Near Opava, in the village of Nový Dvůr, there is one of the most beautiful botanical gardens in Czech Republic dedicated primarily to dendrology. Founded in the early twentieth century by Quido Riedel on a small area of 1.8 hectares, this colorful botanical garden currently delights with several thousand species of trees and shrubs on an area of 30 hectares. It's a good place to increase the botanical knowledge, but first of all it's a great place to have a pleasant relaxing walk.
Medium sized parking lot is located right at the entrance to the arboretum (P1; GPS: 49.933116, 17.772612). If there is no more free places, you can try to park at the "U Arboreta" inn (P2; GPS: 49.932365, 17.770083).
The admission is payable: normal ticket costs 40 CZK and reduced 20 CZK. It's the best to visit the arboretum in the months between April and September when it is open from 8:00 to 18:00 hours.
We walk with a pleasure through the alleys, where grow a variety of shrubs, trees and flowers. Especially enjoyable is the spring, when everything comes to life and bloom. In this time, in May, we visited the garden and spent there a couple of hours. We will not describe exactly which specific plants grow in the arboretum, simply because we do not know most of them by their names - if you want to know, you can visit the arboretum website and get the details from first hand.
There's also a mini-zoo in the arboretum, with several animals, including goats, sheeps, and home pigs. In the spring and summer seasons you can not only watch them, but also enter into their pens. Children (supervised by their parents) can stroke and feed the animals.