Course 48 Study Tour to Mainau, Germany
Course 48 Study Tour to Mainau, Germany.
At the invitation of Count Björn Bernadotte, Course 48 travelled to Mainau on Lake Constance in July for a study tour. Mainau is located on Lake Constance, on the southern border of Germany, facing Switzerland across the lake. It has been in the Count's family for several generations and it is now run as a public garden. It is known as the Flower Island and the aim is to always have something in flower for the 1.2 million paying visitors who come to the garden through the year from early spring through to the late autumn.
Our first day was mostly taken up with travel from the UK, but we did meet the Count in the evening as he invited us for dinner in one of the seven restaurants on the island.
On Saturday a local guide gave us a tour of Constance, where we learnt about the history of the town and the wider area. Later that evening we met up again with the Count for 'meters of beer' in a local brewhouse, followed by dinner in one of the many restaurants in town.
The following day we visited Reichenau Island, also on Lake Constance, and a monastery dating back to the C12th. We had a very entertaining tour of the abbey church before exploring the small physic garden that is attached. After lunch by the lakeside we stopped at a rather beautiful meadow sown with a mix of annual flowers. The effect from afar was of a sea of pink, but close up the mix was carefully thought out and a great mix of white, pinks of various shades, blues and red, with numerous flower forms and foliage textures.
Above: the meadow of annual flowers.
After swimming at the lake we were then invited up to the castle for supper. To wrap up the day we attended a concert in the grounds, listening to Vivaldi and Dvorak as the sun set over the lake.
On Monday we started to explore Mainau Island. We began with an introduction to the organisation and the foundation that administers the island. Count Bjorn's older sister, Bettina, who is the chief executive, gave us an overview and then handed over to the heads of PR, marketing, horticulture and environmental control. This gave us an excellent idea of the scale of the operation and the amount of work that goes into the planning and execution of the displays.
Out in the gardens, Tanja Zientek, who had recently been at Kew on an exchange, showed us around the extensive and varied glasshouses. These are partly used to store larger, non-hardy plants, which are then plunged into summer bedding schemes. However a large number of plants are propagated for the butterfly house, the bedding schemes and the various displays, such as of orchids.
Above: part of the Passiflora collection in the Mainau glasshouses
A short walk through the gardens with Friederike Feinle showed us the various charitable projects ongoing in the gardens. This includes a cafe that takes on young people who have not done well at school for various reasons and try to get them ready for an apprenticeship. There are also schools projects as well as gardening for the disabled.
With the temperature and humidity gauges rising, we headed off the island on foot for a tour of the estate's forestry enterprise. Theo Straub is rightly proud of his dedicated management of the resource, by turns, both subtle and effective; much of the Island's electricity
Above: the group in the forest
needs are supplied by the burning of wood chip produced from management activities in the forest, while a gentle minimal intervention style of management is used on a rotational basis, area by area, to develop and nurture the woodland as both a business resource, and as a rich habitat for wildlife.
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Above: some of the rarer plants grown at the University botany department.
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Our final full day began with a trip to the University of Mainau's botany department. Here the faculty staff are working on various projects and have a demonstration garden to represent their research. So there is a mock-up of the biodiversity found along the shores of the lake, mimicked in a small pond where changes can be mapped. There are also demonstrations of native and introduced species, showing how non-native invasive species can overwhelm the native populations. Competing species were also planted together to show how one could outcompete another, while finally there was an extensive collection of 'weeds', grown for research purposes.
Back on Mainau Island we had an extended tour of the gardens by Heinz-Dieter Meier, who had worked for most of his career for the Bernadotte family on Mainau. He was able to give us an insight into how the gardens had been expanded and changed over a forty year period and the changes that had come about in tastes and styles in that time. The gardens have something for everyone, from carpet bedding to exotic planting, with a rich mix of herbaceous plantings, that are replaced each year so new displays bring back visitors each year.
Above: Mainau's flower fountain.
We then had a taste, literally, of one of Mainau's other products: schnapps. The distillery is in one of the outbuildings around the castle and the fruit comes from the island's varied orchards, with the results sold in the Island's shops. After more swimming we then ended our with a barbeque on the terrace of the castle, overlooking the lake as the sun went down and the thunder storms circled round and round the lake.
On our final day we were shown around the butterfly house by Stephan, another gardener who had made an exchange with Kew. He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of butterflies and the plants they feed on and was an engaging guide.
Above: Wes and Kate admire the schnapps still
After free time to revisit parts of the island that we wanted to see again, we drove to Zurich where we had a tour of the university's succulent collection, given by the assistant director of the collection. He gave a fascinating insight into the management of the collection, how the plants are pruned, maintained and displayed. We were all impressed by the range of the collection and by the innovative ways in which the plants were kept.
Overall it was a varied and interesting trip, providing a useful insight into the management of a large commercial garden, but also with a large dose of interesting plants thrown into the mix. We would all like to thank Friederike Feinle and Hanna Bruder for their help, but especially Count Björn Bernadotte for his extremely generous hospitality and for the warm welcome he gave us, as well as for the chance to see his beautiful island.
Course 48 with Count Bjorn Bernadotte, Hanna Bruder and Friederike Feinle
Words Adele Dyer and Kate Dixon
Pictures Lee Oram and Jen Sarginson
