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No Sleep till Iceland

I finally arrived to Gothenburg, Sweden after 18 hours of sleepless flights with the only plan to meet Johan Nilson in the airport. I was tired yet excited and eager to see where I would be staying. Johan drove me to the my place and it soon became clear on the ride over that I was in for an unforgettable week in Sweden. We arrived at the gardens where I had to pinch myself that I was literally staying inside the gates of the garden in a beautiful historic yellow house surrounded by one of Europe's most famous gardens.

My home for the next week
There was some daylight left so he took me on a quick tour of the rock garden and watched as the sun set over Gothenburg. I felt overwhelmed and so grateful that first night.

The view from highest point in the rock garden overlooking Gothenburg to the sea

The next morning I walked into town for coffee to get my bearings on how close I was staying to the center of the city. Johan then picked me up with his family where we drove north along to coast to see Lina's family and nursery. We stopped for a quick coffee on the shore to talk about what species of fish dwell in the cold waters. We arrived just before lunch at the nursery and toured around the nursery where we met Lina's father and mother, Vivi and Tommy. The nursery specializes in many woody plants and Magnolias and has been in business for over 30 years. After a quick tour and a traditional Swedish lunch of herring and shrimp salad inside the greenhouse, Johan and I were off to our next stop.



We arrived at Martha and Karsten Ristorp's home and garden which I soon thought was a small botanic garden. The beds, plants and space was something only few could ever handle on their own. Martha and Karsten's garden is home hundred of Rhododendrons grown for themselves and propagated for others. Their backyard is set up of small greenhouses and cold frames filled with cuttings of many unusual woody plants and seedlings of alpines  including some rare ones I had never seen before such as Pulsatilla integrifolia and some interesting colors of Hepatica nobilis.

Martha, Johan and Karsten

Pulsatilla integrifolia - rare and hard to grow

We walked around for a long time talking about the construction of each bed in which Karsten discussed his passion of building things and taking his time to make sure it's done right. He gave me some good insight on building the sand and peat beds from start to finish. Another technique that I thought was funny but smart is growing Ramonda myconi in socks then stuffing them into rock walls so water can trickle down to their roots. I wanted to keep up with taking notes but the jet lag and pure enjoyment of just being in their garden was exactly what I needed on my first day. I will let the pictures do the talking. 



Guardian of the Alpines - For Mike Kintgen

Incredible rock work displayed throughout the garden

Dozens of Rhododendron species from small to large

Ramonda myconi in the rock wall 

New sand bed on the right with seating area one could only dream of in a back yard

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