The Rock Garden

The Rock Garden brings together alpine plants in terrain with natural rock formations. The plants you see here grow naturally in mountain areas, both in Norway and elsewhere in the world. The Rock Garden imitates the special growing conditions found in the high mountains, with stone, gravel and plenty of sunlight. The plants grow among rocks and in crevices. The many paths through the Rock Garden make most of the plant beds easily accessible. The first plants come into flower in March and April, and flowering becomes intense as spring goes on. You'll also find fine flowers and interesting leaf shapes in autumn.

Work on establishing the garden began in 1997, and it officially opened in June 2001.

Alpine plants have different ecological requirements. Some thrive best in mineral soil with sand and gravel, others in soil with more humus. We have created many different growing environments, often based on rock types such as limestone, tufa, olivine and serpentine, where we grow species adapted to that particular soil type.

In the Rock Garden, you can experience how geology and the plant world are closely connected, and how different rock types affect which plants grow in a given place. For example, you can experience an area with olivine, a rock that forms a very nutrient-poor soil rich in iron and magnesium, creating special growing conditions. This creates growing conditions for plants adapted specifically to this type of bedrock. In Norway, olivine is found particularly in Western Norway and Sunnmøre.

A stream with a small waterfall also runs here into a pond with aquatic plants. Marsh plants that thrive in the damp environment grow around the pond.

A large part of the Rock Garden is arranged geographically according to where the plants come from. Alpine plants are found on every continent, and the University Museum grows species from around the world – Africa and New Zealand are represented too.

In alpine areas, summers are short, and the plants face large temperature swings, plenty of sun and wind, and few pollinating insects. This is why alpine plants are often small and cushion-shaped, with brightly coloured flowers.

The Rock Garden collection consists of more than 1,500 species. Many of the species from the Norwegian and Nordic region have been collected from the coastal mountains of Western Norway. A good example is the beautiful pyramidal saxifrage, Saxifraga cotyledon, which was planted at the opening of the Rock Garden.