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The Bergius botanic garden in Stockholm has very knowledgeable and passionate staff, who regularly organize topical guided tours in the garden. These days, those tours have all been postponed, so I choose to reminisce, while waiting for organized non-virtual edification to start up again. Some years ago, a couple of days before Midsummer, I went to a tour of the herb garden titled “Magical Midsummer”. It was a wonderful way to get a history lesson, walking around in the garden and hearing about the powers people at different times have thought certain plants possess. Particularly fitting was to have this tour on the day of the summer solstice, because traditionally people believed that Midsummer was a particularly magical time when the potency of these plants was at its highest. And there is something to that, as the botanist and gardener holding the tour explained. Midsummer is usually the peak of flowering season for most herbs, meaning that the active substances in them are at their strongest.
Photo: The herb garden in Bergianska trädgården, Stockholm, June 2019. Posted on Instagram July 1, 2020.
Katja Malmborg 