Honey bee covered in pollen. Photo coutesy Nenad Janicijevic

Beekeepers and scientists know that bees need help now.

In Europe, Nature & More, a Dutch-based international distributor of organic fruits and vegetables decided to take positive action. The “Bees Love Organic” campaign was recently launched. With the assistance of several NGOs, 400,000 bags of organic flower seeds are being distributed throughout Europe throughout the summer.

Bees Love Organic Campaign

A Dutch girl planting seeds along the bicycle trail.

According to Nature & More, “More than a thousand Dutch cyclists are currently transforming a 1000 kilometre long bicycle trail into a “bee trail”, by sowing organic flower seeds; 23 German organic wholesalers and retailers are distributing 280,000 bags of flower seeds with their organic products; the Youth Initiative Program in Sweden created a flowering meadow as well as a short YouTube video featuring buzzing students.” In Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Sweden and the Czech Republic, these flower seeds will create over 400,000 square meters of bee flower pasture.

More than a thousand consumers have already applied for the free flower seeds for bees to sow along the bicycle trail.

Nature & More founder Volkert Engelsman said, “Since the ’90s of last century, we have been trying to get across that “organic” means much more than not using chemical inputs. Farmers in Asia, America and Europe who work with us, recognize that the future of agriculture must lie in teaming up with nature, instead of fighting it. The bees are our allies, so let’s support them.”

Colony Collapse Disorder

It is estimated that 35 percent of global food crops depend on pollination and bees and bumblebees are the most predominant pollinators. Over the past few years, the infamous Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has made headlines as the number of bee colonies worldwide dwindles.

In two recently published studies in the journal Science, one study from a U.K. team headed by Professor David Goulson, Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Sterling and the other from a French team headed by Prof Mickaël Henry at Joint Research Unit 406 INRA-University of Avignon and Pays de Vaucluse, results pointed to the widely used neonicotinoid pesticides, specifically imidacloprid found in brand names pesticides such as Gaucho, Prestige, Admire, and Marathon. These were introduced in the early 1990s and have become some of the most widely used crop pesticides in the world. The scientists note that, “These compounds act on the insect’s central nervous system, and they spread to the nectar and pollen of flowering crops.” This leads to the collapse of the colonies.

“Since the ’90s of last century, we have been trying to get across that “organic” means much more than not using chemical inputs. Farmers in Asia, America and Europe who work with us, recognize that the future of agriculture must lie in teaming up with nature, instead of fighting it. The bees are our allies, so let’s support them. — Volkert Engelsman”

In the U.S., researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health say their new research provides “convincing evidence” of the link between imidacloprid and colony collapse disorder. “It apparently doesn’t take much of the pesticide to affect the bees,” said Alex Lu, associate professor of environmental exposure biology at Harvard’s Department of Environmental Health, “Our experiment included pesticide amounts below what is normally present in the environment.”

“The significance of bees to agriculture cannot be underestimated,” Lu continued. “And it apparently doesn’t take much of the pesticide to affect the bees.”

Organic is Best for Bees

Many beekeepers and scientist believe that bees have a better chance of survival on organic farms, as they don’t have to contend with pesticides and herbicides and also they thrive on the biodiversity found there. Bees have also been found to survive better in city environments as again, they don’t have the high incidence of pesticides in the environment.

Even if you don’t live in Europe, everyone can help their local bee populations by planting bee-friendly flowers and vegetables and keeping insecticides and herbicides out of the gardens.

The Heart of the Tree

What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants a friend of sun and sky;
He plants the flag of breezes free;
The shaft of beauty, towering high.
He plants a home to heaven anigh
For song and mother-croon of bird
In hushed and happy twilight heard –
The treble of heaven’s harmony –
These things he plants who plants a tree.

What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants cool shade and tender rain,
And seed and bud of days to be,
And years that fade and flush again;
He plants the glory of the plain;
He plants the forest’s heritage;
The harvest of a coming age;
They joy that unborn eyes shall see –
These things he plants who plants a tree.

What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants, in sap and leaf and wood,
In love of home and loyalty
And far-cast thought of civic good –
His blessing on the neighborhood
Who in the hollow of His hand
Holds all the growth of all our land –
A nation’s growth from sea to sea
Stirs in his heart who plants a tree.

Henry Cuyler Bunner (1855 – 1896)

As for the beautiful public gardens that continue to thrive and endure, they serve to remind us all of the certainty and betterment of inheritance that is possible, from one generation to the next.

“I believe that every garden is a work of art, not just a collection of plants. A firm structure guides the eye and provides a background for all planting. In a natural garden, the structure is still present as part of the design concept but is disguised by the gentler shapes of trees, shrubs and soft flowery plants. For the series, I selected gardens with the hope of being able to demonstrate not only these principles, but their extensions.”

— Penelope Hobhouse

In order of appearance

Penelope Hobhouse with Thomas Buchter, Winterthur Museum Garden & Library, Winterthur, Delaware, USA

Penelope Hobhouse with Patrick Taylor, Mottisfont Abbey Garden, House & Estate, Hampshire, England

Rosarian David Austin Sr., David Austin Rose Gardens at Albrighton, Wolverhampton, England

Rosarian John Scarman, Lower Hall Worfield, Shropshire, England

Lynden B. Miller, The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY, U.S.A.

Marco Polo Stufano, Wave Hill Gardens & Cultural Center, Bronx, NY, U.S.A.

Penelope Hobhouse with Wendy Perry, Bosvigo House, Cornwall, England

Penelope Hobhouse with Jim Buckland, West Dean Gardens, West Sussex, England

Swedish forests grow by a total of 110 million cubic metres a year, and the net reduction of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as a result of Swedish forestry and wood production, is 60 million metric tons a year.

This is equivalent to the entire carbon dioxide emissions for the whole of the country.  In the near future, Sweden’s forests will absorb double the amount of CO2 to what they do today.

According to Marie Larsson-Stern, Vice President of Silviculture, ”In Sweden, we increase the growth of the forest all the time. We have developed a model that is very efficient. We set aside 20 percent of our forest land for nature conservation, and that’s in different scales. But the rest of the forest, the 80 percent, we will use very efficiently, and in a long term sustainable way.”

The Environmental Atlas of Europe is a UNEP-EEA-ESA joint project showcasing communities responding to environmental change across Europe. The films present a series of these inspirational stories about how people are responding to climate change and in so doing, transforming their lives for a more sustainable future.

Produced by Ace & Ace, Denmark, in cooperation with the European Environment Agency (EEA), United Nations Environment Programme UNEP and the European Space Agency (ESA).

A thousand years ago most of Europe was covered by original forest like the Bialowieza National Park in Poland. Now this forest is reduced to only 1200 km2 (463 m2) and is likely to disappear because of climate change.

Park Warden Mateusz Szymura says, “Only here you can see an eco system, which functions without human touch.”

Take a walk with Warden Szymura and experience the magic, the wild bison, and the microlife in this unique pocket of Europe.

The Environmental Atlas of Europe is a UNEP-EEA-ESA joint project showcasing communities responding to environmental change across Europe. The films present a series of these inspirational stories about how people are responding to climate change and in so doing, transforming their lives for a more sustainable future.

Produced by Ace & Ace, Denmark, in cooperation with the European Environment Agency (EEA), United Nations Environment Programme UNEP and the European Space Agency (ESA).

Wild Urban Forest of Rheinelbe, Germany

In 1988, the government of Nordrhein Westfallen started the process of converting an old mining area into wild urban forest.

“The idea behind it was not to develop anything…and not to plan and manage anything…Just to let everything grow like it wants… Let people do what they want…. Don’t explain anything to them… Don’t put benches… Don’t do anything you do in parks and you do in other managed areas,” said Renate Späth, Minister of Environment for Nordrhein Westfallen.

This urban forest and use of what was once considered desolate and unusable land, is a great example for other cities and areas to emulate. Closed down mines and industrial sites can be rehabilitated to provide much-needed open space for city dwellers.

The Environmental Atlas of Europe is a UNEP-EEA-ESA joint project showcasing communities responding to environmental change across Europe. The films present a series of these inspirational stories about how people are responding to climate change and in so doing, transforming their lives for a more sustainable future.

Produced by Ace & Ace, Denmark, in cooperation with the European Environment Agency (EEA), United Nations Environment Programme UNEP and the European Space Agency (ESA).

“The garden is a celebration of the diversity of people and nature, of living species, of their coexistence and of the necessary balance between them.”

 
Created for Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire’s 20th International Garden Festival, Sculptillonnage reveals a generosity of heart and art in a wondrous, life-giving interpretation of the Festival’s theme: ‘Gardens of the Future or the Happy Art of Biodiversity.’

As to ‘the Happy Art of Biodiversity,’ the Festival affirms: “It is biodiversity that gives us the pleasure of discovery, the beauty of landscapes, the meeting of languages and the richness of exchanges. It makes the world a delight and fosters the possibility of a shared world arising out of our differences.”

On behalf of ‘Gardens of the Future,’ Domaine de Chamount-sur-Loire notes: “The garden is both a source and an end in itself, the expression of nature in its original form, of transformation and organization, of utility and pleasure, and thus all on its own brings together all the richness of the world, everything nature gives us and all that knowledge and history have brought in terms of transformations, organization and rites, creativity and expression over the centuries.

The garden is a celebration of the diversity of people and nature, of living species, of their coexistence and of the necessary balance between them.”

The Annandale Garden at the Shimla Hill Station: Photo © Rohit Chhiber

Once you have cleared your mind of images of over population and dusty roads, what is peeled back is the countries’ fragrant and majestic landscape that can only be India. The landscape revered by Maharajas and Emperors is their creation over the centuries. The landscape is only enhanced by travelers passing through, trading exotic plants and vegetables that found themselves easily transplanted.

While under British rule, the moveable gardens in pots filled pathways and staircases throughout India. There were new additions to gardens that ‘stayed on’ as the British ladies traveled and brought with them their potted flowers to remind them of home.

The flowers and gardens of India are truly, what dreams are made of and simply enchanting.

Northern India brings great surprises in horticulture and cultivation. Not only were the Himalayan Hill Stations imperative getaways from the oppressive heat of summer from the major cities, they were extremely fertile ground for many flowers and lovely fruits.

In addition, you can easily follow the flower preferences of Emperors and their consorts in the outstanding and detailed miniature paintings that are world-famed. Many of these are on display in the summer palaces in Northern India.

The one repetitive flower that keeps returning on not only the ivory canvases, but also the canvas of their landscape, is the rose.

Cupped in the valleys of the Himalayas, you find roses and more roses growing to enormous sizes. Their size and fragrance is as powerful as the surrounding mountains.

At an elevation of over thirteen thousand feet in the Kullu Valley and six thousand feet at Shimla, the roses see much snow, ice, and frost. The clear air and mountain water is the magic potion making them spectacular. The mountain regions are also home to many underground hot springs, adding important nutrients to the soil.

Rosa Rugosa

You can walk through small and large private rose gardens and gardens surrounding museums, and not to be missed are the historical gardens. The gardeners welcome visitors, talk of their roses, cultivation and prize specimens.

The two major hill stations with an abundance of roses are Shimla and the Kullu Valley. Shimla being the refined ‘Queen’ of hill stations and the Kullu Valley, being harder to reach and much farther north is more rugged.

Annandale, a lovely glen in Shimla is now a public garden. During the spirited days of the Raj, Annandale was the perfect glen and setting for many picnics and outdoor sporting activities. The residents planted many rose bushes in this area and they are there in their ‘hugeness’ to admire to this day.

Blossoms of apricot, apple and pear

The Kullu Valley also has its share of roses, but what are spectacular are the fruit trees in blossom in the spring. There are acres of apricot, apple, and pear in bloom at the same time. The fragrance is intoxicating.

Shimla from Scandal Point © Brian Yardley

The dramatic, surrounding greenery of both of these hill stations is the stately deodar, Cedrus deodara. Deodars are native to the western Himalaya and can grow to enormous heights of over 150 (45m) feet tall. These majestic trees are surrounded the bright pink/purple Rhododendron arboreum, a favorite of the Himalayan ‘Musk’ deer.

The endangered Rhododendron campanulatum.

In this setting, some of the largest and most magnificent roses can be found. Most are not native to India and were brought as gifts or traded, then planted and treasured. One of the only native roses to India is Rosa moschata, the musk rose.

There is another treasure in the Himalaya but it is not as showy as the rose. It is subtle, not easy to propagate and elusive as a yeti. It is the Himalayan Blue Poppy. Any flower that is blue is ‘stand-out’, but a blue poppy is sensational.

The blue poppy seedpods were gathered on a failed attempt at Everest by George Leigh Mallory in 1922. The seedpods made their way to England, there they were propagated by the Royal Horticultural Society and made their debut to the world in 1922. In the 1800’s the ‘Blue’ poppy was noted by a French missionary living in China. The tales of this flower far preceded its beginnings of cultivation. Seeds have been available in the U.S. for a number of years now. Try your hand at growing these flowers at least once. What is odd about them is that they need to be continually damp for excellent growth and maturity. The constant melting snow from the Himalaya is something not easy to replicate! Trying your hand at growing the flower it is worth the journey. Vita Sackville-West said of the Blue Poppy, “it is every gardener’s dream.”

What would India be without pungent aromas of jasmine and marigolds? Jasmine grows throughout India up to an elevation of ten thousand feet. This heady flower provides perfumers with its essential oil and brides with a heavenly garland. Jasmine is one of those very distinct fragrances that is as exciting as it is expensive. The jasmine season in India can go on for up to ten months. Over one hundred varieties are grown, so they have a supply of fresh jasmine all year long. The largest producer of jasmine is the state of Tamil Nadu in the southern most part of India.

Jasmine is native to India. It also takes many forms, such as bush, tree, or vine. It is an important flower for beauty but religious ceremonies as well. It is referred to as the ‘Queen’ of flowers. Not only has jasmine graced the hair of Indian beauties, it has found its way into the teacup. Jasmine tea tastes like … jasmine! It is delightful. The petals of the flower are dried, and then infused with hot water. Like rose water, it is exotic and delicious.

Marigolds are the staple flower of India. They are screechingly bright and fantastic. Natives of Central America, the marigold found its way to India in the 16^th century and has been there ever since. Not only is it used in religious ceremonies, but as garlands for guests, and decoration for vehicles and any celebration.

The Portuguese brought the Marigold to India from their trade route from Central America to Goa, India. The Marigold is one of the most cultivated flowers in all of India, the hub of cultivation being Calcutta. The fields of marigold growing is breathtaking. The shades of yellow are so bright, that when you stand next to them they create a reflection that turns your skin to gold.

The marigold also plays a very important part in the Hindu wedding ceremony. The bride and groom sit and stand under a ‘Mandap,’ a four-poled structure that is laden with garlands of marigolds. The marigolds are strung on very long strings, thousands of them and many hands are needed to make one mandap. The gold flower represents purity and regeneration, as well as happiness and luck. Red and gold are the two main colors in the Hindu wedding ceremony. Marigolds take their proper place surrounding the bride and groom.

The flowers of India are many, but these select flowers are the botanical highlights of India flora-culture and nature. The way a flower in seen in a setting makes that flower incredible for the moment. You can see a rose at a garden center and you can see a rose at the Annandale in Shimla India; they are never quite the same. What you can always take with you is the mental photograph of all of the flowers, and their fragrance that never seems to leave.

Namaste.

Cynthia Gibson has devoted her career to writing, painting, and designing. She is a noted writer, botanical artist, stylist, and lecturer; and has traveled the world extensively for work and for pleasure, from Provence to Beijing. Cynthia authored the acclaimed A Botanical Touch, by Viking-Penguin; she was both author and Illustrator for A Garden of Recipes. She is currently the Editor for Gardening, Food & Cooking for Newport This Week. Original Cynthia Gibson botanical illustrations have been commissioned by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and exhibited in fine arts galleries in New York City and Palm Beach, FL. 

Mien Ruys, whose garden has influenced generations of well-known designers in Europe and America, is considered by many to be the leader of the “New Perennial Movement” of the 1990’s. In his book Designing with Plants, Piet Oudolf writes of Mien, “She was everywhere, the only garden designer in Holland who was talking about plants and plantings, the others just talked about design.”

Mien was surrounded by plants from the time she was young. Her father founded Moerheim Nursery in Dedemsvaart in the late 1800s; it specialized in perennials, eventually becoming a very well known perennial nursery in Europe.

At the age of 19, Mien wrote in her diary “Today is the first day of my career.” Her father had started a small design department at the nursery and within a short time, she was put in charge. By this time, Mien had already exhibited an intense interest and talent in using perennials in gardens.

Because there was no training for garden design in Holland at that time, Mien studied in Berlin and then got some practical experience at Tunbridge Wells in England.

Mien began experimenting with designs and plants in her parents’ garden, creating a straight path from the kitchen garden onward until she reached the fruit trees. Continuing with her vision, Mien built a small square pond, surrounded by the perennials she loved. Within a year, most of the perennials had died off due to the acid ground in Dedemsvaart. The death of these perennials was a turning point in her philosophy; either she needed to continually amend the soil or she had to choose plants which could adapt to their new home. Mien chose plants with adaptability.

She continued experimenting, making small perennial gardens on her parents’ property, eventually becoming as interested in the materials used for building gardens as the plant material. In the 1960s, Mien began using railway sleepers in a large number of Dutch gardens, which led to her being known as ‘sleeper Mien.’ She also came up with the idea of using ‘washed gravel’ paving stones.

When I made the trek to Mien’s garden early last spring, what grabbed me was its simplicity, elegance and outstanding bones, but most of all its timelessness. The word ‘experimental’ is synonymous when describing her garden. To see it first hand and learn that much of what appears ‘cutting edge’ was designed several decades ago, is a testament to her outstanding talent and vision.

Photo by A. Kuenen ©

The outline of the garden is designed geometrically with modernistic elements seamlessly integrated. Mien is known to have always created a space based on simplicity and functionality, which her colleagues did as well. But it was her use of loose natural plantings surrounding the space, and the emphasis on the perennial borders that differentiated Mien’s designs from those of her peers. She felt that the perennials allowed an individual to interact and have a direct experience with nature.

Fran Sorin, author of Digging Deep: Unearthing Your Creative Roots Through Gardening, is a well known gardening expert and communicator. Her multi-media exposure as an author, broadcaster, journalist and speaker, affords her the opportunity to share her belief that gardening is a conduit for living a healthier, more creative, and joyful life. Fran is the CBS Radio News Gardening Contributor and the Producer of the highly trafficked group blog, Gardening Gone Wild.

PIET OUDOLF -  RHYTHMS OF NATURE
Where Ecology Meets Design

By Chilpéric de Boiscuillé, Raphaëlle Chere, Pauline Szwed and Benjamin Haupais 

“Lucy the Sky” transports us to the city, onto the roof of a tower and highlights all the possibilities of an urban soilless garden.


How could we not be fascinated by these plants, which grew on the earth more than 100 million years ago and which, in order to survive in a hostile environment, evolved, leaving their earth-bound condition and attaining that of epiphytes²? And how could we not be grateful to Lucy for finally coming down out of her Eritrean tree, 99 million years later?

Nowadays, bees can no longer sustain their life as honest agricultural workers gathering pollen and they are dying as they skim low over the countryside, under the combined effect of insecticides applied to sunflowers, maize and fruit trees.

Half of them do however survive; we are told that those which have come into the urban environment are prospering in hives that have been set up for them on the roofs of our cities.  [Domaine Chaumont's newly installed “bee meadow” garden is full of bee plants and is home to hives painted by children from the school in Chaumont-sur-Loire; the Domaine produces its own honey.]

People are also taking refuge in cities to find resources there, which their countryside can no longer give them. However, their gardens struggle to find a place in the sun. So, they need to adapt, like the epiphytes, by moving up high. The garden of the future is on top of the city. It contemplates it and, beyond that, contemplates its huge landscape. If it is uprooted, it adapts and takes its resources from technology: soilless cultivation, range of epiphytes, hydroponics³, plant carpets, solar energy, fogging, etc.

Thus, one of the greatest discoveries of biodiversity so far is really still today the richness of the canopy, the soilless garden on the roof of primary forests. After pharmacopoeia, gardens will take an interest in this vast world of city rooftops. Plants will colonise the city and take nourishment from its water, its air and its waste. As for gardeners, they will be there to orchestrate this symbiosis within the ecumene⁴ and appreciate the diversity of its beneficial effects.

*Lucy: our ancestor who came down from the trees.

¹Lucy: our ancestor who came down from the trees.

²Epiphytes: plants whose roots are anchored on the surface of other plants, which live on the canopy and have a wide variety of species belonging to different families, such as Orchidaceae, Bromeliaceae and Cactaceae, as well as ferns. They make their own soil by trapping dead organic matter and dust. Their high position means they have access to light. For some species, the roots hang down into empty space and absorb water, which they store away. These plants, which are very distant from one another in terms of their botanical classification, adapt in various ways, meaning they can ensure their survival during occasional periods of drought. The bromeliads, like the Aechmea and Vriesea genera, store water in the heart of the plant to ensure they have a regular provision. Some associate with ants to protect themselves against attack from predatory animals.

³Hydroponics: cultivation of plants carried out on a neutral and inert substrate (of a sandy, clay pellet, rock wool, etc. type). This substrate is regularly irrigated by a flow of solution, which provides the mineral salts and nutrients which the plant needs.

⁴Ecumene: a geographical concept referring to all land which is inhabited or worked by human beings 

RELATED PLANTING FOR THE PLANET STORIES/VIDEOS:

MEET THE DESIGNERS

Chilpéric de Boiscuillé, architect, had hardly left the very demanding Ecole polytechnique in Lausanne, Switzerland when he was offered a job as an assistant lecturer at the Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris and a commission without a budget from the Psychiatric Clinic in Chailles (Loir et Cher). By associating his architect students with the project and then with his construction*, and by using recovered materials, he was to give a new direction to his professional life, which would always combine teaching and construction, while keeping rigour and economy in mind. In 1993, he created the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Nature et du Paysage [National Higher Institute for Nature and Landscape] in Blois, at the request of Jack Lang, and he continually fought against the formalistic action of a certain conception of landscape in order to “conjure the meaning of the project up out of the land, after a diagnosis which is firstly sensitive and then scientific and technical”. In 2009, he founded SATIVA paysage Ltd, with some former landscape engineering students. * Included on the supplementary list of historic buildings by the order of 9 January 2006

Raphaëlle Chéré is a landscape engineer who has had a diploma from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Nature et du Paysage (ENSNP) of Blois since 2007. She has developed a sensitive approach to spaces, with an attachment to a desire to create a feeling of bonding within the sustainable city and to put the user at the heart of the project. In particular, she has worked on inter-generational places (therapeutic garden, people-plant relationship) and has had work published on this subject several times. After spending two years at SETEC TPI, working as closely as possible with technical project management, she joined SATIVA paysage in 2009 to share a project approach which is humanist and pragmatic, but also full of fun and permanently in search of new ways of designing together. In 2010, with the SATIVA team, she created the “jardin migrateur” [migratory garden] within the framework of the national festival of young creation “Imaginez maintenant” [Imagine now] in the “hortillonnages” [marsh plots used for market gardening] of Amiens.

Pauline Szwed is a landscape engineer who has had a diploma from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Nature et du Paysage (ENSNP) [National Higher Institute for Nature and Landscape] of Blois since 2007. Her professional experiences in France, in teams of architects, town planners and engineers, and abroad in Canada, Peru, New Caledonia, Libya and China, enabled her to build a landscape project approach which is multidisciplinary, cultural and sensitive. She has also been involved in ephemeral garden projects and contributed to the creation of spatial installations for Montreal’s “Paysages éphémeres” [Ephemeral landscapes] and the cultural event “Imaginez maintenant” [Imagine now] in the “hortillonnages” [marsh plots used for market gardening] of Amiens.

Benjamin Haupais is currently a student in his fourth year at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Nature et du Paysage (ENSNP) [National Higher Institute for Nature and Landscape]. The importance which the course gives to work placements has led him to work in some very different organisations: small French agencies in Vannes for four months, as well as in large Chinese organisations in Shenzhen for five months. By and large, he devotes his free time to extracurricular activities at the ENSNP through his active membership of the student association, the AEIP [Ingenious Association for Landscape Students]: managing / running the cafeteria, organising events, film club, preparing extracurricular trips, etc.