Gardens - Scandinavian Style

Early one morning the last week in August our tour bus left the hotel in Loen, Norway in time for us to see frost on the roadside fields! And then there was still snow on the lower mountains left over from last winter. To say the growing season is short would be an understatement. Still, we did see some exuberant plantings all over Sweden, Denmark and Norway.

The most extensive garden that we toured was at Sofiero Slott (castle, I think) in southern Sweden. This castle was the summer home of King Gustaf VI Adolf and a young Crown Princess Margaret (one of Victoria and Albert's many descendants). Gustaf and Margaret lived here as a young couple in the early 1900s and quickly filled the castle with five small children in their 20 year marriage. Margaret died when pregnant with their sixth child. Both she and the king were very interested in botany and gardening and established an extensive garden at Sofiero:

This is the young Princess Margareta:

Sofiero is now a public attraction, gifted to the people of Helsingborg by the king. People enjoy the gardens, public concerts, art exhibitions, and the castle restaurant. The day we toured workers were setting up tents and decorating for a big event. Still, we were able to enjoying the garden closeup. This gatherer was going through the gardens with her basket looking for inspiration:


The chrsysanthemun beds were at the height of bloom:


Hollyhocks were trained on wires to make separate garden rooms:

This was a long view of an elaborate ornamental and functional vegetable plot (used in the castle restaurant, probably--we had lovely asparagus for lunch and I saw the asparagus ferns):


Here are a couple of closeups of artichokes, first the globe:

And then the bloom:

How about some black kale?

I saw several varieties of fruit, grown both as trees, like these plums:

And then this beautiful espaliered apple:

Finally, at the end of the season, it all ends up in the cleanup bin (reminded me of those paintings of dead fowl):

In Oslo, I saw this late season planting of annuals at Vigeland Park among all the sculptures:

And finally, a different garden experience could be had at Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens, which is probably more amusement park than public garden. This shot was taken after dinner in the park:
So, the Scandinavians may have to garden fast, but the result is worth the effort, wouldn't you agree?