The famous Indian Summer is on the list of many travelers and many of them have been at least once in their life in Canada or the USA to experience this spectacular time. But honestly this phenomena happens everywhere and every year. It is enough to have mixed woodland and sunny days during fall. I love the heat of summer but the golden and red colors of the season now is really eye-catching and for any nature photographer a clicking time.
So I had the luck to go to a special event last weekend when visiting my cousin. He lives in Elmshorn in Northern Germany (Schleswig-Holstein) and nearby there are huge gardens to visit all year round. They had a special weekend called autumn magic (Herbstzauber).
A sunny day, a lot of people but not disturbing because of the largeness of the grounds.
The tree farm Timm & Co in 1943 bought the Münsterhof (Münster Farm), historically already famous and precious. Just 13 years later Erich Frahm and the dendrologist Dr. h.c. Krüssmann built the first arboretum. In 1980 the district of Pinneberg bought the land, now already 17 acres. Since 1989 the Society for the Promotion of the Arboretum is leading the whole in art and science. Hans-Dieter Warda is running this part of paradise as volunteer.
The place is full of the most spectacular trees and plants, endless flowers in part divided in colors or regions, hundreds of benches under pergolas, at little waterfalls or ponds, a lake with lotus and swamp cypress, a place where events are organized (a weekly nature show for the TV e.g.) and of course a cafeteria in the huge farm house and on the terrace and gardens.
The arboretum is organized in a way that flowers flowering the whole year round. In a little vegetable garden one can see typical vegetable for the region, some rare varieties like dark red kale (very ornamental).
For me it’s a ‘click-garden’, a place where you make 200 photos and think you didn’t even got a tenth of the beauty on your camera. OK, I think it’s not too difficult to create beautiful gardens like this one in a place that is never really for months too dry ore where the snow stays for half a year. The weather conditions are relatively mild during the whole year. I would love to have a garden like this and of course it doesn’t come out in just one year of work. This is years and years of wise decisions and a huge knowledge of all these plants what they need and which position is perfect for the best grow.
The entrance-fee is a lot, 9 €, with a whole family it’s nothing you would do every week.
The gardens are wonderful. Every season is spectacular, the flowers are millions and the compositions are unique. If you are in the area for some reason don’t miss this wonderful place which shows all the beauty of German nature and the world around.
Arboretum Ellerhoop-Thiensen, Schleswig-Holstein/Germany
For further information:
Arboretum Ellerhoop-Thiensen (in German)
