May is one of the most beautiful months of the year. After a long, grey Winter, trees become green again and everything around gleams with the colours of flowers coming into bloom. And even this year, although May is quite cool and rainy, it is worth having a walk in the  Arboretum in Kórnik or Poznan?s Botanical Gardens.

Kórnik is a small town located just 25 kilometres from Poznan. The town?s main attraction is its neo-Gothic castle from the early 19^th century and the beautiful park surrounding it. The Arboretum-Park is one of Poland?s largest clusters of trees and shrubs, imported there from around the world. In the 19^th century, Tytus Działyński ? the owner of the property ?  began collecting trees and shrubs and converted the area into a park in an English-garden style ? characterised by loose arrangements of groups of trees, vast stretches of meadows  and distant perspectives. In May, the garden offers an additional attraction: azaleas and rhododendrons coming into glorious bloom.

These are unquestionably some of the most beautifully blooming shrubs one can find in parks and gardens. They belong to the heath family, making up the Rhododendron genus.  According to custom, they are referred to as ?rododendrons?. There are over 1,000 species of these plants originating from China, Japan, as well as South America, Balkans and Alps. Over 12,000 different variants of azaleas and rhododendrons have been grown for the last 150 years.

In Kurnik, it is best to admire them in the second half of May.

Poznan?s own botanical gardens are another good destination for a May walk. The garden ? a scientific institution of the Adam Mickiewicz University ? is one of the most beautiful parks in Poznan. Its first section was established between 1922 and 1925 as the ?School Botanic Garden?. After the Second World War, the area of the garden was gradually extended with additional hectares and today it covers several dozen hectares of park planted over with flora from around the world. The 10 hectares of the Department of Plant Geography include over 1,700 trees and shrubs, showing the richness of forms and floral diversity of various regions of the world, particularly the Eastern and Northern Asia and North America.

Particular attention should be paid to the rock garden set up on the land covering about 6,000 m² and including a collection of approximately 1,600 plants from various mountain ranges.

The last is the small yet particularly important department of Rare and Endangered Species. The department was set up in order to retain the species endangered with extinction in their natural conditions. It covers an area of approximately 0.25 ha and is divided into two quarters distinguished by their habitat conditions.

Furthermore, the garden encompasses small greenhouses housing collections of plants from  intertropical areas. Among 2,500 presented plants, species from South and Central America prevail.