Kakteengarten

Kakteengarten sits within Überlingen’s Stadtgarten beside Lake Constance, among planted beds, mature beech trees, and exotic vegetation. Its outdoor beds hold winter-hardy cacti and succulents, including prickly pears, hedgehog cacti, and ball cacti. Magnolias, banana plants, and stones frame the collection beneath the garden’s tall beech canopy.

The Stadtgarten began in 1875 as a park for spa guests, then expanded under city gardener Hermann Hoch. Hoch developed the cactus collection during his service from 1894 to 1931. Many plants come from high-altitude regions of the Americas and tolerate temperatures down to minus 30 degrees Celsius. Since 2022, tender specimens have grown in the plant house at Villengärten, while hardy varieties remain outdoors.

Benches beside a fountain in the lower eastern garden face the cactus group and other exotic plants. Above them, a nineteenth-century cast-iron pavilion overlooks Lake Constance, Überlingen’s old town, and the Alps in clear weather. The western arboretum adds an Atlas cedar, dawn redwood, Judas tree, handkerchief tree, and commemorative ginkgo. Bees and hoverflies visit the drought-tolerant flowers, adding movement to this stone-framed garden.