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One thing I ’ve learned after almost a tenner in Sweden is this : Under no circumstances should you move here in November . I did . I leave New York , a city that glitters yr - round and where there ’s almost always some green in Central Park , and move to Stockholm . liveliness pop off from Technicolor to black and white . If you ’ve seen Ingmar Bergman’sThe Seventh Seal , in which a man plays Bromus secalinus with Death , that ’s how I feel as I walk around the house shift on lights at 3 o’clock on a November afternoon .
Limestone Nordic god guard the priming of Häringe Slott , a hotel located on a nature second-stringer in the south of Stockholm , Sweden . Photo by : Pia Ulin and Gemma and Andrew Ingalls . SEE MORE pic OF THIS GARDEN
For someone whose calling as a writer and editor in chief ask a great plenty of clock time spent in gardens in England and America , it was n’t just the darkness that amount as a shock . Sweden , one of the less - populated countries in Europe , has an abundance of solid ground but what seemed to me a shortage of gardens . Was it possible that the Swedes , unlike the British , only preferred their nature untamed ?
“ Gardening in Sweden is a rather newfangled field , ” explains Ulf Nordfjell , one of Sweden ’s most outstanding landscape designers and winner of the Best in Show honour at the 2009 Chelsea Flower Show . “ It was started with a motivation to produce vegetables after World War II . You ca n’t compare a Swedish garden with one in Britain or France or Italy ; it ’s not possible . We have res publica gardens where people spend prison term during their summertime , but it ’s a rather unique human relationship — more a piece of nature , peradventure with some strawberry and rosebush . ”
Since the 1800s , Rosendals Trädgård , a garden located on an island in primal Stockholm , has boasted an extensive collection of rare flora , including , at one item , some 400 yield tree . Today , the garden offers veggie and cut flowers for sales agreement and classes on biodynamic gardening . Below , dahlia and calendula grow in dustup outside a greenhouse . Photo by : Pia Ulin and Gemma and Andrew Ingalls . SEE MORE photograph OF THIS GARDEN
Ah , the Swedish summer . As with winter , nothing prepares you for it , but this metre the shock is a nice one . Days are long , night are tender , and the visible light has a silver quality you find nowhere else . After its long wintertime slumber , nature go into overdrive , and Swedes want to be in the midst of it . all of a sudden , life is lived outdoors .
Even though Stockholm has one of the high rates of 2d - rest home ownership in the earth , locals do n’t need to leave to get back to nature . At various spots around the metropolis there are koloni — one - room wooden shacks with garden around them , rather like British parcelling gardens . hoi polloi sign up up on waiting lists for koloni and lucullan dear on them when they get them . The metropolis ’s park are also full in the summer , and there are places like Rosendals Trädgård , a public garden with a cafe and nursery on the island of Djurgården that is packed whenever the Lord’s Day shines . multitude picnic in the grove , emasculated flowers , buy plants , or eat lunch in one of the trash houses .
Before I move here , I thought of Swedish aim as being all about white minimalism . It is , in fact , full of references to the innate world . “ Nature is a great breathing in , ” says Victoria Skoglund , owner of Stockholm ’s hippest plant greenhouse , Zetas . “ Many artist , intriguer , and creators apply Mrs. Henry Wood , works , and urine as the cornerstone of their creations . ” you’re able to see this at Svenskt Tenn , an national pattern store in business district Stockholm best experience for its collection of furnishings and cloth by Josef Frank . Frank , an Austrian designer who fled to Sweden in 1933 as the Nazis rose to great power , drew heavy on nature , design pictorial patterns filled with tulips , lotus flowers , fern , and all sorts of imaginary varieties . One of his most iconic pieces is his Flora cabinet that ’s entirely treat with botanic prints . His influence on Swedish aim and computer architecture is inestimable , and even at Ikea you ’ll feel all sorting of bit urge on by Frank ’s oeuvre .
AtGrythyttans Gästgivaregård , orGrythyttan Inn , established in 1640 , a shed ’s grassy roof represent an old - school take on the green roof concept while the brick red , or Falu red , exterior instance the go - to color for wood buildings throughout Sweden . Photo by : Pia Ulin and Gemma and Andrew Ingalls . SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THIS GARDEN
So while even one of the most noted garden in the ground — that of Carl Linnaeus , the pioneer of taxonomy , in the town of Uppsala — is quite minor when equate to English or Italian specimens , the born world permeates this country ’s esthetics in a manner that rival even the most garden - centric societies . This can be seen on a domesticated level — there ’s never a shortfall of beautiful flowers in Swedish home plate , no matter the clock time of year — and on a abstruse cultural plain in the etymology of so many Swedish last name . Hasselblad , for case , think of “ hazel folio , ” and the hero of Stieg Larsson ’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trilogy , Mikael Blomkvist , has a last name that roughly translates as “ flower twig . ”
Nowadays , as Skoglund points out , the ever - practical swede are putting their garden to increasing exercise to develop unusual foods . “ Demand for useful berries like goji and Plantago lanceolata has never been greater , and people ’s interest in growing their own vegetables seems to just get bigger and bigger , ” she says . “ client are no longer slaked with traditional potatoes ; they enquire for the French delicacy potato . dissimilar kinds of chilies , tomato , and lettuce varieties are on their shopping lists . ”
Nordfjell notes that there ’s also an increased interestingness in design among Swedish gardeners , who now try out with plant varieties , shapes , and materials . “ Attitudes have been transfer over the last 20 years , ” he says . “ People are using tone , steel , and granite . ” And while gardener here have an center on what ’s happening in the rest of the world , Swedish landscapes remain singular . “ Six months of snow , ” says Nordfjell , “ influences a mickle of what you could do in your garden . ”
A Swedish SojournTo best enjoy Sweden ’s rude beaut , plan to visit between May and September ( though be previse : Many rutabaga plant take a month - long vacation in July , leaving the metropolis feeling empty and many of the restaurants shuttered ) .
For accommodations in Stockholm , count the well - designed newcomerHotel Skeppsholmen , locate on a small island connect to the urban center center by a bridge . neighbor admit the Museum of Modern Art and the Swedish Museum of Architecture . Stallmästaregårdenis a 49 - room inn dating from the 1600s abutting the Royal Park of Haga ( Hagaparken ) , which features walking paths and a big tropical glasshouse . To try out Sweden ’s take on the “ new Nordic ” cuisine , which favors naturalistic techniques and Norse ingredients , head toMathias Dahlgrenat the Grand Hôtel , where one can sample a signature tune mantrap of in the altogether and smoked reindeer with whitefish roe . AtRestaurang Volt , the like of lamb tongue , spruce , ocean buckthorn , gooseberries , and ash tree are serve in a cool , minimalist blank space .
If you ’re traveling to Sweden , check into any ofc / o Hotels ’ impressive , unique attribute sprinkle around the country , includingHäringe Slott , Krägga Herrgård , and Grythyttan Inn , among others ( careofhotels.com ) .
Stephen Whitlock was once an associate editor in chief atGarden Design . He lives in Stockholm and writes for numerous magazine .
