In botanical gardens, it is extremely important to have a place where you can grow plants from a climate completely different from that of an outdoor garden. In temperate climates, warm greenhouses with tropical plants are a great attraction especially during the winter season. When the Botanical Garden of the Polish Academy of Sciences took over the allotted land, it got its first greenhouse together with the buildings of the Janówek estate. The greenhouse was small, built back in the early 1930s, so it could only serve as additional facilities in a modern scientific facility.

However, one might be tempted to say that the first garden greenhouse was built more than 14,000 kilometers from Powsin, as employees of the Botanical Garden of the Polish Academy of Sciences, as part of the Third Antarctic Expedition (1978-1979), took part in the design and construction of the greenhouse at the Henryk Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station. The experimental greenhouse, along with horticultural and research facilities, was to be used to produce vegetables for the polar explorers, as well as for botanical research. The area of the greenhouse was 40 sq. m., and rooms located next to it housed laboratories (botanical and horticultural), along with storage and sanitary facilities.

After the polar experiments in 1979, the construction of a greenhouse in Powsin began, in which plants from different climatic zones were to find their place. The greenhouses were functional, adapted for research crops, so they did not have a sophisticated shape, but were common modules for production crops. The advantage of such a solution was that even large machines could work inside the greenhouse, and growing plants on raised sills allowed for easy care. Tall plants such as banana trees, for example, were planted in the ground in small areas where there were no parapets and garden visitors had the objects of observation at their fingertips, but could only walk down the middle of the greenhouse, without being able to step between the individual parapets. However, the plants grew over time and began to run out of space, so the decision was made to build another greenhouse. In 1993, a new greenhouse was built, also a typical one, but already without parapets, but with a hollow in the center of it (the uninitiated thought it would be pools). The hollow, however, was to make it possible to plant taller plants under the glass, without having to raise the glass structure. The new greenhouse was divided into two parts, the first was planted with plants of subtropical climate, among others, a rich collection of citrus plants and Japanese camellias, while the second found its place with tropical plants, among others, tree ferns. Years passed and the greenhouses grew old, so it was necessary to think about another new greenhouse. This time, Dutch system interlocking greenhouses were chosen, which were taller than standard production greenhouses. Work began in 2001. Earlier, the oldest glass structure had been dismantled, but some of the plants growing in it had to wait for replanting due to their size. This caused some specimens to have a chance to get acquainted with the winter weather, but only for a while, as they immediately got a new glass roof and home. The new greenhouse was named "Green Paradise" in a public poll and opened its interiors to the public in 2003.

Anna Gasek