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Rejsebeskrivelser
På denne side vil der blive adgang til at læse rejsebeskrivelser fra tidligere legatmodtagere.
Vi lægger ud med en artikel fra Stephanie Solt.
Rejseberetning fra Eastern Region Exchange Propagator 2003,
Stephanie Solt
Imagine my amazement when I received a call from Margot
Bridgen, Eastern Region Executive Secretary, telling me that I had
been selected to be the Exchange Propagator to Scandinavia for 2003!
What an honor! Many thanks to the Eastern Region Board of Directors!
What follows is an account of my trip to Denmark and Sweden in
September of 2003.
Following Margot's phone call, I received an e-mail from Lars
Sandgaard, Secretary/Treasurer of IPPS Scandinavian Region, asking me
what I wanted to see and do. Since I am relatively new to the art of
propagation, I asked to see a broad representation of what Denmark
had to offer. In addition, I wanted to see gardens since part of my
job entails garden design. Finally, I wanted to learn about Denmark's
history, culture and people. Many thanks to Lars for patiently
answering all my questions!
We (my husband and I) left Washington, D.C. at 7:30PM September
13 and flew overnight on Scandinavian Airlines to Copenhagen,
arriving early Sunday morning September 14. I must say that the
airline fed us well. We were stuffed by the time we arrived. Arne
Skytt Andersen greeted us at the Copenhagen airport, drove us through
thick fog to the hotel to drop off our luggage and then gave us a
wonderful horticultural and historical tour of København
(Copenhagen). We started off with the Oersteds Park, a small gem in
the middle of the city and then moved on to the Kings Garden (built
by Christian IV in 1606) which surrounds the Rosenborg Slot (castle).
Several areas in this garden made an impression on me. Long allees
of pruned linden trees crisscrossed the gardens. Hugh old beech trees
dotted the expansive lawns which were lined with extensive beech
hedges. Arne commented that Denmark is a country of beech trees and
one can see they are utilized in the landscape. To one side of the
castle was a formal rose garden with boxwood parterres. There were
signs at the entrance to the garden stating the garden were to be
completely renovated since a fungus had attacked the boxwood.
Finally, in another part of the park, a new garden had just been
installed using espaliered apple and pear trees on a stainless steel
frame to delineate the design. Very sleek looking! We then went on
to see the Little Mermaid only to learn that she had been vandalized
and "was on vacation”! The fog had lifted by that time and, at our
next stop, we were greeted with a wonderful view of the Queen's
palace and the formal garden, Amaliehaven, which bordered the harbor.
Across the harbor was a harbor crane dating from the 16th century. We
finished the morning with a visit to the Danish Royal Library garden.
After a lunch in the open air of the town hall plaza, we traveled to
Hillerod to see the formal gardens of Frederiksborg Slot. Although
the water falls in the garden were being reconstructed, the parterre
garden was magnificent as were the huge old Rhododendrons (8-10 feet
tall). We finished the day with dinner at Tivoli amusement park
(built in 1843) with Arne and his wife Lorna. The next morning we
went to the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University (from which
Arne had just retired) to visit the research greenhouses and the
surrounding gardens. Hedging is a tradition with the Danes and there,
in the garden, various plants were being tried to observe their
suitability for hedging. I saw Malus sargentii, Amelanchier, Ribes,
Crateagus, Acer campestre and Cornus mas, to name a few. We then went
to the extensive Botanical Gardens associated with the Agricultural
University.
After a mad dash to the train station, we left Copenhagen and
headed to the island of Fyn and the hospitality of Per and Marianne
Andersen. Per picked us up at the train station and headed to Nyborg
Slot, a castle built around 1200 which served as the seat of power
for almost 200 years. We then traveled to Glorup to see a private
manor house. The grounds, open to the public, were home to amazingly
old beech trees. Per talked about the difficulties encountered by the
owners of large estates in paying the taxes imposed by the
government. Many have been forced to sell off land or even the
contents of their homes to meet their obligations and many were
unable to maintain the gardens. After our hike, it was off to home to
meet Marianne, Frederik and Thea. Wonderful food and great
conversation was enjoyed by all that evening! The next day, Marianne
and I headed to P. Kortegaards Planteskole, owned by Jorn Jorgensen,
a large tree nursery on about 90 hectares near Gislev. The nursery is
a client of Marianne's new company, Hortus Advising, a consulting
firm. We then went on to see the demonstration gardens of the
Daehnfeldt Seed company, a breeder of vegetable and flower seed near
Odense. Its here I saw a new concept in marketing plants for
Hedges: The "instant" hedge (a ready to plant pruned hedge)! We
headed onto Langeskov Planteskole, a retail garden center that had
previously done production but the owner was ill. Here is where I
first observed the Danish tradition of grave site gardens. There were
nice display gardens surrounding the center and a segment was devoted
to the display of sample grave site designs for the benefit of the
customer. During this time, my husband, a middle school instrumental
music teacher, made a visitation to the local elementary school music
classes. We all headed home for lunch and then met Per and the
children at Egeskov Slot, one of Europe's finest examples of a moated
castle. The grounds have been developed to attract the public with
gardens designed by Danish artist Peit Hein, a children's playground
done in conjunction with Kompan, a treetop walk and a museum for
vintage motorcycles, cars and airplanes. The gardens surrounding the
castle are extensive with yew hedges dating from 1730, 40-60 year old
Fuchsias, a parterre garden, and numerous animal topiaries. They had
a bamboo maze which, unfortunately, had bloomed and died. On Wednesday,
we spent the day at a nursery conference at the Danish Agricultural
Research Station at Arslev. Here I met Anton Thomsen, whose nursery I
would visit later. He was going on vacation and would not be there. I
also met Martin Jensen, a researcher at the experiment station who is
quite knowledgeable about seed propagation. We had a good discussion
about the recalcitrance of Trillium seeds and agreed to correspond in
the future. The day was filled with presentations on various topics
involving current research at the station which Marianne graciously
translated for me. One talk which interested me was research done on
the effect of grass on the growth of field grown trees. Findings
indicate that grass competes with the trees and reduces overall size.
The difference between trees grown with grass and without grass was
quite dramatic. We spent our last evening with the Andersen's and,
like all the other evenings, had a wonderful time.
The next day Per Andersen took my husband and I to visit
Midtfyns (MidFyn) Bo Grønt Havecenter owned by Henning Frederiksen (one
in a chain of garden centers) near Odense. I was impressed with the
artfully crafted displays. In addition, they sold wine, linens, an
extensive inventory of color coordinated glazed pottery, and had a
cafe and an exotic bird display for the children. I was to see this
in almost all the garden centers I visited. We then went to Odense to
see the house of H.C. Andersen in the old part of the city. As luck
would have it, the house was undergoing renovations and closed to the
public. Per then took us on an historical walking tour of Odense. We
then visited the offices of the Danish Garden Center Association of
which Per is the Executive Director. In the same complex were the
offices of the Danish Nursery Association, The Pot Plant Growers
Association, Insurance for Nurseries, and the Union for Agricultural
Technicians. He and his staff, Bent Leonhard and Quy Thanh Nguyen,
demonstrated the labeling system using a centralized data base the
Danish Garden Center Association had developed for garden center use.
After lunch we went to Kolding to visit the Geografisk Have
(geographic garden) founded by Aksel Olsen (1887-1995) a nursery
owner who developed this garden divided into geographic regions.
With Per at the wheel, we traveled across the bridge from Fyn
into Jutland and on to Majlands Perennial Nursery, a wholesale
nursery specializing in alpines. Leif Rabeck gave us a tour of the
nursery. The nursery was the first place I saw sandy soil in Denmark.
Fyn soil had more clay while Jutland, covered by glaciers during the
last ice age, tended to be very sandy and more acidic with heather
growing wild. As in most nurseries, rows of evergreens were planted
as wind breaks dividing the nursery into sections. This was the only
nursery I saw that grew Trilliums. Here we met Lars Sandgaard who was
to be our host for the next few days. We traveled on to Billund to
meet Anne, Lars fiancée and Sophus, their Black Labrador puppy.
On Friday, Lars took us to Legoland to see the incredible
landscaping. The first display was Miniatureland where such places as
the Berlin Airport, Nyhavn, Amaliehaven, the Queens palace, and an
oil rig in the north sea complete with choppy sea were recreated
using nothing but Legos (the water was real). Every display contained
live miniaturized plants. The rest of the park was landscaped with
trees such as Spirea betulifolia, Liquidambar, Stephanandra incisa
'Crispa' and Prunus lauracerasus 'Otto Luyken'. Legoland has entered
into a partnership with "Group Unique”, a consortium of growers, to perform
trials of plants in the park. After lunch, we went to visit an old
Danish country store and museum followed by a visit to the Robert
Jakobsen Sculpture Park housed in the Torskind gravel pit south of
Billund. We traveled to Herning the next day to visit Kollund
Planteskole, a nursery and garden center owned by Iver Andersen.
Lars, who is in charge of production there, gave us the grand tour of
all the production areas of the nursery. One of their specialties is
Fragaria vesca. We then went on to Herning, famous for clothes
design, to see the ceramic mural on the exterior of the Carl-Henning
Peterson Kunst Museum and the large, fire-breathing sculpture, Elia.
We then went to see Den Japanske Have (the Japanese Garden) in
Hammerum...a truly amazing place. We finished the day in Herning at
the brew pub, Bryggeriet.
The next day, Lars drove us to Århus to visit the Botanic Garden
Greenhouse belonging to the University of Århus. Here we met Kai
Lønne Nilsen. We said our goodbyes to Lars and spent the rest of the
afternoon wandering through Den Gamle by (The Old City) a collection
of preserved homes and shops from the 15th-18th century as well as a
recreated medicinal garden and vegetable garden. We then went to
Kai's home in Hinnerup where we met Judy, Kai's wife and their
children, Sophia and Clara. We enjoyed a wonderful meal and then
spent the evening getting to know each other. The next morning Kai
took us to Knud Jepsen A/S, where he is Research and Development
Manager. Knud Jepsen Nursery produces only Kalanchoe, specializing in
35-40 different cultivars of 'African Queen' in 10 hectares of
greenhouses with employees using bicycles and scooters to get around
the vast complex. The facility is heated with 6 natural gas
generators producing 1,000 kilowatts of electricity with the excess
hot water heating the greenhouses. They propagate approximately 30
million cuttings a year, selling 14 million pots and 15 million
cuttings to North America, Japan and Europe. Parasitic wasps,
propagated on flats of cereal aphid infested barley, are used as a
biological control for aphids.
Claus Kragh Sorensen, son of one of Knud Jepsen's employees,
drove us to Skalborg, just south of Aalborg, to meet Jesper
Hannibalsen at the Thomsen Planteskole, the 5th largest nursery,
garden center and landscaping firm in Denmark. Jesper was the first
Scandinavian Exchange Propagator to visit the US. He now works as a
salesman for the nursery. The nursery was founded by Martin Thomsen
in 1935 in Pennsylvania, US. Martin moved it to Denmark and, now it
is run by his son Anton Thomsen, whom I met in Odense at the
Agricultural Research Station Conference. The nursery specializes in
conifers, producing 1/2 million each year with 50% exported to Sweden
and Norway and the rest going to landscapers. In addition, they
produce 30,000 shrubs each year with Rhododendron sales growing. We
then went home to meet Vivi, Jesper's fiancé, their little one year
old girl, Milla and Sidus, their Dalmatian. To pass the time, we took
a walk in the woods behind their house. I discovered that flint is a
common mineral in this part of Denmark. They also have ants whose
urine stings. What a great time to visit Denmark...new potatoes are
delicious!! Vivi fixed "Kold Skål" for dessert, a cold buttermilk
soup served with Kammerjunkere or dime sized vanilla wafers. Yummy!!
The next day, Jesper and Vivi had planned to lend us their second car
so we could drive up to Skagen, but it had been vandalized. Instead,
Vivi very kindly set up a school visitation for my husband, so I
spent the morning practicing my presentation for the IPPS conference
to be held later that week in Sweden. Later, we went to lunch in
Aalborg and that afternoon, after her classes were over, Vivi and
Milla took us to see Troldkirke, a stone age graveyard and church.
We stopped at a nearby church graveyard to look at the gravesites
since they were such wonderful examples of small garden design.
The next afternoon, we left for Ö Grevie, Sweden with Jesper
driving myself, Larry (my husband), and Steen Nilsen, another
employee of Thomsen's Nursery. Just before we crossed the bridge into
Sweden, we stopped at Planteriget (Plant Kingdom), a newly
constructed state-of-the-art garden center.
Sweden (Sverige in Danish) and Denmark have open borders...no one
stopped us. Östra (East) Grevie is a small town in the southern part of
Sweden. The Scandinavian Region IPPS Conference was held at the
Östra Grevie Folkhögskola, a folk high school. It was explained to
me that these schools serve to help people "find themselves". I would
compare it to "prep" schools in the US...somewhat. These schools also
act as conference centers offering housing and meals. The evening
before the conference began found eight of us hunting for a place to
have supper. Around 8 PM, we found a wonderful little restaurant.
The chef, a woman, came out to see how we liked it and wanted to know
what was wrong if someone had not finished their meal. She was a
stitch. I do remember Henrik Stridh having a hot fudge sundae and a
beer for dinner. Sorry, Henrik.
The conference began on Thursday morning at Bara Mineraler
Tegelmaster, about a 1/2 hour from Ö Grevie. (They say it's a small
world. We met Tor and Live Fiveland from Norway. She had spent a
summer in Vermont in her youth. We discovered we had mutual friends.)
The conference started with a number of talks (in Danish) at Torups,
originally the country estate of the daughter of Christian IV, and
now a recreational site belonging to the city of Malmö. We returned
to Bara Mineraler where Göran Larsson gave us a tour of the factory.
Bara Mineraler produces approximately 30,000
tons of clay a year which is mixed with sphagnum to produce a potting
media. It is a special clay, only about 10,000 years old and very
clean. Pumice from Iceland was also put forth as a potting media.
Lunch followed at a nearby golf club, a pastime gaining popularity in
Denmark. Next we traveled to Kjell-Ingvars Greenhouses, a production
facility owned by Fisher, a German company, which produces young
plants and liners. The manager giving the tour said that the Swedish
greenhouse industry is small. We then headed north past Lund to
visit Kronmull, a 200 hectare peat farm taking about 100 cubic yards
of peat a day every day from an 8,000 year old peat bog. While most
peat was used to heat homes at one time, the peat produced from this
bog is used exclusively for horticulture purposes. Approximately 12
more years of production are left before all the peat is removed. All
the tractors were equipped with fire extinguishers since spontaneous
combustion can be a problem.
Friday was the last day of the conference. The morning was
filled with lectures centered on peat moss since it is the primary
component of the potting media used in Scandinavia. The industry had
had problems with it several years ago and there has been much
research to determine the cause. The entire conference was conducted
in either Danish or Swedish so what I am relating to you here was
gleaned from people either volunteering to translate or my asking
questions. I gave a slide presentation on "Propagation Protocol for
Trilliums" based on an article I wrote for the Native Plant Journal
just before lunch. After lunch, we boarded a bus and traveled north
to Helsingborg to visit Splendor Plant Nursery, one of the biggest
nurseries in Sweden.
They produce conifers and perennials in 3 1/2 liter pots anchored to
the ground (it's very windy) using a media they mix themselves of
young, coarse peat moss with rock wool and wood shavings. Watering is
done with a traveling irrigation boom. We returned to O Grevie, said
our thank yous and goodbyes to everyone and headed to Ystad with
Henrik Stridh staying at his parents’ summer cottage. We discovered a
wonderful restaurant right around the corner and had a lovely evening
meal there with Henrik and his fiancée, Maria. The next morning we
rose early and caught the train to Malmö where we changed trains and
headed to the Copenhagen airport. Our flight left around noon and we
arrived home safely. Here's the short speech I gave in Danish at the
end of my slide presentation. "Tak for at have kunnet bo hos jer som
Exchange Propagator fra USA. Jeg har lært en masse om formering i
Danmark og Sverige. Jeg ønsker at takke alle personerne som har haft
min mand og jeg i jeres hjem og vist os Danmark og Sverige.
(Translation: Thank you for hosting me as the Exchange Propagator
from the USA. I have learned a lot about propagation in Denmark and
Sweden. I want to thank all the people who had my husband and I in
their homes and showed us Denmark and Sweden.)
I want to thank all the people who went out of their way to host
us, taking time out of their busy schedules to show us what Denmark
had to offer in the way of horticulture, culture, and history. They
drove us all over their country, fed us, gave us a place to sleep and
made us feel very welcome. This was a truly remarkable trip...one
that we will never forget! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!!
Stephanie Solt.
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