Biotope design in Norway

Last week I was invited to Norway in order to deliver two lectures about biotope design in parks and gardens. The first evening I visited Blomstevenners klubb in Oslo, a society with members of house & garden owners interested in gardening, flowers and all kind of plants on a rather advanced level. It turned out to be a cozy and amusing evening, with many questions and even a tasty cup of tea afterwards.

The members of the Blomstervenners klubb are gathering and chatting before the lecture

After the lecture we had coffee and tea and a lottery was hold with indoor plants as prizes

The next day I took a short walk from my hotel situated close to the railway station through the central parts of Oslo to the Botanical Garden and the Zoological Museum. This time of the year the garden was covered by a thick layer of snow, but inside the small greenhouses it of course was much warmer.

In the outdoor garden I found a tree with an interesting label on the trunk. It was obvious that it was a maple tree, Acer platanoides, but at the label it instead was written Oxyporus populinus. This is the Latin name of a fungus called mossy maple polypore in English and lönnticka in Swedish. It attacks living trees and particularly maples. According to the benefit of dead wood for the biodiversity in the garden discussed earlier on this blog it is positive to find fungi labeled as well, not only the trees themselves.

The Botanical garden and the Zoological museum are ruled by the University of Oslo

Mossy Maple Polypore, Oxyporus populinus on a Acer platanoides

Selaginella is here representing the Devon era

In the palm house the plants are arranged according to their evolutionary development, with examples from different geological eras. Among others there are species of genus as Equisetum, Dicksonia and Cycas.

The old Victoria waterlily greenhouse

Amorphophallus konjac in the Victoria house

In the zoological museum has several biotopes been created behind glass. All geographical regions of animals are represented, sometimes even with more than one biotope. Of course the show cases are too crowded with animals to look natural, but the displays are well made and also very interesting to watch. 

Monarda for dry sites

Today I again visited Laholm and the famous citypark to discuss its continuing development. Later this year we are going to create a meadow for biodiversity and a planting beneath big beech trees with great spring aspects from bulbs and other early flowering perennials. Two amazing plantings for the future.

At the savanna in Laholm now the Wild Bergamot, Monarda fistulosa, recently has began to bloom. This Monarda is suitable for dry sites and tolerates water stress much better then the common garden cultivars. They belong all to the Monarda didyma-group or are hybrids between these two species. Monarda didyma prefer instead moist or even wet conditions.

The Pale Coneflower, Echinacea pallida, thrives well together with the Wild Bergamot

A very dry setting

This dry habitat planting in Sävsjö was made in 1999 and extended in 2001. The mixture of gravels, sand and soil were put directly on an existing lawn. Only at the edges of the planting area the lawn was removed. Beside stable perennials we also used some short lived perennials and some true hoppers, biennials like the Verbascum bombiferum. Today 10 and 8 years later the planting still is okay. As this was meant to be a dynamic planting it of course looks very different nowadays compared to its early stages.

The planting is never irrigated, except from the first establishing year of course. If a plant species can't stand the conditions and die it will not be replaced. The hard world of dynamics rules!

Lychnis calcedonica, a short lived perennial has increased in number

The Alpine Thistle, Eryngium alpinum excist in some few specimen

Traffic Islands

Dry and colorful traffic island spot with Nepeta and Origanum

Let's stay in Sävsjö for a while. Not far from the calcareous slope we can find some rather interesting traffic islands. They were all planted in 1998 and are still in very good shape although they do look a bit different today.

The sunny shore theme with Crambe, Artemisia and Geranium

A steppe style planting embrace the parking area

Along the head street in the small little city we planted several small plots and close to parking places also some bigger plantings. At the sunny side of the street all plantings were created as dry sites with high amount of gravels and pebbles mixed into the soil. At the shady part instead woodland style plantings with Hosta, ferns and other shade perennials were choosen.

Good contrast makers here are Stachys, Origanum and Nepeta.

 

Hosta and variegated Aegopodium in the shade

Landscaping project tour

Tomorrow am going for a two days landscaping tour to visit some of my latest projects. Especially I'm interested to see the development of the big prairie planting in Mariestad. It was planted in late autumn last year and I haven't been there since then, so of course I'm very curious about the result. The prairie will increase in size by stages and the next planting is planned to take place during autumn 2011. Yes, I will give a report here when I'm back of course.

Planting the prairie in Mariestad 2009

The Prairie in Alnarp

The prairie in Alnarp was created during 2007 and planted in late fall in cooperation with the students at the University (SLU). It is a plot of 1000 square meters (0.25 acres) with solely native prairie plants from the true prairie in Mideast US, apart from one exception, the Common Camas, Camassia quamash from the northern Pacific states.

In late spring the prairie is tinted blue by 10 000 Camassia. In late summer instead the gayfeathers (Liatris) are predominating together with scattered groups of Rattlesnake Masters (Eryngium yuccifolium), False Sunflowers (Heliopsis helianthoides), the Upland White Asters (Aster ptarmacoides) and some others.

All shoots are from August 2009

The Honey Locust Savanna

In 2008 we created two biotope plantings in the city park of Laholm inspired by the biomes from North Eastern North America. The Honey Locust Savanna with sparse groves of trees and a understory of savanna and prairie forbs is located on a west facing slope in the park.

Linum perenne and Coreopsis lanceolata

Penstemon smalli and Coreopsis lanceolata

All pictures above are from last year, 2009

This year the flax is overwhelming

First contribution

Welcome to this new blog about naturalistic landscaping. It's my aim to publish pictures and brief essential information from my landscaping projects. I also hope my blog will cause an eagerness and increased curiosity about biotope design and dynamic plantings among gardeners and landscapers all over the world.

Blue flax, Linum perenne in peak bloom in the city park