Just a couple of days after returning home from Glasgow I went to Helsinki. For work, yes, but still I had time to visit the Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden for my own particular pleasure.
I went there with two friends and a toddler. They enjoyed the sunny lawn in front of the greenhouses for a while, but soon got bored and went to the playground on the other side of the fence. I was left to explore on my own.
It was a chilly day, spring just arriving. It was fascinating, having just been in Glasgow where everything was in full bloom, the sun was warm and where it was possible to read sitting in a t-shirt, perfectly comfortable, on a bench in the botanic garden. Not here. Mittens and hat were needed in the Helsinki May weather, even though it isn’t that much further north than Scotland. I guess it’s the Golf stream versus the lingering Siberian winter air masses.
Really nice, though, with the blooming spring flowers, wood anemones, pasqueflowers, scilla and tulips. Lily buds, just like the ones in my Finnish grandmother’s garden, promising a fiery summer. Strange and exotic plants are fascinating, alright, but there’s a special kind of magic in the flowers of childhood.
The greenhouses are made up of a main lush tropical palm house and several adjoining smaller greenhouses housing plants from biomes such as the Mediterranean and deserts, a water lily pond and even a gorgeous little room completely dedicated to African violets. My Swedish grandmother used to have these in her living room window – but did you know that they originate from Tanzania and Kenya? Just imagine, the journey they made to get from a moist patch next to a small stream in a remote tropical forest in inland Tanzania to my grandmother’s windowsill in Vårberg in the 1980s. The lengths we go to for beauty.
It is rather small, the botanic garden in Kaisaniemi, Helsinki, and I visited it a bit too early in the season to see its full potential – but still, I liked it. The garden and the greenhouses had pedagogic signs, making it both accessible and educational. And the old palm house was really beautiful. I could easily have spent my entire day there next to a statue, reading and contemplating life. This time, though, I couldn’t. I had to go find my friends at the playground across the fence. But I’ll be back. There will always be reasons to go to Helsinki.
Katja Malmborg 