For my third and final installment of our 1998 visit to Sweden and Estonia to celebration the 10th anniversary of the forming of the Swedish Clematis Society, I give you a photo-montage of events as yet unreported. The first report was on Sweden and the second report featured Estonia .
Whether visiting or revisiting, Magnus Johnson’s garden is a veritable treasure trove of clematis. Seen here (left) talking with some of our group, Magnus continues his work and is always fascinating to listen to. He has a huge collection with many impressive plants, mainly his own hybrids and cultivars. In addition to the many plants growing in his garden and around the house, he’s also planted a lot more along the garden fencing to greet you as you approach.
And for any photographers, there’s always something special to catch your eye, like this Clematis columella which I found irresistible.
Sweden has a tradition of horticultural research and discovery and one of the most famous of the “old masters” is Carl von Linné. We visited the house he lived in at Hammarby, a typical red stained wooden construction and the very neatly laid out gardens surrounding the buildings.
We then continued on the Linné trail to Uppsala, for the Linnéan gardens and museum. One of his most famous legacies is his categorization of plant species and the garden is laid out to reflect his revolutionary (in those days) system.
As you may have gathered by now we followed a busy schedule. However there was one day free and a number of attendees made their way into Stockholm, many of us using the very efficient Swedish public transport system.
Sweden is renown for it’s design and this is evident in the goods available in the shops and the modern architecture, often standing side by side with the old and traditional. buildings of Stockholm. A city worthy of more time than we could spare on this visit. Well, there’s always the next time….
Clematis lovers will go to all sorts of lengths in pursuit of their interest and this was very evident in a couple of incidents. On the first day we were caught in some rather stormy weather as we visited the Antroposofic Society gardens at Järna. Did that stop us? Not at all. Out came the umbrellas (from those people who had packed for all conditions, that is) and onward we went.
In another incident we went to the Botanic Gardens outside of Stockholm where the Swedish Clematis Society has been planting clematis. Many of these are on the perimeter fence of the car park and because of the direction it faces, the best blooms are on the “wrong” side. Did that deter us? No, we walked through the gates (marked “Private”) and scrambling over the compost and earth heaps to get to the plants. We must have looked a strange sight to members of the public out for a morning stroll in the park!
One of the advantages of this type of visit is it affords the opportunity to see gardens the normal tourist wouldn’t even knew existed. The was never so true as in Estonia, where we were taken round a series of private gardens.
Our thanks to Mrs Kaarep (above left), Tiiu and Alar Sarv (Tiiu, above right) and Erika and Alexsei Mahhov (left)for inviting us in to their homes. I also can’t leave this part without mentioning our invaluable translator, Imbi (right), who accompanied us whilst in Estonia. We couldn’t have done without her, as Werner will testify when discussing matters here with Eerich Pranno.
I leave you with the “group” photo, taken at the Linné house, Hammarby.
The first report was on Sweden and the second report featured Estonia .