Rosendals Tradgard Sweden – Historical Public Organic Kitchen Garden

Weekends draw in Stockholm’s families, couples and travellers to visit Rosendals Gardens for recharging time among the plants and animals, eating organic food in the café and buying something to take home from the bakery or the plant shop.

Ekoparken, Djurgarden and Rosendals Tradgard

Sweden can claim to have the first national park in Europe to be identified in a city. Stockholm’s Ekoparken is an area where a nation’s pride in understanding the natural environment is shown in its importance to city people and the imaginative uses that will attract a good flow of visitors.

Rosendals Tradgard can be found on Djurgarden (often called the pleasure island in travel guides) which forms part of the Ekoparken. Visitors in cars approach the island over the Djurgardsbron bridge and pass Gruna Lund and the open air museum Skansen, built in 1891 before Rosendals.

In A Great Weekend in Stockholm: Get to Know Stockholm in Just a Few Days (Hachette, 2002) Anne Desnos writes about the historical Rosendals Gardens: “In the 18th century it was fashionable in high society to enjoy events in the Rosendals gardens”. Most people walk to Djurgarden on the weekend to see advertised cultural events or to follow their own itinerary.

Rosendals Tradgard

Lovers of fragrant herb gardens, shrubs and fruit tree planting with great scents will not be disappointed by a meander around the gardens. Trees are important as a focal point for photographs of friends and family. The circle of trees (near the maze) a popular choice for shots. In large public gardens like Rosendals, trees also provide a suitable meeting point before setting out in smaller groups for either a picnic or selection of food in the café.

The Rose Valley – or Rosendals Tradgard in Swedish – has had a connection with Royalty since the 17th century. The legacy of the generations of gardeners tending the plantations included 100 different kinds of fruit trees available today from the 1878 stock of tree nursery stock. The plant shop is open to the public January to October and in December.

Rosendals Garden Cafe

Eating in the Rosendals Garden café offers the simple pleasures of 100% organic food picked that morning by the gardeners, and relaxed service. Recycling the old glasshouses in Rosendals, the café serving area and order point is in one glasshouse with a huge table set out like a school’s nature table offering up for slicing dozens of fresh cakes and breads from the Rosendals Bakery next door.

Service is smart and relaxed. No reservations for tables are taken and while crockery is cleared away efficiently, there is no sense of rushing the Rosendals Garden Café diners who are likely to read newspapers with a tea or coffee after their meal. In the summer seasons and at weekends, the Garden Bar serves wine and beer with seating in the Glasshouses or in the Gardens.

Rosendals Tradgard Opening Hours

From May to September, Stockholm’s summer season, Rosendals Gardens, Café, Bakery and Plant Shop are open at the weekend 11am to 6pm and Monday to Friday 11am to 5pm.