I was most intrigued by the cacti in the Oaxaca ethnobotanic garden. The life force in these inhospitable plants, and the beauty in the patterns on their skins. It amazes me. This is pure survival. And I must admit, the cacti and pond installation in the end of the guided tour was really a masterpiece of organic symmetry and reflection.
Photo: Jardín Ethnobotánico de Oaxaca, Mexico, November 2017. Posted on Instagram April 25, 2021.
The outdoor art museum in the Wanås castle grounds is really impressive and surprising. I truly enjoyed strolling around there in the twilight hour. However, what left the deepest impression on me was still the tree. The Snapphane oak. It was already standing there when the first castle was being built in the end of the 15th century. It is said that several of the Snapphane soldiers, Scanians who fought on the Danish side against the Swedish crown in the 17th century, were hanged from its branches. It has seen so much life. I stood for a long time with my palms against its rough bark. I felt like it was breathing. But maybe that was just me.
Photo: The Snapphane oak at Wanås Konst & Slott, Östra Göinge, Sweden, May 2017. Posted on Instagram April 25, 2021.
The small greenhouses in Lund University botanic garden are neat and well-frequented by primary school children. I took shelter there away from a heavy spring rain when I visited in 2017. But weather is fickle that time of year. No sooner had it stopped raining, than the sun came out and turned the whole garden into a glittering, fragrant concentrate of late spring. The rhododendrons were in full bloom, colorful and heavy with lingering drops. I admired the wild meadow flowers, everything open, saturated, the air pregnant with the smells of approaching summer. Peonies, tulips, herbs and clovers. A real gem in old town Lund.
Photo: Tulip petals in Botaniska trädgården vid Lunds Universitet, Sweden, May 2017. Posted on Instagram April 24, 2021.
The Kew Royal Botanic Gardens are immense. One corner of the garden hosts most of the greenhouses and the meticulously planned thematic gardens. Most of the grounds, though, are made up of an arboretum. When I visited in 2013, it felt like an airy forest with many different kinds of trees, and it was only when I happened to look at them from just the right angle that I saw that some of the trees actually grew in straight lines. It was impossible to explore all parts of the arboretum in a day. Kew is a place worthy of many visits, strolls in different seasons.
Photo: Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, London, June 2013. Posted on Instagram April 24, 2021.
I visit the Visby botanic garden at the peak flowering of autumn dahlias, green apples on the grass glistening with droplets of the rain that just fell. The rose garden is planted in a symmetric amphitheater, so delicious for the eyes. It might not be the most scientific botanical display among my collection of botanic gardens, but every single patch of this place speaks of having been meticulously tended to by generations of plant-lovers. It oozes joy of gardening.
Photo: The Botanical Garden of the Bathing Friends in Visby, Sweden, September 2018 .Posted on Instagram April 23, 2021.
The arboretum in the Glasgow Botanic Gardens is in no way the largest or most species-rich arboretum that I’ve been to. Kew in London, for example, has one that is immense. But the location in Glasgow, along the River Kelvin. I don’t know, there is something with the slowly moving water that brings out the quiet magnificence of the trees.
Photo: Glasgow Botanic Gardens, Scotland, May 2017. Posted on Instagram April 23, 2021.
Today was a crap day for thesis. Today, it snowed – which was quite beautiful to watch through the window, if I’m being honest. But it felt wrong, anyway.
But I’m very much enjoying how the returning light has lured my house plants into bloom, pinks and purples. Even a little white.
Photos: False shamrock, African violet, garden geranium of the Mårbacka variety, an orchid and the first little flower on a plant that will produce small yellow chili peppers that I don’t know the name of. Posted on Instagram April 22, 2021.
The greenhouses in the historic botanic garden in Göttingen. Seriously. The greenhouses! Old and quite small, so intensely green it almost feels like they were planted and then left to rewild in their tiny universe of tropical rainforest in the middle of chilly autumn Germany. The first one I entered was completely dedicated to ferns – this beautiful, ancient group of plants that triggers imaginations of fairies and trolls and dinosaurs. There was also a more generic tropical greenhouse, and a dryland house with an incredible selection of cacti.
Photo: Alter Botanischer Garten in Göttingen, Germany, September 2017. Posted on Instagram April 21, 2021.
My friend Josh messaged me: “Let’s just both remember that it’s only a phd and no one will die if it sucks.”
My mantra for the coming five months. I booked the date of my defense today.
Photo: Alter Botanischer Garten in Göttingen, Germany, September 2017. Posted on Instagram April 20, 2021.
The old botanic garden in Hamburg has a greenhouse complex, built in 1962. Large, with different rooms, like walking through the tropical biomes in miniature. It felt, somehow, a bit more ornamental than some of the very systematic greenhouses that I’ve visited, like the one in Meise, but it was intensely green and lush and breathing that warm, humid air was such a relief from the autumn chill outside. And the light, again. That day in October was incredible. There is something about the quality of the light in October that is so cleansing, less demanding than in summer and not as piercing as in winter. Just clear. Beautiful, streaming through the glass roof of the greenhouse.
Photo: Alter Botanischer Garten Hamburg, Germany, October 2018. Posted on Instagram April 20, 2021.
Katja Malmborg