A week ago I noticed my oldest Pinus cembra was full of male flowers (pictures at the bottom) and yesterday it was shedding pollen as you can see in the videos. In cold climates pines are the best bet for nut production although I can grow hazels and walnuts here. I’ve told the story before as to how Siberian Nutcrackers “planted” (read: cached) pine trees in my garden from plantings of this species locally on Malvikodden in the 1970s which started bearing fruits in the 1990s. Because people have planted the food plant of Siberian Nutcrackers, there is now an isolated population of breeding birds in this area and the birds are actively spreading their food plant by caching the nuts for winter food. I’ve had one cone on my tree so far a couple of years ago
Andrew McMillion kindly picked me up early on Friday morning from the night train at Oslo airport and we drove together to the location of the KVANN / Norwegian Seed Savers annual meeting in Leikanger on the Sognefjord. As we were to arrive earlier than the other board members, I suggested going to Balestrand, about an hour further on as I’d heard that Norway’s largest Monkey Puzzle tree (apeskrekk) could be seen there! Andrew didn’t hesitate as he wanted also to go to Balestrand as he actually had family roots just a kilometer away from the tree!! There was much more than that though! It was an amazing day, first the wonderful trip over the mountains in perfect weather…to see what else we experienced, see the album!!
On the way over Hemsedalsfjellet to Sogn
On the way over Hemsedalsfjellet to Sogn
On the way over Hemsedalsfjellet to Sogn
On the way over Hemsedalsfjellet to Sogn
On the way over Hemsedalsfjellet to Sogn
Rock man
Just before this point, Andrew tells me that the last time he passed thjis place there were birdwatchers looking up at an eagle…I looked out of the window and there WAS an eagle high above us ;)
Ferry crossing from one tunnel to the next
Ferry across to Balestrand….Andrew coming home ;)
Approaching Balestrand
Above Balestrand
Kviknes Hotel was the largest wooden building in Norway when it was built…in Swiss style. Balestrand was a popular destination for Brits in the late 19th century and English climbing pioneer Margaret Sophia Green married one of the Kvikne family who owned the hotel and an English church was built in her memory after her death (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Olaf%27s_Church,_Balestrand)
To our surprise there was a little botanical garden in the grounds around the hotel!
Frame dedicated to an artist colony from Balestrand
We had a taste of the young shoots of these giant stonecrops (bergknapp), Hylotelephium spectabile
Andrew inspecting a lovage plant emerging next to a grape..
Cornus kousa
The Golden House is an art gallery with an observation dome and meditation spot on the roof
Looking towards Andrew’s ancestral farm
Andrew with his ancestral farm in the background
Looking towards Andrew’s ancestral farm
Looking towards Andrew’s ancestral farm
Driving up to Andrew’s ancestral farm was a carpet of emerging ramsons (ramsløk)…he took a couple of plants for his own farm in Nes!
View from the ancestral farm!
View from the ancestral farm with a carpet of crocus
Above the farm
Day lilies (dagliljer) on the farm
A new roof on the old farm house!
Andrew taking cuttings from one of the oldest fruit trees
Lunde Arboretum was established in 1973 with the help of Professor Oddvin Reisæter from Oslo University due to the threat of developing the area for housing! However, some of the trees go back to the time of the first rector Harald Ulrik Sverdrup and his son HUS jr. who began to plant foreign trees in 1849 and fruit. By the end of the 19th century there was a collection of 46 pears here! The collections here were described by Professor Schubeler in the 1880s. Schubeler is well known for getting the help of local priests to test out plants throughout Norway. Both Reisæter and Schubeler figure in the Hablitzia tamnoides story in Norway!
Norway’s champion monkey puzzle came from England in 1873! It was long alone but several more trees were planted in 1984!
Wonderful Thanksgiving dip from last night’s festivities here in Hurdal…modelled on a Pinus cembra (Swiss pine / cembrafuru) in the Prestegårdshagen (rectory garden)
Great excitement yesterday morning (11th July 2017) to hear the familiar call of nutcrackers in the garden of the rectory where I’m staying here in Hurdal! Excited to see cones falling from the tree (cut off by a nutcracker), and lots of empty cones on the ground! More information with the pictures!
I’m the “Preacher” in residence this week staying in the rectory (presteboligen) which is now run by the ecovillage ;)
I was sitting working with the window open and I heard the familiar call of a nutcracker….
In the garden, I found several good looking pine trees!
5 needles suggests probably Pinus cembra, Swiss Pine, Arolla Pine or Austrian Stone Pine (Cembrafuru) (I saw this species recently on my trip to Austria) or the closely related Siberian pine (Pinus sibirica, previously P. cembra spp. sibirica) (Korean pine, P. koraiensis, is another possibility)
P. cembra and sibirica pine nuts are important food for Siberian Nutcrackers, mainly an invasive species to Norway (when there’s a failure of the nut supply in Siberia). However, many Pinus cembra trees have been planted in Norway in the last 30-50 years as ornamental trees and many of them are now producing nuts….in Trondheim, near where I live, some nutcrackers stayed after the last invasion and are now a local breeding bird thanks to the presence of their main food supply! The birds are now helping in the spread of this species as they cache the seeds for the winter in the forest as well as locally (there are now thousands of young trees growing invading woodland on Lade in the city)! Nutcrackers have also sowed seed in my own garden (where they also feed on hazel nuts)…
Under the trees was littered with the nut shells and empty cones
P. cembra and P. sibirica are also species with nuts large enough to be useful as edible pine nuts for humans along with Pinus pinea – Mediterranean Stone pine Pinus koraiensis – Korean pine Pinus gerardiana – Chilgoza pine Pinus pumila – Siberian dwarf pine Pinus armandii – Chinese white pine Pinus bungeana – lacebarus cembra – Swiss pinek pine
I opened and cracked a few pine nut shells
We took these along as an exclusive offering for dinner that we had been invited to :) They weren’t fully ripe… would probably have been best to store the cones first…
Pine nuts and cones on a bed of Plantago major!
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
