(ffm) "When new delight germinates on fields and the view beautifies itself again ." - then, as in this poem by Friedrich Hölderlin, spring moves into the country. It has already reached the Palmengarten: From 6 to 23 February the gallery at the Palmenhaus will be transformed into a spring forest.
Daffodils, tulips, grape hyacinths, primroses, dwarf iris, willows and forsythia will be stretching their buds, leaves and flowers towards visitors. The color palette: yellow, pink, purple, orange. "After the dreary winter, any color is allowed. It puts you in a good mood," says Dominik Heukemes, who designed the spring forest together with his gallery team.
The majority of the spring flowers on display were grown by the gardeners of the Palm Garden. 50,000 bulbs and tubers were sorted for this purpose, packed into boxes and taken to the cold store, where the flowers are kept at five degrees for about six weeks. "Spring flowers need this exposure to cold in order to then develop spring fever when the temperatures rise again, i.e. to get the impulse to sprout," explains gardener Rebekka Schilde-Richter. Once the cooling process is complete, the gardeners put onions and the like into pots - in threes, fives or, in the case of small spring heralds such as crocuses, twenties, depending on the variety. The potting alone takes up to two weeks. Once this is done, the plants are watered and placed under a darkening film in the greenhouses for two to three weeks. "This prevents premature sprouting," explains Schilde-Richter. Then the gardeners gradually raise the temperature to 20 degrees - so daffodils, tulips and grape hyacinths form their flowers just in time for the spring show.
"It is fascinating and contagious what the blooming spring messengers do to us: they awaken anticipation of longer days, birdsong, the first walk in the warming sun and the first ice cream. They simply put us in a good mood," says Palmengarten Director Katja Heubach. "And I am always thrilled and grateful with how much care and passion our experienced gardeners* prepare our flower shows like the Spring Show." The bulbs and tubers arrive at the nursery as early as mid-September. From then on, the gardeners actively prepare for spring in the Palmengarten, although planning begins much earlier. A good three weeks before the show opens, the design of the gallery then starts - landscapes are laid out, streams are created, soil is piled up, flowers are planted.
"This year, our visitors can admire the Palmengarten Spring until 23 February - our preview of the meteorological spring, so to speak," says Heubach. "What's new is that you can also find out about the flower ecology of early bloomers as you walk through the gallery. That's because this is our new guiding theme for the coming years - in keeping with the imminent opening of our new Flower and Butterfly House. As a small taste of the larger exhibition in the Flower and Butterfly House from 2021, they will find information boards in one of our flower shows with all the important details about species, form diversity, flower structure and pollination."
For more info, visit: https://www.palmengarten.en/#/en_DE/index/index
