break between the greenhouses and the garden.