A few days into our trip, we visited the Grasagarður Reykjavíkur (Reykjavik Botanical Garden). It was definitely a highlight of the trip for me. Weather in Iceland in July is like perpetual spring. It feels like our March weather. I loved it! I highly recommend visiting Northern countries in the middle of the summer- great way to beat the heat!
My favorite part of the botanical garden was called the Systemic Garden. The understanding I eventually came too (b/c remember a lot of stuff is written in Icelandic) was that this was a test garden of sorts. It contained multiple varieties of each species planted in the garden. The plants were in raised stone beds with stone dividers.
Stone raised beds in the Systemic Garden
I had the chance to see so many plants that I dream of growing but I know won’t make it in our hot climate. But the best of all was the Blue Poppy!
Meconopsis Grandis
I’ve loaded up a gallery below of some of my favorites. If you hover over the photo, you can see the name.
The wild flora was fascinating too. Back in the 1940’s lupines were brought in to increase soil stabilization. They appear to have done their job a little too well and now are taking over some of the native flora. We arrived at the tail end of their bloom. They were all over the roadsides during our travels through the southern part of Iceland.
Blue Lupine
The northern part of the country had a higher population of wild Angelica and some type of filipendula.
The landscaping around the towns and homes was beautiful but surprising to me. It was an odd juxtaposition of plants. You would have a large planter bowl full of calendula, snapdragons, grasses and then a Dahlia! So lots of cool season plants and a warm season focal!
Local landscaping around Reykjavik
Also they like to use spirea, alchemilla, and snowberry as foundation shrubs in front of their houses or for hedges in the backyards. Can you imagine a hedge of spirea in July? All of these were blooming in late July.
Lilac was very common too (and it was in bloom). Think of it this way- what if someone swapped out all our crepe myrtles for lilacs? Their lilacs weren’t bushes— they were trees! (This would be an improvement in my opinion)
Iceland is a fascinating country. I feel like we took a geological tour for our vacation. I’ve included a gallery of some other things we saw below in case you missed when I posted them in my Instagram stories.
