Natural environment
The most important element of the Royal Castle Gardens are shaped hedges from hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) called bosquets, which originated from pre-war times. Nearly 80 trees survived in war and formed the basis for the historical reconstruction of the whole garden complex. The relict trees date back to 1937. The hedges reach the height of 6.5 m and are the habitat of many species of protected birds: lesser whitethroat (Sylvia curruca), blackbird (Turdus merula), nightingale (Turdus philomelos), linnet (Chloris chloris), icterine warbler (Hippolais icterina), magpie (Pica pica), crow (Corvus cornix).
In addition, the gardens are planted with ornamental cherries (Prunus cerrasifera), ash-leaf clones (Acer negundo), small-leaved lime (Tilia cordata), poplar (Populus alba), which form loose vegetative arrangements that do not form geometrical forms.
The Upper Garden
In the Upper Castle Garden, in the revalorisation process completed in 2015, 88 spherical maples (Acer platanoides ‘Globosum’) were planted into containers painted in royal colours. In addition, the garden was filled with boxwood hedges (Buxus sempervirens) arranged in compact lodgings or intricate patterns referring to the Baroque style. The length of boxwood hedges is over 2350 linear meters. There were also boxwood and yew (Taxus baccata) in the form of balls. The spaces designated by boxwood hedges are filled with seasonal flowers (Tulipa sp., Myosotis sp., Bellis sp., Lilium sp., Tagetes sp., Canna sp., Cosmos sp., Dalium sp., Begonia sp., Salvia sp., Coreopsis sp., Chrysanthemum sp.) and perennials (Hemerocallis sp., Rudbeckia sp., Astlibe sp., Brunnera sp., Pulmonaria sp., Digitalis sp.).
In the Upper Garden there are also four sandstone vases, planted with compositions from seasonal plants (Ipomea sp., Helichrysum sp., Pelargonia sp.). Noteworthy is also the collection of large-flowered roses from the KORDES, TANTAU and MEILLAND breedings (‘Gospel’, ‘Leonardo da Vinci’. ‘Madamme Anisette’, ‘Chippendale’) and the roses grafted on the trunk (‘Duftfestival’).
The Lower Garden
The Lower Garden, in which there are historical grave hornbeams, is currently undergoing revalorisation (reconstruction process). Hornbeams have been supplemented with more than 1300 pieces of new hornbeam blocks (Carpinus betulus) and beech (Fagus sylvatica) forming new rows up to 3.5 m high. In addition, shiny cotoneaster (Cotoneater lucidus) and over 60 species of perennials and almost as many plant species will be planted seasonal.
The entire area of the Royal Castle Gardens is within the reach of the NATURA 2000 area, the so-called ‘The Basin of the Central Vistula’. This is an area of special bird protection established because it is one of the ten most important breeding grounds in Poland of two species of birds threatened by extinction in the European Union: the common tern (Sterna hirundo) and the white-fronted tern (Sterna albifrons).
