About us

Pass­ing on bio­di­ver­si­ty to future gen­er­a­tions. Since 1994, the Pomona Gar­dens have been real­iz­ing and sup­port­ing this objec­tive in Puglia, in Cis­tern­i­no, in Valle d’I­tria, the val­ley of the trul­li.

In the Itria val­ley, at the cross­roads between the vil­lages of Cis­tern­i­no, Locoro­ton­do and Mar­ti­na Fran­ca and a short dis­tance from the blue Adri­at­ic sea, Pomona, the Lady of gar­dens and orchards, finds her home. The Botan­i­cal Con­ser­va­to­ry The Gar­dens of Pomona is ded­i­cat­ed to the Latin god­dess where bio­di­ver­si­ty flour­ish­es in the thou­sand and more — lit­er­al­ly — vari­eties of ancient fruit plants from all over the world and many of which have been saved from extinc­tion. The ten hectares of the Con­ser­va­to­ry, man­aged with an organ­ic method, com­bine nature con­ser­va­tion with low-impact tourist hos­pi­tal­i­ty, in a land­scape con­text of great charm.

Botan­i­cal con­ser­va­to­ry I gia­r­di­ni di Pomona — Cis­tern­i­no

The main col­lec­tion ded­i­cat­ed to the species Ficus car­i­ca includes 600 dif­fer­ent plant vari­eties, among Afghan, Bosn­ian, French, Por­tuguese, Alban­ian, Israeli and of course Ital­ian and Apu­lian figs, all peace­ful­ly grow­ing next to each oth­er. For its qual­i­ty and num­ber of vari­eties this is this is one of the most impor­tant col­lec­tions in Europe and the Mediter­ranean.

Besides the fig col­lec­tion there are sev­er­al oth­ers: pome­gran­ates, name­ly Puni­ca grana­tum, includ­ing both orna­men­tal and edi­ble vari­eties; apples and pears (for a total of thir­ty vari­eties- to name just one, the Api Etoilé, which was rein­tro­duced in Italy thanks to Pomona’s efforts). Cit­ruses (lemons, oranges, grape­fruits, man­darins, bit­ter oranges and Pon­cirus tri­fo­li­a­ta) – already col­lect­ed by Cosi­mo III De’ Medici – are rep­re­sent­ed by an espe­cial­ly extrav­a­gant and beau­ti­ful jew­el col­lec­tion.

Walk­ing through the gar­dens one can also find table grapes, sweet and sour cher­ries, damsons, apri­cots, almonds, ame­lanchi­er, quinces, mul­ber­ries, jujubes, ser­vice berries and cor­nels, per­sim­mons, kiwis, wal­nuts, pis­ta­chios and hazel­nuts of the most var­ied shapes and sizes. SpeciVc plots and rows are ded­i­cat­ed to the so-called minor fruits or small fruits. Along the rows, in-between the main trees, aro­mat­ic plants are plant­ed in open ground – con­stant­ly pur­su­ing the goal of increas­ing the species’ bio­di­ver­si­ty. Along the paths a wide range of dif­fer­ent vari­eties of rose­mary, thyme, sage, mint and hys­sop, artemisia and sum­mer savoury can be admired. More­over there are sev­er­al quite well-known plants, which are not too wide­spread, like: liquorice, Helichry­sum, Chi­nese and Thai lemon grass, rue, lemon balm and cam­phor

The Nagasa­ki per­sim­mon (kakitreeproject.com), placed in the mid­dle of the most fer­tile plot of the gar­dens, is the sapling of a tree which was found amidst the rub­ble hav­ing thus sur­vived the 9th August 1945 bomb­ing in Japan. The tree grows sur­round­ed by a laven­der labyrinth – sym­bol­iz­ing the wind­ing, and at the same time colour­ful and scent­ed, path to peace.

Final­ly, exam­ples of per­ma­cul­ture and arid­cul­ture can be observed and under­stood in the food for­est and in the cre­ation of swales, as well as in the water con­cen­tra­tor that uses the capa­bil­i­ties of dry stone walls and plants to dis­trib­ute water.

The Pomona Gar­dens Botan­i­cal Con­ser­va­to­ry aims to trans­mit these vari­eties, select­ed over the mil­len­nia by farm­ers, to future gen­er­a­tions, and to enhance the bio­di­ver­si­ty that they won­der­ful­ly rep­re­sent, open­ing up to research and exper­i­men­ta­tion, but also to teach­ing, on the themes of eco-sus­tain­abil­i­ty, arid farm­ing and bio­di­ver­si­ty: a sort of liv­able and con­crete cat­a­log of good prac­tices and tech­nolo­gies cur­rent­ly avail­able for the last­ing con­ser­va­tion of life on the plan­et.