Urban Legends
The Botanical Garden is situated in the southern part of the city, and it’s about 15 minutes’ walk from the city center (and yes, there are also parking lots nearby). Its area is about 14 acres; build on small hills that create the perfect scenario for displaying the various types of plants, in accordance with their climate requirements. As many other botanical gardens, this one is also is divided into sectors depending on the purpose of each exhibit.
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When you enter the garden (after paying a really small entering fee - 1 euro for students), you are surrounded by *Thuja* trees, in front of which are annual plants, different in each season, creating a different landscape in the spring with tulips, hyacinths, daffodil and in the summer with marigolds, zinnias, petunias, canna, gladiolus. After a few stair steps you enter *The Rosary* – a collection of different kinds of roses, from spontaneous species to different hybrids, spectacular for their colors, dimensions and perfumes, that sums up to almost 350 varieties. This part of a Botanical Garden is called *The Ornamental sector* because it presents the species that are important for their obviously ornamental “skills”. (http://www.ubbcluj.ro/ro/structura/sport/gradina_botanica). From this point, you enter the most fascinating part of the garden - *The Phytogeographical* sector, where plants from all over the world are gathered and displayed in accordance with their origin. The first thing you see is the Japanese garden. Europeans were always fascinated by oriental culture and especially the gardens, more so by the philosophy of creating a garden and the concepts on nature, their connections to nature and the way they see the trees, the shrubs and the flowers. The Japanese garden is designed in a perfect landscape, in the traditional “gyo-no-niwa” style (http://www.ubbcluj.ro/ro/structura/sport/gradina_botanica). The elements of this small replica garden are the suggestion of hills in the back, the holy gate, the stone lantern, the traditional teahouse, the lake and, of course, a small island, linked with the traditional arched bridge. This is the “must see” of this botanical garden in spring – an abundance of colors and textures of the species gathered here: the cherry tree, the iris, the Japanese quince, the rhododendrons, the peonies and the lilacs, decorative apple trees, the magnolias, and of course, no Japanese garden would be complete without *Ginkgo biloba* and *Ailanthus altissima*, commonly known as the tree of Heaven (in Romanian is called “cenuşar” – the ash tree, and it’s not that popular). (Marcus R. 1958)