Szarvas Arboretum Nature Reserve

The Szarvas Arboretum, better known as Pepi Garden; located along a former branch of the Hármas-Körös, it has become one of our country's largest and most significant living tree collections, where we can see century‑old swamp cypresses and giant sequoias on an area of 82 hectares. Today there are five woody plant collections here: the “Pepi Garden”, the Trunk Plantation and tree school, the Park Forest, the Mitrowssky Garden and the so‑called Kitchen Garden.

The arboretum is now a nationally protected nature reserve, whose manager was formerly the University of Horticulture and Food Industry and is currently the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

The beginning of the area's protection: 1943.

History

The history of the arboretum and the “Pepi Garden” is linked to the Italian‑origin Bolza family. General Bolza Péter became a landowner in Szarvas in 1798 and married the granddaughter of János György Harruckern, Antónia Stockhammer. His son, Bolza József, began the planting of the Anna Grove with his wife, Countess Batthyány Anna. The park and the castle later built there now house the administration of the Körös‑Maros National Park. The young Bolza József – nicknamed “Pepi” – planted a few trees in the higher parts of the present arboretum – areas not flooded by the floods. The two of them transported the first specimens of giant sequoia and fern trees from the imperial estate in Vienna to the eight‑hectare riverside park on the Körös by cart. Later, in the 1880s, when the Hármas‑Körös was regulated – again from the ground up – they were moved to their final location on the present arboretum area.

Bolza Pál then continued his brother’s work, and approached the planning and construction of the “Pepi Garden” on the inherited land with great care and professionalism. Assisting him in his work was an Austrian gardener, Joseph Grines.

The planned park was designed so that the perimeter of the area was surrounded by a forest strip for protection, which shielded the tree groups planted in the interior, the heat‑loving tree species from the sharp, destructive wind, created a more favorable microclimate for them, and thus the species collected in the 1990s from America, Africa, Asia and other foreign, rocky, swampy, tropical and desert landscapes, which were introduced, largely acclimatized, many of them survived, proving that even in the poorest parts of the Great Plain plants accustomed to other climates can be naturalized, ensuring their healthy development.

The “Pepi‑garden” already flourished during the time of Pál Bolza; according to the surviving data there were 263 species and varieties in 1920, 730 in 1955, 1 392 in 1957, and by the early 1990s the collection already contained almost a different thousand tree and shrub species and varieties, not counting that many of the trees brought from distant regions may have perished. The majority remained despite the extreme climate of the Körös valley, largely thanks to the arboretum’s more humid microclimate, the Holt‑Körös branch that bounds the garden on the east, and the favorable planting soil for both deciduous and coniferous trees.

The planting of the trees began on the higher part of the 35‑hectare “grove and wooded meadow” that spread beside the then still flowing river section, which was not flooded by frequent inundations.

After the river regulation was completed the floods ceased, allowing planting to start in the lower‑lying areas as well.

By the end of the 1890s the outline of the English garden was already beginning to take shape; protective forest strips marking the garden’s border and wooded groves and small forests surrounding the various clearings.

Bolza, fearing the garden's future, entrusted its supervision to the state in 1943, which declared it protected in the same year. Today it is a nature reserve of national significance.

After nationalization the arboretum had several owners: in 1985 it was turned into an independent institute within the University of Horticulture and Food Industry. Later it operated under the supervision of the Department of Landscape Architecture of Budapest Corvinus University, and currently the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences is its maintainer. The collections contain 1,600 species and varieties of trees and shrubs. In addition there are 250 herbaceous plant species and 211 types of cap fungi. According to newer studies, based on the 415 insect species identified, its insect fauna is very rich. Among the 150 bird species, many resident species live in the arboretum, but a special highlight of the garden is the varied appearance of Indian blue peafowl. More than 40 individuals of the various colour morphs live in the arboretum, and numerous other animal species can also be observed in the area.

The Mini Hungary model park was established on the arboretum grounds in 2013.

Access

It can be reached via main road 44, from which one must turn off at the western edge of Szarvas onto road 4631 leading to Mezőtúr.