Inside the blocks of Barcelona's Ensanche district we can find pleasant surprises. The Hotel Alma garden is one of them, an oasis of tranquility accompanied by abundant vegetation in a unique urban microhabitat.
In 2005 Alma Hotels bought a late 19th-century building with a large garden in the inner courtyard, located at the privileged intersection of Mallorca street with Paseo de Gracia. The rehabilitation of the building is based on concepts such as comfort, spaciousness and authenticity. And it was carried out with noble materials such as wood, stone, leather and steel.
From the hotel reception, guests can feel the presence of the garden at the back. But before reaching it they encounter a seven-story atrium illuminated by a skylight and the first dining area.
Upon entering the garden we find the restaurant terrace, for more intimate and sophisticated dinners, delimited by large planters, and then a second more informal space for cocktails and aperitifs surrounded by trees and shrubs with a bar at the back, accompanied by sofas and small tables.
The vegetation is abundant and characterized by shade and partial shade plants, due to the limited sun exposure of this space. On the perimeter of the garden climbing plants predominate accompanied by bamboos, privets and holm oaks, while in the lower stratum there are ivies and hostas. In the cocktail area there are multi-stemmed holm oak specimens surrounded by groupings of **_Pistacia lentiscus_** and plane trees accompanied by ivies. To mark the different uses in the restaurant area there are boxwoods, mastic trees and aromatics in pots.
In the garden, the greys and blacks of fabrics, pots and walls give a contemporary and elegant touch that combines perfectly with the paving materials and wooden furniture. While triangular-shaped awnings provide shade and privacy in areas where there are no trees.
At Sala Graupera you can find **_Hosta 'Sagae'_** and a wide range of shade plants such as, among others, these presented in previous posts:
_[Pachysandra terminalis](http://www.salagraupera.com/es/bloc/item/164-plantas-de-sombra-ii)_
_[Plectranthus zuluensis](http://www.salagraupera.com/es/bloc/item/172-plantas-de-sombra-iii)_
Images: almabarcelona.com / Margherita Galante