Trees for Tough Urban Sites

A short speech before the ceremony. Roland von Bothmer and Henrik Sjöman

 
Today was the day of nailing at SLU in Alnarp. Henrik Sjöman nailed his Doctoral Thesis on a plank standing in our coffee room for this very purpose. His supervisors Anders Busse Nielsen and Roland von Bothmer offered him four different hammers and even four kinds of nails to choose from. Henrik took the safest hammer but had brought a beautiful home-forged and family-made nail in his pocket.

Henrik’s Doctoral Thesis is named Trees for Tough Urban Sites – Learning from Nature. He has been studying forestry systems, taxa and plant communities in both China's mountain forests and the Steppe woodlands of Romania. The essay will be searchable on the Epsilon.

Nailing the Doctoral Thesis, 19 January 2012, 10.00 am

Henrik's Choice infront of the feet of Anders Busse Nielsen

Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Sueciae Doctoral Thesis No. 2012:7

Boosting the Prairie

Echinacea pallida and Heliopsis helianthoides at the prairie in Alnarp

The Prairie at the Campus in Alnarp was planted in the end of October 2007. It has developed very well and just now the Pale Coneflower, Echinacea pallida flowers together with the oxeye, Heliopsis helianthoides ‘Summer Nights’, and some few still remaining flower heads of the Blanket flower, Gaillardia aristata. The real peak at the prairie is in late July and during August when thousands of Prairie Blazingstars are in bloom.

However we wanted to improve the flower display during early summer and last week we therefore arranged a planting day at the prairie. Helena Karlén, lecturer at the University in Alnarp, had planned the day and invited both some students and staff from the park to participate in the planting.

The following plants were planted last week: Echinacea pallida, Pale Coneflower, Liatris graminifolia, Grassleaf Blazingstar, Monarda fistulosa, Wild Bergamot, Silene regia, Royal Catchfly, Tradescantia ohiensis, Ohio Spiderwort and Bouteloua curtipendula, Sideoats Grama. The Baptisia australis, Blue Wild Indigo, didn´t germinate properly so we had only five plants to put into the ground.

The seeds were sown during the winter 

Seedlings of Monarda fistulosa

The plants growing at the Trädgårdslabbet in Alnarp

Time for planting

Planting the prairie - again

The day of planting, June 29th 2011

It is hard to find all pots in the tall grass

It was a hot day in late June just like a true Prairie Summer Day

Echinacera pallida at the prairie in Alnarp

The prairie in the beginning of July 2011

Echinacea, Heliopsis and Gaillardia

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 

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 Mediterranean World in Alnarp

Camellia in one of the greenhouses

The students at the course Indoor Garden Design at the University in Alnarp in southern Sweden have three small greenhouses as laboratory units for their studies in plant knowledge and design. As the Mediterranean world has a tremendous amount of interesting and useful plants for city spaces under glass, the students has a huge range of plants to learn about and to chose from for their indoor garden design projects.  

Here the students are making the green plant wall more complete. They are planting Selaginella, Saxifraga stolonifera and other plants in the empty pockets of the wall cover.  Pest control is made by releasing predators in the greenhouses. Checking leaves to identify insects and mites is an important task.

Early winter on the prairie

Despite it is still November the winter already has bed down most of the park in Alnarp in soft white. We seldom have snow here this time of the year and if it comes at all it is normally during late December or early January. But today all trees are nicely covered by ice and snow and at the prairie the seed heads look even more beautiful in contrast to the white element.   

Rattle snake master, Eryngium yuccifolium and Canada Wild Rye, Elymus canadensis 

The Annual Perennial Course in Alnarp

In early September we arranged the annual three days course about perennials in Alnarp again. This course deals with every aspect of the use of perennials in gardens, parks and city spaces and is intended mainly for professional landscapers, staff from municipalities, garden journalists and people from nurseries and Garden Centers.

The second course day the participants are given three alternative places there they are supposed to chose one and make a planting plan with suitable perennials. They have to consider both aesthetic values as well as the plant habitat issue.

The coffee breaks are not only cozy interruptions of the lectures but also important moments of discussions and an opportunity to create new contacts.

The last day we focused mainly on habitats and biotope plantings. Peter Korn delivered a very much appreciated lecture about natural steppes and steppes as a garden theme. Hopefully the participants left the course with fresh inspiring ideas and new suitable knowledge.

If you want information about the most recent perennial course you can find that on the blog "utan stängsel" at the page Stora Perennkursen.

The Star of the Month: Prairie Blazingstar

 

The real peak time for the prairie in Alnarp is now in August. At the moment hundreds and hundreds of Gayfeathers or Prairie Blazingstars (Liatris pycnostachya) color the whole planting area in lilac shades.
 
 

In natural habitats in North America the Prairie Blazingstar normally prefer mesic to moist and even seasonal wet sites although it sometimes can be found also on fairly dry ground. The mature plants can resist drought well, but young seedlings are more vulnerable.

In Alnarp it grows on a fertile but rather dry soil together with Rattlesnake Master (Eryngium yuccifolium), Upland White Aster (Aster ptarmicoides), Ohio Goldenrod (Solidago ohiensis), Smooth Oxeye or False Sunflower (Heliopsis helianthoides) and some other typical Prairie forbs and of course grasses as Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), Prairie Dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis) and Sideoat Grama (Bouteloua curtipendula).
 

Ohio Goldenrot (Solidago ohiensis)

Browneyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba) and Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium)

Here the Blazingstars flourish in harmony with Rattlesnake Masters (Eryngium yuccifolium)  

Prairie Blazingstar (Liatris pycnostachya)

Liatris pycnostachya in full bloom

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