Founded in 1957, Joensuu's botanic gardens contain over 600 plant species in four separate areas: desert, tropical, sub-tropical and temperate. Highlights include a 570-sq-metre glass-paned greenhouse (with a butterfly enclosure and a resident sulphur-crested cockatoo, Juuso), a poison garden, a medicinal garden and kitchen garden as well as an apiary (its honey is sold at the gardens' shop).

