Tag Archives: Perennialen III

Baroniet Rosendal

January 1, 2018 Stephen Barstow 1 Comment

Barony Rosendal (Baroniet Rosendal) is a historic estate and manor house on the Hardangerfjord going back to the 1650s. As part of Perennialen III, on our way to Jondal, one hour’s drive away (separate post), we stopped at this famous garden on 8th August 2017 to do some edimentals spotting! Despite several attempts to visit over the years, I’ve never been before. This must be one of the most picturesque gardens in the world with the dramatic scenery surrounding it! I was particularly interested in seeing the naturalised stands of spiked rampion (vadderot), used as a vegetable in the past elsewhere in Europe (video). The climate is very mild, and the sweet chestnut trees were particularly impressive, perhaps the biggest in Norway? There are also several beds with historical vegetables. Here is an album of pictures of mostly edible plants and scenery!

The allee leading up to Baroniet Rosendal

Monkey Puzzle tree demonstrates that the climate is mild here

Nicandra phylasodes (shoo-fly plant) is from South America…the seeds are apparently used in China to prepare a refreshment…I know no more

We came over this row of Angelica archangelica and the stems were filled, a form of Voss Angelica (Vossakvann) then!

Lovage (løpstikke) and rhubarb (rabarbra)

Parsnip (pastinakk) in the vegetable garden

A relatively young walnut (valnøtt), the old trees died a few years back.

Walnut (valnøtt)….the garden produced and sold walnuts on the markets in the past, but the old trees are now dead..

Walnut (valnøtt) with Jerusalem artichoke (jordskokk)

Phyteuma spicata (spiked rampion / vadderot) was a root vegetable in the past and has naturalised in a part of the garden

Rogue redcurrant (rips) growing in the fork of this tree

The box (buksbom) allee is an impressive feature…not edible..

The largest Sweet chestnut (ekte kastanje) in Norway?

On the road towards Jondal our next stop: Furebergfossen

Forest Gardening, Fruit, Nut trees, walks, Wild Edibles

Perennialen III: Alvastien Telste – from fjord to shieling

August 16, 2017 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

Documentation of yet another amazing day during last week’s Perennialen III in Hardanger!! Pictures taken on a fantastic 6-7 hour round trip from Eirik Lillebøe Wiken and Hege Iren Aasdal Wiken’s house to their shieling (støl or seter in Norwegian). We took our time botanising on the way up, passing through different types of forest on the way up, from alder (or), ash (ask), planted spruce (gran), lime (lind), elm (alm), hazel (hassel), aspen (osp) and birch (bjørk) at the highest levels. Lower down, old apple trees witnessed that these steep slopes had at one time been worked for fruit production, no easy matter….
Eirik and Hege are planning to rejuvenate and replant some of this area and have planted a multispecies forest garden above and below the house, probably one of the most dramatic forest gardens in the world (more later).