Tuesday 28 July 2015

Norway's Famous Garden - Flor and Fjaere in Stavanger

It has now almost been a month since I returned from my trip from Norway and thought today I would share one of two highlights with you before it becomes such a distant memory.

Norway and the fjords were everything you imagine.
I must recommend that if you see the fjords that a cruise really is the best option even with the pitfalls of traveling on a cruise. 
It also heightens the Viking experience.

Today I want to share my visit to one of the more established and acclaimed northern most gardens in the world called
Flor and Fjaere.


The right side of the island are the Flor and Fjaere gardens Via 

I arrived in the port of the 6th largest Norwegian city of Stavanger which is a very wealthy town due to the oil industry.

Doesn't the town look like a lego set from above?

Below is the more mundane view.
The world beach volleyball tournament was being held at the port.


The Flor and Fjaere gardens were technically closed as they were preparing for the Norwegian chess championships but they opened especially for the guests of the cruise ship.
It enhanced the experience by sharing the space with 20 other guests.

This is for gardening nerds and gardening novices alike a treat to visit.
Mr CSW and I were very inspired and taken by the beauty but the story behind the gardens which are still owned by the same family that started it in 1965.
The dock on arrival
40 years ago Asmund Bryn bought several acres on an island 20 minute boat ride from Stavanger where they already operated a garden nursery.
Due to ill health, he thought it would be sage to live in a place with cleaner air and recuperate.
40 years later these gardens have become a destination and has hosted Norway's royal family birthday celebrations among other events.


Below is Siri, the daughter in law of Asmund and now runs the gardens with her husband.  The couple have been pivotal in making this a public garden during the summer months.
She was a stunning woman who reminded me of a more Nordic version of Robin Wright-Penn especially with her hair very much a a la House of Cards.


She hosted the tour and showed us the gardens and shared the back stories.
Interestingly enough, Asmund always wanted to be a garden designer but never had the opportunity to study it in an official capacity as he had other family obligations of running his family garden nursery business.


But forty years later, this garden is renown for its unique style that is very local to the special climate and the Caribbean gulf stream that this area benefits from.

This area was mostly rocks and not arable and the land has been cleared but the rocks that remain are account for much of the success of the gardens. 
( Please click link to see an old picture of how the land looked before.)

Not only does it lend a certain texture and balance to the topography of the land but it also retains heat from the sun so it keeps the garden beds warmer and allows the surround plants to survive at certain survival cusp of temperature.



The gulf stream adds a few degrees celsius which can mean life or death for many plant types in the winter months.

The tall trees get preened once a year by a huge operation that involves hydraulic lifts.
But Asmund thought height was important to guide the eye up and down.


He and his family have experimented in sections of the garden by having cactus gardens which isn't what you would think of in a typical Nordic garden!


As this is a family business, various family members will have some sort of input in the design of the garden inspired by their studies and travels.


The placement of rocks was not only by default of the original landscape but the importance was apparently heightened on a trip to Kyoto where garden design is akin to religion.


Once again, the rocks not only served as a design element but kept the water a few degrees warmer so that the koi fish could survive.
The koi fish are moved in autumn to another area as the winters are too harsh.


The weather was sunny but it was about 12 degrees Celsius and believe it or not there was a person swimming in the ocean.


The white sands were a bit disorientating coupled with the extra crisp fresh air and chill.


That felled tree is an ode to a bit of rough Viking and 
a mix of the Asian garden design of a bridge to an island 
in the middle of a pool of water.


What you see below is their own boat that ferries guests to and from the port of Stavanger although guests are free to sail to the island themselves.


The restaurant serves fresh and seasonal food and I wish I had the chance to try but there is always next time.

What I enjoyed was that there was no waste.
A wall to a storage shed still served to show their gardening skill.

After our tour, we stopped by the old section of the town 
which was probably carried on to American when many Norwegians immigrated to America 200 years ago.


The cruise ship peaking through!


I hope you got a feel of the gardens and I do hope you get a chance to visit some day. If you are in the Stavanager region I have to strongly suggest that you visit!
Although I have linked to their website, here is the link once again for you to browse some more beautiful images of the gardens.

31 comments:

  1. Beautiful photos, very informative and interesting x

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  2. stunning, I would love to visit. What makes gardeners such great people? they are always so generous with their time x

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    1. You need to make an epic viking trip FF! I only told a bit of the story but they have their own book and long story short the garden healed him because he was really ill but lived another few decades on that island while creating this garden! x

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  3. MY GOODNESS................OIL and GARDENS!I had no idea...........your photos from your trip are beautiful.Happy you enjoyed the country.........I was a bit worried as you weren't going to have the sunny beach experience but seems like it was worth it!I will put NORWAY on my RADAR!

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    1. There is an oil refinery visible distance from the garden too! It was a sunny beach experience even though it was cold!

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  4. thank you for sharing your trip photos! I have never been to Norway and in my ignorance have been amazed at the diversity in its geography.

    SSG xxx

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    1. Norway is such a beautiful country that is under the radar and was surprised at all it had to offer! x

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  5. Isn't it wonderful that this garden became the owner's cure? The difference between the before and after photo is incredible.

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    1. The restorative cure of fresh air and growing and nurturing things are undervalued I say! The before and after is a testament to hard work - very old fashioned but always in style!

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  6. I've been wanting to visit Norway for years and now doubly so, this is so lovely and what an interesting story. Love the orderly Lego house picture too. XO

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  7. Oh I also wanted to mention that I am very much into reading Karl Ove's My Struggle just now which only makes me more curious about Norway, his descriptions of the landscape adjacent to his own inner turmoil are so compelling. Have you read it yet? He's a terrific writer. XO

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    1. Norway is rather orderly in everything Dani! Thanks for suggesting this book - I am going to start reading some nordic fiction and hope it is as good as their crime drama series on TV. There's a lot of internal complicated sentiments in the Vikings!! hehe xx

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  8. Wonderful post and very interesting. So true about gardeners being wonderful people to echo FF. Please keep up these up as one day I'll visit Norway and will reference your posts.

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    1. I hope you get to go - it's interesting because so many Americans are descended from Norwegians. Those red barns in the midwest is from the Norwegian immigrants.

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  9. Seems like such a quirky little place:).

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  10. I find Scandinavia quite fascinating, and the people are stunning. These gardens are beautiful.

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    1. Norwegians, Swedes, Danes and Finns all look quite different though and the Norwegians weren't as tall interestingly.

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  11. I don't know if I could survive a cruise, I'd need little fake trees outside. We went on one - hubs didn't speak to me for three days as I was such a wretch! Now when he talks about crossing the Atlantic on the QE2 I say 'yeah not going" I do like Norway, 'my Scots" come from there and Sweden , deep ancestry of course. I love the lego towns and the order and see what they fitted in so well up in Orkney and the Isles.

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    1. I found crossing the Atlantic was a lot easier just cruise ship speaking than the Norway one. I think schlepping people on and off the boats was sometimes a real chore for some but the fjords need to be done on water! The landscape was also very Scottish in some places I could have been in the highlands.

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  12. Finns are incredible looking, their genetics are so distinct and separate, I find them mesmerising to look at.

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    1. I like the mix of the Finns with their Nordic/Russian/Lapp mix too.

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  13. Those first two pictures are very picturesque and look like postcards. I've never thought about going to Norway. The restaurant space looks great, what a shame you didn't get to eat in there - I hope they don't cook and sell those Koi fish! Have a good weekend when it comes xx

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    1. Koi is not edible and they are purely decorative! But I think you should give Norway a try!! Xx

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  14. Those gardens do not look real. Simply gorgeous. Thanks for the account and welcome back.

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    1. It was disoriented a bit BC we were near the arctic circle and its on the same latitude as Alaska and yet the Gulf Stream just saves it!

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  15. This is such an interesting garden, and you know the whole thing about rocks being there to add warmth to the ponds and the ground was matching in with something I was reading in my Diggers Club magazine the other day. In Australia lawn has become very out of fashion due to the water needed to maintain it. But the flip side is that people putting in paving or garden beds or worse - synthetic grass (shudder) don't realise the heat it adds to the environment and their house. Someone had measured that the grassed areas were 5C cooler than the garden beds with a soil thermometer, and nearly 10C difference in paved areas, which on a 40C day makes quite a difference to a house's internal temperatures if it's surrounded by it. So its fascinating to see the reverse being utilised in a cold climate to promote plant growth. They really did have an interesting mix of plants in the garden, and I'd never have thought they'd get any sort of warm air stream, but it makes sense!

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    1. Plus the paving affects soil drainage so it's terrible for flood prone areas. This garden also wants fresh water so it used large rock pools to naturally collect water. So they are doing things in reverse. This island was very windy so they also have to battle the wind but they built a shed to redirect the harshest bit of it. It's a place where a few degrees are the difference between life and death and the UK may have boring weather but it doesn't have that borderline extreme risk of nature element like Norway not even Australia. Monty don once did a piece here for the BBC and he also found it interesting.

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  16. What a gorgeous place. Your images are captivating, Naomi! It's amazing to see such beauty and diversity in one place. Would love to have you stop by and add some links to our Lifestyle blog Linkup this week.
    We are having so much fun hosting! Hope you summer is going well!
    xx, Heather

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  17. Siri has so much of a likeness to Robin! What a unique and beautiful place to visit. I cannot believe the white sand on the beaches...Hawaii with 12 degrees temps! Crazy! Had to laugh at your cruise comment....going on one would also not be my idea of fun either (in fact, utterly cringeworthy) but it does sound worth it in this instance!

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