Gardens of Gothenburg

The gardening year 2008 has begun. Today some leading designers presented their collections around Gothenburg. I visited 'Trädgårdsföreningen' / the Garden Society of Gothenburg today and enjoyed both the park and the new flowerbeds.

The exhibitions will run until September 28th, in Gothenburg Botanical Garden, Gunnebo House and Gardens, Liseberg Park and the Garden Society of Gothenburg. So if you visit Gothenburg this summer - make sure not to miss it!

When you enter the Garden Society of Gothenburg, you find this English-looking park. It's well kept, peaceful and very beautiful.

The park is situated right in the centre of town - close to shops and restaurants.

You can have lunch - or coffee - in the Rose Café - where you can sit outside, surrounded by a fantastic Rose Garden.

There are fountains as well as trees, roses and perennials.

The hothouse is impressive. I think it's the most beautiful hothouse I've ever seen. It was built in the beginning of the 20th century - as was the whole park.

Here follows some pretty pictures from the park today:

I hope you've enjoyed this little tour! /Katarina

Sky Watch Friday - Bluebells

Bluebells against a very pale blue sky - it's a quite cool summer day today!

For the whole virtual gallery - please visit Tom's.

Elder champagne

The Elder bush is lovely this year. Lots of beautiful flowering sprays...
Early this morning I went out to collect some sprays for my Elder 'champagne'.

Would you like to try the recipe? In that case, this is what you need:

2 very lage sprays of Elder (N B do not rinse them in water)
1 lemon
2 tablespoon of applecider vinegar
4 1/2 litre of water
0.8 liter of castor sugar

Clean the lemon and squeeze out the juice. Divide the lemon peel into 4 pieces.

Put all ingredients into a big bowl. Stir and put a towel over the bowl.

Stir now and then and leave it in the bowl for approximately 24 hours.

Strain off the liquid and pour it into cleansed bottles. Do not fill the bottles all the way up, since the pressure will be high. Put the corks on tightly.

Store the champagne in a cool place for at least three weeks. Chill it before you drink it!

I hope you'll enjoy it! /Katarina

Sky Watch Friday

A summer evening in my neighbourhood...

If you want to join Sky Watch Friday - this is the place!

Enjoy your weekend! /Katarina

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day - June 15

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day is kindly hosted by Carol at May Dreams Garden. If you want to take a look at gardens throughout the world - please visit Carol's place.


This year is an exceptional one. We have had unusually dry and hot weather, and the flowers in my garden have started to bloom at least 3 weeeks early.

Today we've had some rain - the first showers for two months! All my roses are in bloom - Burnet roes, Rugosas, Gallicas, Floribundas, Hybrid musks nd english reses. And what a Year of the Rose it is! Normally only the Scots roses and some of the early Rugosas bloom in June - but the whole garden is already filled with gorgeous rose scent. This is the Moss rose Black Boy and the Rugosa Kamtschatka:

One of my favourite roses is Irma - a Swedish rose which flower throughout the summer. It grows into a tall, big shrub with plenty of thorns and the roses are so beautiful!

Some Geraniums have already finished their blooms but luckily there are many that flower thorughout the summer. This one is a favourite, with big, magenta-coloured flowers. Unfortunately I've forgotten its name. Does anybody know?

The Sweet Peas are also very early to show their lovely scented flowers. I just love Sweet Peas and this year I've planted them in pots by the stairs towards the playhouse. I wouldn't want to be without them!

I grew Pentemon digitalis last summer and a couple of weeks ago they showed their first flowers. What a surprise I got! They weren't white at all, as they should have been, but a lovely blue hue!

Some Peonies have already given up. But one (nameless) - which I bought last summer - is still flowering. Big, magenta-coloured flowers fly above the foliage. Beautiful - as all Peonies are!

Some shrubs are also in bloom. The Elder - which normally blooms after midsummer - have plenty of flowers. This year I'm going to turn the flowers into Elder-champagne!

And the dark-leaved Physocarpus opulifolius 'Diabolo' have pretty flowers in addition to the dark leaves which look great next to the pink roses. My Clematis are also in bloom - this one is probably 'Warzawska Nike':

Dianthus has gorgeous, pink flowers - a very nice perennial groundcover with silvery leaves.

Most bulbs have withered away, but the Nectaroscordum siculum is still pretty. Although it has an unpleasant smell - it's beautiful to look at.

The same goes for the orange Lily which I gave my dear mother-in-law some 15 years ago. She is now in an old people's home - but her Lilies continue to bloom in our garden - in remembrance of her.

In our hothouse, an almost black Calla Lily is accompanied by some Cannas. I 'stole' the Canna seeds when visiting Santa Barbara in October last year, so they are my Californian souvenirs. The one to the left is a seedling of 'Lucifer' and the one to the right is a seedling of 'Journey's End'. I must confess that I'm always very tempted to grab hold of mature seeds, when I see some - how can I be 'cured'?

The Bluebells are Swedish though. I use them between the Rose bushes together with Nepeta - blue flowers in between roses in pink look great!

And finally, Foxgloves - I wouldn't want to be without Foxgloves! My garden is not a formal garden - I try to make it look more like an English cottage garden, so Foxgloves fit in very well, I think.

This is a selection of flowers in my garden today. My summer vacation begins in three days - I will spend it among my roses... How will you spend yours? /Katarina

Sky Watch Friday

When the forest nearby was on fire the other day, because of the dry weather we've had recently, the sky seemed to be on fire too.

To join in - please visit Tom's place.

Wishing you all a very nice weekend! /Katarina

Glorious times for the Bumble Bee

I've been studying a Bumble Bee today. Fascinating creatures - they are very hard working and they seem to be able to carry tremendously heavy loads. Just look at it - coming in from the left - aiming for one of my favourite roses:

It must be heaven, if you're a Bumble Bee, to be able to swim in golden pollen...

The Bumble Bee seems to want more and more. And who am I to blame it? Wouldn't I also want to get more and more of the golden treasure if I could?

Finally, the load is so heavy the Bumble Bee needs to fly away to unload.

The Rose on the pictures is one of my favourites. It's a modern shrub rose, which blooms throughout the summer. I've lerned that it's a seedling from the rambler Francis E Lester, called Lyda Rose. The hybridizer, Kleine Lettunich, named it for her daughter. Since it's an American hybride, I guess it's quite common in the States, but it's hard to get here in Sweden. I bought mine from England, and I'm so glad I did - it's a darling!

Take care! /Katarina

Sky Watch Friday

Today, June 6th, is the National Day of Sweden! My contribution for Sky Watch Friday is our flag against the sky.

Visit Wigger's world for the whole virtual gallery.

Happy Sky Watch, all of you!

Flowering Burnet roses

This is a most unusual year when it comes to weather. Normally, the month of May is a chilly and damp one, on the west coast of Sweden. This year, May has been hot and extremely dry. And the sunny, dry weather seems to continue...

The Scottish Burnet roses are the first group of roses to bloom in my garden. They are planted in poor soil but they don't seem to mind at all. Very free flowering.
Even though they only flower for a couple of weeks, they are well worth growing, since they show their blooms much earlier than the rest of the roses.

Single Cherry, or Red Nelly, was the first one to show its flowers this year. I like the single, crimson, fragrant flowers very much. This rose was bred in the 19th century - as most Burnet roses were.

Totenvik is a lovely, white Burnet rose. It's also an old rose and it has a lovley fragrance. It's origin is unknown but I've heard somewhere that it's a Norwegian rose originally. Does anybody know?

Poppius, or Rosa stenbergii, is an old, fragrant, pink rose which can reach the impressive size of 2 x 2 metres. Unlike the rest of the Burnets, this one hasn't got very many thorns at all. It's a very nice rose.

William's Double Yellow, or Double Yellow Scots Rose, is - believe it or not - yellow! It's also from the 19th century and very pretty!

But prettiest of all, I think, is Stanwell Perpetual. It was bred by Lee in 1838 and is the only Scots rose which is remontant. The big flowers are peachy-pink and they fade into a very pale pink. Fragrant and totally irresistable. But don't let its romantic appearance fool you - it has billions of thorns...

Wishing you all a lovely week! /Katarina