Rosen- und Lichterfest (Rose and Light Festival)

Frankfurt has three botanical gardens, and the Palmengarten is the one to see. It covers 22 hectares (about 54 acres) in the Westend, making it the largest garden of its kind in Germany. It opened to the public in 1871, made possible by a private association founded in 1868: Duke Adolf of Nassau sold off the plants and tropical trees from the orangery at Biebrich Palace, the association bought them, and the horticulturist Heinrich Siesmayer laid out the grounds on the model of English and French landscape gardens. New display houses followed between 1905 and 1906.

In the 19th century the garden doubled as a society meeting place. One of the world's first ice rinks was installed here in 1880, and the pianist Clara Schumann skated on it. In summer the rink became tennis courts, and a lawn tennis association was founded in 1898. The city took over the Palmengarten in 1931, and the Rosen- und Lichterfest was held for the first time that same year. The park train, the Palmen-Express, has been running since 1972, and the greenhouses were fully restored in the 1980s, with the Tropicarium and the Subantarctic House added later.

The festival is a straightforward tribute to the rose. More than 12,000 cut roses appear in arrangements and displays in every color and variety the growers can supply, alongside potted roses, climbers and standard roses. The permanent rose garden sits directly in view as you leave the entrance display house: a formal, geometric layout bounded on the west by a pergola, with lawns, beds and paths, and the Haus Rosenbrunn at its center, parts of which go back to an 1884 workshop building. It is divided into themed sections, including a garden of scented roses and one of heritage varieties. Around the flowers there are guided tours of the rose garden and talks for anyone looking for ideas to take home, and after dusk the lights give the festival the second half of its name.