On the final morning of the Naturplanteskolen visit to Norway, we visited the Ringve botaniske hage in Trondheim. We started with the Renaissance garden, comprising a collection of 123 useful plants mentioned in Norway’s first gardening book, Horticultura, from 1694! We then wandered through the arboretum where mainly coniferous trees are planted geographically around the central pond, representing the Arctic Ocean! We stopped at the pond to talk about one of the world’s most useful plants,known as Supermarket of the Swamps in North America, Bulrush, cattails or dunkjevle! We passed a glade of Mandchurian walnuts (no nuts to be seen this year), then on to a naturalistic planting of Hosta, marvelled at the collection of old perennials, had a quick look at some interesting useful plants in the systematic garden, before finally walking through the “Parken” to the music museum from where we said our goodbyes :( See the picture galelry at the bottom of this page!
In 2002 I made a renaissance salad containing 80 of the plants in this garden at the opening ceremony. Here’s a document showing what was included, more information and the Middle Age recipe used:
Finally, here’s a little video showing the bulrush / dunkjevle pollen!
The Renaissance Garden at Ringve is a tribute to the first Norwegian book of gardening, published in Trondheim in 1694. Both the geometrical form and the plants in the Renaissance Garden follow guidelines in the book. The division into quarters and symmetrical beds are part of the Renaissance idea that man could master nature. The plants were all useful, and are a mix of vegetables, medicinal plants, herbs, fiber plants, and ornamental plants. The Renaissance Garden holds 123 species or varieties of species. The plant labels give information about the name and the traditional usage of each plant, also in English. A list of the plants´ scientific names is found here: http://www.ntnu.no/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=3c71f8ca-322c-4b20-b403-a28579b587bb&groupId=10476 The first Norwegian book of gardening was called “Horticultura” and was written by Christian Gartner, who was a “city gardener” of Trondheim in the late 1600s. He wrote the book to promote gardening in Mid-Norway at a time when this was considered to be very far north.
Allium x proliferum / / Egyptian onion / luftløk – this was a suprise as my research has only managed to trace these hybrid onions back to 1794, in Germany. Must check if these are mentioned in Horticultura?
Roseroot / rosenrot
Gentiana purpurea / søterot is a rare wild plant in our area and a fantastic plant when in full flower… See http://artskart.artsdatabanken.no/FaneKart.aspx?Date=0,0&LnID=102180&GPND=True&DT=11111&BBOX=-921992,6424201,1960159,7966051&Height=765&Width=1430
Kåre with Gentiana lutea
Cnicus benedictus / Blessed Thistle / Benediktinertistel
Salvia officinalis
Chicory / sikkori
Mustard heavily attacked by diamond back moth (kålmøll)
Garlic / hvitløk
We talked about how the use of the nutritious pollen of bulrush / dunkjevle had been used as a flour to make pollen cakes in all continents!
Edible bulrush /dunkjevle rhizomes…
Juglans mandscurica / Manchurian walnut glade
Mini kiwis with fruit! (Actinidia kolomikta) :)
Ground cover of edible Hostas in the Far East forest area
Oplopanax horridus…a bit dry here for this moisture loving forest plant that can be 3m tall!
The collection of old perennials
Admiring a double sneezewort (Achillea ptarmica)
A double Martagon lily
I was surprised to see Mertensia ciliata here… I hadn’t noticed this before in the old perennials garden…a good perennial vegetable from North America :)
There is also a collection of old perennial herbs…here an old chive / gressløk
An old turnip from mid-Norway
Søren Holt’s favourite herb tea is from this plant, Bergenia cordifolia!
Several people commented on Inula royleana in full flower. This plant is from the Himalaya, is not edible but has been used medicinally.
Platycodon grandiflorus / balloon flower is cultivated in the far east for its edible roots. It seems to grow very well at Ringve. I’ve struggled to overwinter it in Malvik.
A well deserved rest after 4 energetic days!
Rheum alexandrae in seed… do the leaf bracts protect the seed from rain?
Rheum alexandrae in seed… do the leaf bracts protect the seed from rain?
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