Jeli Arboretum Nature Reserve

Hungary, Hungary

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Jeli Arboretum Nature Reserve, located 3.7 km from the village of Kám in Hungary's Vas County near main road 8, is one of Europe's most beautiful arboretums covering 118 hectares total with a 75-hectare core protected area of national importance.

Founded by Count István Ambrózy-Migazzi, a self-taught botanist who began planting the garden in 1922 on just 5 hectares of former birch and juniper plateau, he created his "ever-green garden" using plants from three continents, now housing over 700 different species.

The arboretum is Hungary's most famous for its spectacular rhododendron blooms in May and June, with about 300 varieties creating a stunning colorful display, and also features remarkable evergreens, original flora in patches, a deep stream valley with natural alder-beech forests, and themed forest sections including a Giant Forest with mammoth firs and a Japanese forest with bamboos.

After the founder's death in the 1930s and World War II damaged the park, the Forestry Company took over in the 1950s, designated it a nature reserve in 1953, expanded it, and created separate rhododendron and pine zones presenting conifer species from Asia to North America.