Editing Pretoria (section)

===Parks and gardens===
Pretoria is home to the [[National Zoological Gardens of South Africa]], as well as the [[Pretoria National Botanical Garden]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sa-venues.com/national-botanical-gardens.htm |title=National Botanical Gardens |publisher=SA-Venues |access-date=12 September 2008 |archive-date=19 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081219114537/http://www.sa-venues.com/national-botanical-gardens.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> There are also a number of smaller parks and gardens located throughout the city, including the [[Austin Roberts (zoologist)|Austin Roberts]] Bird Sanctuary, Pretorius Square gardens, the Pretoria [[Rosarium]], [[Church Square, Pretoria|Church Square]], Pretoria Showgrounds, [[Springbok Park]], [[Freedom Park (South Africa)|Freedom Park]], [[Jan Cilliers Park]] and [[Burgers Park]], the oldest park in the city and now a national monument. In the suburbs there are also several parks that are notable: Rietondale Park, "Die Proefplaas" in the Queenswood suburb, Magnolia Dell Park, Nelson Mandela Park and Mandela Park Peace Garden and Belgrave Square Park.

<gallery mode="nolines" widths="160" heights="140">
File:Pretoria zoo 2.jpg|View of Pretoria from the Pretoria Zoo
File:Burgers Park, Pretoria.JPG|[[Burgers Park]]
File:Broodboomtuin, a, Pretoria Nasionale Botaniese Tuin.jpg|Pretoria National Botanical Gardens
</gallery>

====Jacaranda city====
[[File:Jacaranda Trees Pretoria.jpg|thumb|A street lined with [[Jacaranda mimosifolia|jacarandas]] in Pretoria, with the [[Union Buildings]] atop [[Meintjieskop]] in the background]]

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Pretoria's nickname "the Jacaranda City" comes from the around 70,000 jacaranda trees that grow in Pretoria and decorate the city each October with their purple blossoms. The first two trees were planted in 1888 in the garden of local gardener, [[J.D. Cilliers]], at Myrtle Lodge on Celliers Street in [[Sunnyside, Pretoria|Sunnyside]]. He obtained the seedlings from a Cape Town nurseryman who had harvested them in [[Rio de Janeiro]], Brazil. The two trees still stand on the grounds of the Sunnyside Primary School.

The jacaranda comes from tropical South America and belongs to the family [[Bignoniaceae]]. There are around fifty species of jacaranda, but the one found most often in the warmer areas of [[Southern Africa]] is [[Jacaranda mimosifolia]].

At the end of the 19th century, the flower and tree grower James Clark imported jacaranda seedlings from Australia and began growing them on a large scale. In November 1906, he donated two hundred small saplings to the Pretoria City Council, which planted them on Koch Street (today Bosman Street). The city engineer Walton Jameson, soon known as "Jacaranda Jim", launched a programme to plant jacaranda trees throughout Pretoria, and by 1971 there would already be 55,000 of them in the city.

Most jacarandas in Pretoria are lilac in colour, but there are also white ones planted on Herbert Baker Street in [[Groenkloof]].

The Jacaranda Carnival is an old tradition that was held from 1939 to 1964. After a hiatus of over twenty years, it resumed in 1985. Festivities include a colourful march and the crowning of the Jacaranda Queen.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Boshoff |first1=Dawie |title=Jakarandastad vier fees |journal=Suid-Afrikaanse Panorama |date=March–April 1990 |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=73–75}}</ref>