Well, well, well – that didn’t go according to plan! It’s almost four weeks rather than the aimed-for two since I published my last blog post. It’s not that I didn’t have any ideas what to write. Rather the opposite. But – well, the blog comes second to whatever else is going on in my life and I simply didn’t find the time for it. However, I intend to make up for it and publish a few posts “retrospectively”, i.e. fiddling with the publishing date. If you are one of my more loyal readers, hopefully it may be worth scrolling back to check for “missed posts” come mid-January. If only I could fool myself...

Anyway, what I want to say is: I’m still here and as mad about all things “plant” and as keen about writing as ever. And to prove it, here is a small post on the eve of Christmas (I don’t want to ring my own bell, especially after what I just had to confess, but for a mum of two smallish ones who has to actually organize Christmas I hope you appreciate the dedication to you, lovely readers! ;-)  )

Present shopping here is actually enjoyable! Not least because you will find so many things that are not “run of the mill”. Only trouble is: you are very likely to find at least as many gifts you’d like for yourself as you will for others. Sure enough, my friend and I were no different. And as wise old Oscar Wilde so sagely said: I can resist anything but temptation…  But, you know, despite pleading with my friend not to tell my man how much I’d spent on myself I actually do not regret the purchases (always a good sign if you still feel that way after three days). Least of all the most expensive one: several stamps.

No, not postage stamps. I’m talking of stamps that would be inked and then printed onto paper – in this case as illustrations in Victorian catalogues. It was a lovely vintage shop, tastefully decorated, with all sorts of bric-a-brac. When my friend found something that piqued here curiosity, I still felt detached enough to remind her asking how much it cost in a nonchalant way so as not to betray her interest and thus perhaps driving the price up. Ten minutes later and I’d completely forgotten my own advice – or rather, I was totally incapable of concealing my excitement.

I first came across several stamps of what could be old wash tubs or big bowls. The metal finely etched, the wood weathered and inscribed with numbers and letters in ancient handwriting, I asked where they came from and what they were used for. The shop owners had picked them up in the Netherlands, they told me, but they were likely produced somewhere else and they served (as mentioned above) to illustrate catalogues. They showed me others and within seconds I felt like a child in a sweet shop: four different cast iron stoves for heating greenhouses or conservatories, each highly ornate; four different types of shovels and spades, ...

I’d never seen anything like it for sale anywhere before and of course I HAD to have them. If anything, the shop owner seemed amused by my excitement and very kindly threw one or two in for free as I couldn’t make up my mind which ones to choose. He may even have given me a discount. I know he not only said so, because the stamps had prices attached to them. Proof, if it was needed, that nonchalance isn’t always the best way to go about such things. Back home, I handed the package over to my man and told him he could put it under the Christmas tree for me. He was kind enough not to ask how much they’d cost and I didn’t tell him. Still, considering that they are a sort of “true antiques”, I believe I didn’t pay over the odds.

Tantalizingly, there is a German address engraved into the wood in some of them – quite possibly the manufacturers. The products depicted however – the stoves, spades etc.  – seem to have a French or Belgian inscription or trade name. So who was F.A. Mueller, Fink Str. 26, Stuttgart ? I’d love to find out more, perhaps uncover the stamps’ story. Can’t wait to unwrap them in a few hours!

Have a very merry Christmas and a great start into the new year, wherever you are!

At long last the promised post about the IGA 2017 in Berlin, Germany. As I wrote in my piece on the Gardens of the World which are part of the site, the IGA is an extravaganza of horticulture and landscape design which takes place every ten years in a different city or region of Germany and runs from spring into late autumn. With this fact alone, I hope, any comparison to London's Chelsea Flower Show has been smashed. For while both of them feature show gardens specially commissioned for the occasion and purport to showcase horticultural excellence, the two are totally different not only in their approach but their intention.

Like its smaller sister, the biennial BUGA or Bundesgartenschau, the IGA deliberately seeks to transform the site it is held on for the long-term benefit of the local community. In other words: improve a neglected plot of land by using the cash-injection available to make a lasting difference. Thus, a former brown-field site might become a recreation park. Obviously, this is not the only intention of these events - people want a bit more fore their buck. So, there are show gardens, flower shows, concerts, talks and debates and a whole host of other things happening throughout. Increasingly, the focus is on education with regard to the relevant topics of our time: ecology, sustainability, nature conservation, responsible gardening, waste avoidance & recycling etc. etc.

I was pleasantly surprised to see so many children there, with much of the educational drive aimed at primary school children who seemed to be coming for workshops, interactive talks, hands-on experiences. And for play. Because the organisers have not forgotten that fun should be part of the game and have included some lovely playgrounds. So if you are a parent, unlike at Chelsea, there is plenty of room for children to roam!  In fact - the site tends to be so large that smaller children (as well as anyone who finds longer walks strenuous and difficult) may need a bit of help. One such that all visitors will want to try is the specially built cable car across the site - more of which later.

Or you could concentrate on just some parts of the show, according to your own interests and preferences. For most gardeners that would probably mean the show gardens. There are several categories here. There are those meant to stay: in addition to the aforementioned Gardens of the World, you'll find a newly-designed dahlia garden (didn't look like anything when I visited in June but should be amazing now) and a ribbon of grasses and prairie planting in the New German Style. I'm not sure the rose garden is new but it sure is there to stay, too.

Then there are the show gardens which more closely resemble those at Chelsea: specially commissioned, conceptual in design and only there for the duration of the show. Here in Berlin, they come under the heading of Internationale Gartenkabinette (international garden cabinets) and Haus- und Privatgaerten. The former are by designers from around the world and were the more spectacular, with the artistic idea usually taking priority.

So, in "Cultivated by Fire" the designers from Australian firm T.C.L. took their inspiration from a method called "Fire-Stick Farming", practiced for millennia by the Aborigines to increase soil fertility. The result of a controlled burning-down of vegetation is a landscape that resembles a mosaic of plots at different stages of regeneration. Here in Berlin, visitors were led past the charred remains of trees stems in barren soil to increasingly colourful and abundant island beds emerging from the red ground.

And artist Martin Kaltwasser in his "Los Angeles Garden" wants to point out the ambivalence of one of Berlin's twin cities  as a destination of dreams on one hand (cue: Hollywood) and textbook example of urban sprawl on the other. For this, he has created an exact replica of a (real) green area and its surrounding: a tiny island of 8x9 metres of fenced-in lawn, complete with six palm trees and two benches, in the hostile sea of tarmac and cars that is Bergamot Station car park.

The other section of show gardens, Haus- und Privatgaerten (domestic and private gardens), were there to inspire, to demonstrate various modern approaches, to show visitors what potential their plots had - if they employed a professional garden designer. Ten plots focused on a different theme each.  It was, in short, a show case for the profession, teaching people  about (and potentially encouraging them to use) their services.

Among others, there was an Aquaponic Garden, a bee-friendly and a beach-themed one, and one called "Move Me" where all the various elements - garden furniture as well as beds/ planters - were made of wooden pallets and/ or mounted on castors, making this a very flexible garden indeed. Others were called "Change of Perspectives", a sunken garden to be experienced on several different levels, or "Contrasts".  Being very partial to lush broad-leaved planting that gives shade and creates a jungly feel, I particularly liked the mock-up of a city backyard called "CityTrop" with lots of subtropical species for those with a severe case of wanderlust. 

A mix of both "categories", if you will, seemed the Promenade Aquatica. A hybrid in my eyes, because it is a conceptual garden that does not blend into the existing landscape but feels like a helicoptered-in showpiece like the ones mentioned above. However, it is on such a scale that I can't really imagine it to be taken down again. "Hybrid" thus is just a term I use because I really don't know whether it's there to stay, and because it sticks out of its surroundings like a sore thumb. Its idea or concept is to evoke water in different settings of nature - from source via pond and waterfall to mist. 

In fact, as the term Promenade suggests, it is a walk leading you through four individual "gardens". Each of them boldly modern and stark in design, the Promenade Aquatica for me proved the visually outstanding and most lasting memory of IGA 2017. While personally, bar the pond perhaps, I can't really see the individual sections work as private gardens they would make stunning landscape design for a public square or the courtyard of a prestigious hotel/ restaurant/ corporate headquarter. However, I'm sure there are plenty of people who'd happily have one or other installed in their backyard if they could afford it.

As for the IGA's horticultural excellence: well... Spoilt by the Chelsea Flower Show, I was disappointed and felt shamefully snobbish about it. I thought they compared like a bucket of Sangria sucked through straws with a chalice of pearling  champagne.  Where in London you have plants and planting so adorable you even sigh and coo over that at trade stands for wheel barrows, BBQs and lawn mowers, here the "show planting" outside the conceptual show gardens often was verging on gaudy and like that of your traditional municipal park or roundabout - those who colour-coordinate a bit more tastefully.

Perhaps I'm being a bit unfair and not just for the reasons mentioned above - much larger scale but not necessarily an accordingly scaled-up budget and a totally different time-scale and context. For instance, I should like to see again the plantings in "show beds" outdoors now. For back in June, after a sustained period of heat and drought in spring, the plants simply had not had a chance to settle in well and bulk up. Which might have explained why there was so much soil still on show between the regimented grit of bedded out plants. With a bit of time and enough moisture it may have developed into something quite beautiful. And planting along the "Kienbergterrassen" - terraced beds along the side of Kienberg hill, designed with different colour themes - actually was pretty good; a mixture of bulbs and perennials mainly. Still, at the time I felt the real stars where the wildflowers.

There may well have been hidden horticultural excellence at work here, however: after all, real native wildflower meadows are notoriously hard to create. And I'm not sure all these have existed before. It was hard to tell, but I'd guess that at least part of the "wild" flowery areas were created  or at least enriched with species specifically for the IGA and to enhance the future recreational park on site. Much like in the highly praised Elizabeth Olympic Park in London. (Living nearby, I can say that the praise for the latter is wholly deserved. Maybe I should write a post about it some time.)

For all of that though, there is no denying the fact that the German public must be much less demanding and easier to please when it comes show planting. And especially so with regards to displays in a marquee. Anyone who's ever enjoyed the marquee at the Chelsea Flower Show should steer clear of the Blumenhalle: for all the beauty of plants you can't but be bitterly disappointed. I have to admit I wasn't even sure who these displays were aimed at and what purpose they served: were they for the general public to marvel about and inspire or were they trade show exhibits for professionals? Like those who source products and services in and of the green industry? A bit of both perhaps, but I thought the concept didn't work.

Having walked my feet sore, at the end of a long day I took the newly-built cable car back across the entire site. And because during IGA it is free and that late at night I had it almost to myself, I enjoyed going back and forth a few times - much like you would riding an old-fashioned paternoster. I hopped off halfway at the stop on "Kienberg" hill. Walking up the specially constructed "Wolkenhain" viewing platform I was literally on top of the world, since this hill is the only elevation to speak of for miles.

And as I took in the 360° panorama of Berlin, its suburbs and the agricultural landscape beyond in the fading light, some rock music drifted over. Way down and out front in the on-site arena a concert had begun. The music sounded familiar. And after the wind had brought me some more bits, it struck me: these songs by a German band had topped the charts when I last lived in Berlin years ago! It really felt like a homecoming.

The IGA 2017 in Berlin is still on until October, 15th. For more information see here.