Saturday

Saturday, August 9th

Bus departs at 8:30 AM from Grand Hotel, heading east.

The first stop is at the Nátthagi nursery. Ólafur Njálsson is a pioneer in Icelandic horticulture and has for many years offered an excellent selection of trees, shrubs, Rhododendrons and Roses. We will explore the nursery and the surrounding area with Óli.

The journey continues east to Ásaskóli, located near the edge of the highlands. Here we explore probably the largest private rose garden in Iceland. The hosts Stefán and Katrín will welcome us. They are both passionate rose growers and musicians and they have particularly focused on testing rose varieties named after music-related themes.

Our next stop is for Lunch at the Farmers Bistro in Flúðir. The restaurant is part of the Flúðasveppir mushroom farm.

After lunch, the tour continues to the greenhouses at Espiflöt, where long-stemmed roses are produced in large quantities for Icelandic florists, as well as for export.

Next, we proceed to Geysir where we watch a Strokkur eruption before heading to Björk Þorleifsdóttir’s summerhouse at Laugarvatn, where we will explore the garden and enjoy refreshments.

After our visit we head west towards Þingvellir national park where a stop will be made in the national park before continuing back to Reykjavík.

Estimated arrival back to Reykjavik is at 18:30

Galadinner

On Saturday night we will celebrate with a 3-course Gala dinner in Háteigur, the beautiful restaurant at the top floor of the Grand hotel. During the celebration the presidency of the Nordic Rose society will be handed over from Iceland to Finland which in turn will host the Rose Weekend of 2027.  We will enjoy the evening with music and games focusing on roses.