Vienna Shakespeare Garden

• Location: 1220 Vienna Donizettiweg 29, at the Kagran School Gardens
  Public transport information
• Size: approximately 150 square metres
• Contact: +43 1 4000-8042

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.

Coltsfoot, thyme and violets, woodbine and musk roses all feature in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare. Indeed, take any of the English playwright's famous works: Hamlet, Henry V, King Lear, or Romeo and Juliet they are all "full of plants". For this reason, a garden in Vienna has been dedicated to Shakespeare, featuring selected quotes by the artist himself - and the corresponding plants.

"Laburnum walk", a delicate tunnel of laburnum plants, is the only entrance to the garden. There are five different flower beds: a shady bed, a bed with afternoon sun, a magnificent display bed, a herbal bed and a classic English-style flower bed. The plant labels are in Latin and English only. A sign indicates the direction and distance of Shakespeare's birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon.

The garden was conceived by the Austrian ethnobotanist Miriam Wiegele to familiarise apprentices and students at the local school of horticulture and floristry with English plant names and the British art of gardening. The Vienna Shakespeare Garden was opened on 1 September 2005 by Her Britannic Majesty's Ambassador to Austria.