A week later

The Carthusian Pink, Dianthus carthusianorum is now flowering freely

It has gone a week since last shots were discharged. The steppe roundabout is now flowering rather well to been just newly planted, although it of course still has a very thin and sparse appearance. But if you look close into the pictures you'll see that some tiny seedlings already are emerging between the lime stone gravels.   

Today flowering plants include Veronica spicata, Prunella grandiflora, Geranium sanguineum, Geranium 'Tiny Monster', Dianthus carthusianorum, Sedum acre and Knautia macedonica 'Mars Midjet'. The first Achillea filipendulina has also begun to show color and that is much earlier then I expected.

When I am writing this humble lines I can hear the rain drops playing at the window-ledge. Excellent, the small and insignificant, tremolous little seedlings need some water support at the dry steppe.   

Prunella and Veronica side by side by the side of the street

A lot of seedlings are already growing in the gravels

The Golden Age

In early June the prairie in Alnarp is predominated by the bright yellow Common Blanketflower, Gaillardia aristata. There are many colorful cultivars on the market, some with semi double flower heads, but here we have used the wild form with brownish red purple disc florets and more or less pure yellow ray florets.

The genus Gaillardia contains about dozen species in North America and they are all suitable for dry and severe conditions. Most of the species are either annuals or short lived perennials and the Common Blanketflower is rated in the latter group so the plants will not survive for decades, although it often self seed abundant.

The golden Common Blanketflowers thrives at dry prairies and meadows

Common Blanketflowers at the prairie in Alnarp, June 11th 2011 

The Blanketflower at the prairie last year in June 24th 2010.

Many moderns cultivars have large red banded flower heads 

At least some isolated flowers

Slowly, slowly the plants at the Steppe Roundabout in Lund begin to establish in the harsh and inhospitable environment. Yet the planting is irrigated regularly however and that will continue through the summer, but from now decreased to once a week.

Of course the planting still looks very sparse and scanty and it might be difficult for the viewers to cotton on the design idea and appreciate the display. Unfortunately it will take two or three years before the roundabout will show its real character.

Some few plants have at least started to expose their flowers. In order of appearance this is what has happened. Already when planted in April the Aubrieta 'Blaumeise' was set with flowers, followed by Geranium sanguineum 'Max Frei' and the sanguineum-hybrid Geranium 'Tiny Monster'. Then Knautia macedonica 'Mars Midjet' opened its dark red flowers, next Veronica spicata and Prunella grandiflora. This week Dianthus carthusianorum began to bloom.

Clouds of Perfume

The Shooting Star, Dodecatheon meadia,  grows among the Phlox

While the Prairie Smoke makes the savanna, the Phlox rules in the Woodland in Laholm and turn it into a spectacular color satisfied place. There are two different species of Phlox in the woodland, Phlox divaricata, the Blue Woodland Phlox, also known as Wild Sweet William and Phlox stolonifera, Creeping Phlox, both native to rich woodlands in the Appalachian Mountains in Eastern USA.

Phlox divaricata grows with upright stems crowned by scented flowers in pale blue or white. Phlox stolonifera does not smell much, but it covers the ground well with creeping sterile shots. There are many named cultivars with different shades from bright pink, soft lilac, deep violet to pure white.

Shooting Star, Phlox stolonifera and Phlox divaricata in harmony

Planted in masses the scent from the blue Phlox divaricata is overwhelming

Fothergilla major flowers with its cute whitish wads

Osmunda cinnamomea is in my opinion maybe the most beautiful of all hardy ferns you can grow in your garden. It prefers a moist site in shade or dappled sunlight. Slightly acid to acid conditions and a soil with some organic matter is best.

If you can also find a sheltered place in the woodland with high humidity you have made the best situation for this green fellow. The sterile foliage makes a nice, open wreath and in the middle of it the erect fertile leaves emerges. In the autumn this fertile leaves turn into a striking cinnamon brown shade. Also the sterile leaves have reddish brown fall colors.

Osmunda cinnamomea is shoting in late spring and early summer

Smoke on the Savanna

Geum triflorum in the beginning of the smoke stage

In the end of May the students at the course in garden design at the University in Alnarp visited the new plantings in the city park of Laholm. The savanna has its best development during summer and early autumn with a beautiful display of Coneflowers, Echinacea and Ratibida, and of course all colorful grasses.

At this time of the year some parts of the savanna are dominated by the Prairie Smoke, Geum triflorum. It is a delicious little plant with deep brownish red flowers followed by mauve seed heads resembling soft, smoky feathers. The plant is creeping slowly by runners and will build up small colonies after some few years. Hopefully they will also be able to spread by seeds.

There are some other plants at the savanna in bloom during late May and early June and the brightest among them is the Golden Alexanders, Zizia aurea. The Canadian Columbine, Aquilegia canadensis is already coloring the savanna red, soon also the flax open its pale blue flowers and then the early summer blooming has started.

Prairie Smoke, Geum triflorum

Zizia aurea is flowering in May at the savanna in Laholm

The Canadian Columbine has hanging flowers in red and yellow

The Pink Rainfall in May

It always rains in the end of May. A beautiful pink rainfall fills the air and slowly covers paths and plants in Gunnar's Garden and convert it to a soft and delightful place resembling a just outside church post marriage spot.

 

The pink petals from the Cherry trees gracefully crest the low, pruned box hedge and thus boost and clarify its formal shape. This garden was made by Gunnar Sorte, a popular and skilled teacher at the university in Alnarp. He has now retired and moved back to his home country Norway. But the pinkish rain of the superannuated Cherry blossom still remains in every end of May.

Cherry Blossom Rain in Gunnar's Garden, Alnarp

The last garden of Ulla Molin

A narrow path through the ivy

Ulla Molin was a trendsetting Swedish designer of small gardens and outdoor spaces. She used a very chaste and strict style with some few distinct plants and often ground covers arranged in big irregular, settled blocks. Among her favorite plants we can find Antennaria, Asarum, Hedera, Buxus and ferns.

This week our students at the garden design course in Alnarp made an excursion to Lund with the aim to study private gardens and the last garden made by Ulla Molin was one of them. In the yard there are a couple of apartment blocks with different small garden spaces. In one of them we found pruned box globes planted directly in the gravel or in elevated concrete cylinders. She has created a unique spatiality in the yard by using very few expressions. “Great design”, the students thought.

Box globes in the garden of Ulla Molin

The entrance to the garden with post boxes on the wall

The small woodland in Tim's garden 

The first private garden to visit this day was the garden of Tim Delshammar and his family. Tim who is a landscape architect working as a teacher in Alnarp has made a nice little garden divided into small rooms by hedges and fences. Just behind the front garden it is a small woodland with globes of box and privet. The ground is covered by Asarum, Brunnera, Epimedium, Pulmonaria, ferns and bulbs. The influence from Ulla Molin is obvious. 

Inside the garden of Lotte Möller

As a great final of the day we visited the garden of the author and garden writer Lotte Möller. She has through the years made a wonderful, wild and peaceful garden in central Lund. Some of the plants she just allow to grow anywhere in the garden if they can find a place to root by themselves. But despite the garden looks like it was left to grow entirely by its own, it is on the contrary actually carefully maintained and finely attended.   

A paradise in Lund - the natural garden of Lotte Möller