#1 Château de Vullierens, Vullierens VD
Set on a high plateau near Morges on Lake Geneva, this 30-hectare garden surrounding Château de Vullierens blends organically into a cultivated landscape shaped by grain fields and vineyards. For 700 years it has been owned by the Bovet family, who live in the adjoining baroque château, which is not open to the public. At the heart of the grounds are the iris fields, which bloom in countless colors and color combinations in May and June — hence the garden’s local nickname, “Jardin des Iris.” Many of the roughly 400 varieties were bred on site, and the gardeners are still working toward the perfect red.

Surrounding the iris fields, replaced in summer by hardy daylilies that ensure lasting bursts of color, eight additional gardens invite exploration, each with its own planting scheme: roses and peonies, rhododendrons, azaleas, clematis, and late-blooming tulips. A striking contrast comes from the art scattered across the grounds: more than 85 modern sculptures, some of them colossal.

#2 Botanical Garden St. Gallen, SG
This jewel in the Neudorf district of St. Gallen offers a compact overview of the world’s plant diversity. Guided tours, lectures, and courses on botanical topics complement the experience, along with quiet corners for resting, observing, and simply marveling. In every respect, the Botanical Garden fulfills its role as both a place of education and relaxation. The grounds are divided into 20 sections: geographic areas such as the Alpine garden, Europe, the Americas, and Asia; educational sections devoted to biology, genetics, and systematics; and collections of useful plants, including cultivated, poisonous, and medicinal species. Several specialty gardens add to the variety, among them a maple garden, areas for climbing and container plants, a small iris garden, and a fern garden.

A highlight is the large tropical greenhouse with its adjoining orchid house. Other greenhouses are dedicated to alpine flora, carnivorous plants, and “living stones” — desert plants that resemble pebbles as a form of protection from predators. In the species-rich dry meadow, more than 100 native meadow plants thrive. Yet you don’t need to know any of this to fall under the garden’s spell. Right next door: the Natural History Museum of St. Gallen with its museum café.

#3 Arenenberg Castle Park, Salenstein on Lake Constance, TG
One of the Bodensee region’s main attractions, the park of the Arenenberg estate commands sweeping views over the Untersee to the island of Reichenau. A walk through these historic grounds is also a journey through several eras of garden culture. From the pleasure gardens of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance that once stood here, Hortense de Beauharnais, Napoleon Bonaparte’s stepdaughter, began shaping the most spectacular landscape park in eastern Switzerland from 1817 onward. In her forced exile, she wanted to create a representative place where she could hold court and raise her son Louis, the future Emperor Napoleon III, in a manner befitting his rank. The result delighted the many visitors from Europe’s aristocratic and artistic circle.

Louis himself later brought the work to completion: around the château, winding paths lead through meadows and woods, past pavilions, over bridges, and to hidden grottoes and water features. Inside the Napoleon Museum in the castle, it still feels as though the imperial family is coming and going — a visit is like stepping into a period drama in the style of Bridgerton.

#4 Merian Gardens, Basel BS
In 1711, Villa Merian was built as a baroque country residence with an English garden and landscaped park. Directly adjacent to it, the Brüglingerhof developed over the centuries — a now protected estate combining traditional agriculture with diverse botanical collections and kitchen gardens filled with rare vegetable varieties. In spring 2012, the two areas were united into one impressive whole. Since then, 18 hectares of organically cultivated nature have unfolded here, surprising visitors at every turn: a peony collection with 100 species (main bloom in May), a clematis collection with 200 varieties (March to October), a carp pond framed by striking trees, and even an enchanting “fairy-tale forest” of rhododendrons and azaleas (blooming March to May).

Among the Merian Gardens’ special treasures are also a bearded iris collection with 1,500 varieties (in bloom in May and June) and an orchard that provides a home for endangered apple, pear, and plum varieties. Each of the 400 fruit trees bears a different variety.

#5 Botanical Garden of the University of Zurich, ZH
When the Old Botanical Garden on the Schanzengraben became too small in the 1970s, the University of Zurich established the “new” Botanical Garden in a former villa park on the upper edge of the Seefeld district. The varied, gently hilly terrain with its winding paths, the carefully staged spatial design inspired by English landscape gardens, and the surrounding green spaces make the grounds appear much larger than they actually are.

The garden feels surprisingly “natural,” even though it is carefully designed. With constantly shifting sightlines and new visual connections, visitors move through the space almost like scenes in a film. At the center stand the three dome-shaped greenhouses, which have become an unmistakable feature of Zurich travel guides. In front of them, a spacious lawn surrounding a naturally designed pond invites visitors to linger.

#6 Rieterpark, Zurich ZH
In the 19th century, magnificent private gardens were created in the Zurich neighborhoods of Enge and Riesbach, facing each other across the lakeside. In 1857, the German silk merchant Otto Wesendonck also built a grand residence here, set within a strikingly designed landscape park planted with numerous exotic trees.

After the Second World War, Rieterpark was opened to the public. Since then, the city’s residents have embraced it as a peaceful retreat with lawns for playing and relaxing. It is particularly enchanting in spring, when magnolias and flower beds burst into a spectacular display of colors and fragrances. Today, Villa Wesendonck and a modern underground building house the Museum Rietberg, renowned for its collection of non-European ethnographic art and widely acclaimed temporary exhibitions.

#7 Enea Tree Museum, Rapperswil-Jona SG
“You don’t transplant an old tree.” This old saying no longer holds true in modern garden design — at least not in the world of Enzo Enea. The landscape architect and passionate “tree whisperer” has already given thousands of trees a new life. In 2010, next to his company headquarters on the upper part of Lake Zurich, he opened a tree museum featuring carefully selected specimens, including some trees more than a hundred years old. Most of them once stood in the way of construction projects.

Where chainsaws might otherwise have been used, Enea’s relocation team stepped in and moved these supposed troublemakers here instead. With this pioneering project, the patron created a quiet manifesto for reuse, respect and time. Or, as he puts it himself: “Nature doesn’t need us — but we need nature.”

#8 Botanical Garden Bern, BE
The “art museum of nature” (as it calls itself) has been an institution of the University of Bern since 1859 and serves as something like the city’s green lung. Around 6,000 different plant species from all regions of the world can be discovered here. Among the highlights of the Botanical Garden (BOGA) are the tropical display greenhouses, the medicinal plant garden, and the “Alpinum”, which features botanical treasures from mountain regions.

Thanks to its sunny location on the slope above the Aare River, the garden is also home to an extraordinary woody plant collection with around 1,000 species. These include delicate trees from Australia, South Africa, and Asia — some of them more than 150 years old. In April, a colorful sea of tulips comes into bloom. Visitors who arrive hungry or thirsty can stop by the terrace of “Café Fleuri”, next to the succulent house, to enjoy a Birchermüesli, a summer salad, or a refreshing ice cream — while taking in the view of the Aare.

#9 Parco San Grato, Carona above Lugano TI
Unlike many other garden parks, Parco San Grato is neither enclosed by walls nor fences. Without clear boundaries, it blends harmoniously into the Mediterranean landscape on the mountain saddle between Monte San Salvatore and Monte Arbostora. From the second half of March onward, camellias and forsythias begin to bloom across the gently contoured six-hectare grounds. Azaleas follow in mid-April, and rhododendrons in early May, together forming the largest and most diverse collection of their kind in Ticino.

The fragrant abundance of blossoms, which transforms the park into a kaleidoscope of colors in spring, is contrasted by around seventy towering conifers, including Italian cypresses and Japanese and Himalayan cedars. A visit is especially atmospheric in the early morning hours, when the sun rises over Lake Lugano and the park slowly awakens — a truly magical experience.

#10 Botanical Garden of the Brissago Islands, Brissago TI
Isola Grande, the larger of the two Brissago Islands, attracts visitors above all for its garden, home to around 1,700 plant species. As early as 1885, the island’s owner at the time, the baroness and nature enthusiast Antoinette de Saint-Léger, transformed the once barren island into a Mediterranean wonder garden. With considerable financial effort and shiploads of fertile soil, she reshaped the rocky islet into a flourishing botanical paradise. In the 1920s, burdened by heavy debts, she sold the island to the German department-store magnate and eccentric Max Emden, who may not have shared her passion for botany but certainly knew how to enjoy life. He maintained a fleet of fast motorboats and commissioned the construction of a neoclassical palazzo unlike anything the region had seen before.

He also created a pleasure garden with a reconstructed Roman bath, which today is dedicated to medicinal plants. Above the boat landing, Emden’s motto can still be read: “Living, too, is an art.” After his death, the Brissago Islands passed into public ownership and since 1950 have served as the Botanical Garden of the Canton of Ticino.