Sweden and its gardens

It does not surprise me that I come to write of Sweden and its gardens through the cinema. Cinema has always been one of the highest art forms in Sweden and my photographic and cinematic enthusiasm is really whetted by the current Kenneth Branagh series of “Wallander” filmed around Inspektor Kurt Wallander's hometown Ystad in Sweden.

The director Philip Martin and the Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle (2009 Best Achievement “Slumdog Millionaire”) conferred to make sure they were going to be able to create a visual style that reflected Sweden – natural, simple, clean lines, an amalgum with the landscape, melancholic. This thread that permeates through all the Swedish arts can be found equally in garden design.

A recent strong example of this is the Linnaeus Garden which won a Gold Medal at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2007, designed Ulf Nordfjell with art works inspired by the work of Georg Dionysius Ehret and executed by Anna Karin Furunes. This garden is a miracle of white and silver simplicity inevitable water features. The garden is now reset out in Gothenburg Botanical Gardens. This botanical garden is considered to be the premier Swedish garden. See below

I note with interest that the Daily Telegraph contribution to the Chelsea Flower Show 2009 will be a garden designed by Ulf Nordfjell which will be a fusion of Anglo and Swedish elements. I look forward to what this will actually mean In gardening design.

Two Important Swedish Carls -

Carl Linnaeus (1707-78)

is known as the father of modern taxonomy who created the system for naming, ranking and classification of all organisms. He named about 7700 plant organisms and 4400 species of animals. Prior to his work any scientific name had no validity unless Linnaeus included it in his works. His most important work was published in 1753 and called “The Species of Plants”

Carl Larrsson (1853-1919)

Internationally beloved realist painter who shared his riotously colourful garden Lilla Hyttnas and family with the world through his art. Karin his wife was also trained artist and her bold ideas were a major plank in what we see and enjoy about the artist his home and and environment.

Other interesting Swedish garden pointers:

Swedish railway stations

Really was intrigued by the gardening around Swedish railway stations which were to actively encourage birds and bees.

Found in this reference http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-Gov06_08Rail-t1-body-d5-d3.html which is dated 1932

“At every station, he reports, as well as every signalman's cottage, a garden is laid out at the expense of the State Railways, which also send out special gardening inspectors to advise. In addition, he states, the railway administration has taken wild birds under its protection by putting up no less than 12,000 feeding perches in the trees adjacent to the railway line “ British Rial take note...

Two important botanical gardens

Gothenburg Botanical Garden considered to be the premier Swedish Garden – it is also where the Linnaeus Garden was re-established having won a First at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2007.Garden. This is a link to the plants to be found in the Linnaeus Garden.

http://w3.goteborg.se/botaniska/PDF/VaxtlistaLinnetrdg.pdf

Fredriksdal Museum and Gardens themed on an 18^th century manor house thereby reflecting provincial life. Notable rose garden and kitchen gardening. (www.fredriksdal.se)

Nordic Gardens Fair at Alvsjo near Stockholm

Sweden has a number of formal gardens, as ever attached to houses and palaces of importance and more than a little influenced by the French tradition of formal gardens. A good example would be the Gronsoo Palace built 1611, west of Stockholm. Gustavian in style with a famous Lake Malaran and 720 hectares of landscape demonstrating farmlands, forestry and so forth.