JARDIN DES PLANTES

Three centuries of botanical adventures, served as much by the port's navigators as by the green and skilful hands of its gardeners, have produced this garden. It's quite possible that the flowers here exude the scent of a voyage...

With 7 hectares of greenery right in the city centre, over 10,000 living species, 800 square metres of greenhouses and more than 50,000 flowers planted each season, the Jardin des Plantes de Nantes, which has been awarded the Jardin Remarquable label, is one of France's four great botanical gardens. Over the last 150 years, its collections have been enriched and specialised. As much a scientific garden as a pleasure garden, the Jardin des Plantes has become a benchmark throughout the world, particularly for its collection of camellias, the only one of its kind in France, its cultivation of epiphytic* plants in a semi-natural environment, and its ongoing efforts to reintroduce rare species.

From 2013 to 2017, the city's Nature and Gardens Department worked with Claude Ponti to offer visitors installations during the Voyage à Nantes. Today, eight permanent works can be seen in spring and summer: the "Banc Géant", the "Toggobancs", the "Bancs Processionnaires", the "Siestobancs", the "Banlançoire", the "Causeuses", the "Dormanron" and the "Totémimiques". The "Dépodépo" play area is open all year round.

Since summer 2018, "La Racinante", an installation by artist Johann Le Guillerm, has been installed in the heart of the Garden.

Since summer 2020, the artist Jean Jullien has specially designed "Filili Viridi", monumental installations called "Le Filleur", "L'Observateur" and "Le Passeur".
Ten characters from his sketchbooks will be inviting themselves into the garden from 2020 to 2022. They were joined by two new Filili Viridi in the summer of 2022, and some even ventured outside the garden. In December 2022, 5 installations left the Jardin des plantes for good, while Le Fileur, L'Observateur and Le Passeur remained to welcome visitors at the entrances to the garden. Some characters even ventured further afield: Le Hisseur on the façade of the town hall in rue de Strasbourg and Le Débitumeur near the château.

For the summer of 2024, Fabrice Hyber has come up with l'Homme de bois.

There's also a restaurant/tea room open every day and a welcome shop.