World heritage The rock-carvings in Tanum have the same status as the pyramids in Egypt or India’s Taj Mahal and have –like these – been made World Heritage sites by the UN. Almost 70 percent of the rock-carvings depict ships floating across the rocks. The rock-carvings were knocked in 3,000 years ago by the people of the Bronze Age. The famous rock in Vitlycke is more than 20 metres long and seven metres high. The motives are men with long legs lifting their axes towards the sky. But it’s not only wars and warriors that we meet. A man and a woman are embracing each other in love - or do they fear the giant holding a hammer above their heads? Magical. Ritual. A world heritage for eternity.

20/8 Aeroseum - Guided Tour in the Aviation Discovery C 20/8 Archaeological excavation in Varnhem 20/8 Computer Game Exhibition – for gamers and newbies 20/8 Guided tour of Gunnebo gardens 20/8 Guided tour of the house

Garden stardom

Start making plans today to visit what promises to be the great horticultural experience of 2008! 28 June – 28 September 2008 will see four key sites in the city of Gothenburg in West Sweden play host to thousands of garden lovers from Scandinavia and abroad.

Four stunning but highly diverse parks will each play a part in the Gardens of Gothenburg Exhibition. Gothenburg Botanical Garden, Gunnebo House and Gardens, Liseberg Park and the Garden Society of Gothenburg (Trädgårdsföreningen) each will offer a totally different experience for visitors and there will be something of interest for amateur gardeners, horticultural academics and even those with a mere window box to tend to.

Horticultural purists will make a dash for the city’s famous Botanical Garden – a place of beauty and learning with more than 20,000 different species of plants. During the exhibition visitors will be greeted by a piazza full of greenery set in stone borders by Ulf Nordfjell. Also his Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medal winning Tribute to Linnaeus Garden has found its resting place here. The exhibition will showcase lots of new perennials including a special focus on Dahlias both wild and cultivated. Annuals will take pride of place in a flowering setting in the newly designed main entrance area. All will bid a colourful welcome to visitors who come to the lectures, admire the award winning rockery or just to gaze at the wonder of the special carnivorous plant exhibition.

Gunnebo House & Gardens invite you to view an eighteenth century park in a modern light. The House and grounds are all intact, carefully restored and recreated as close to the architect’s original blueprints as possible, and considered as one of the foremost neo-classical country estates in Northern Europe. The house boasts three styles of gardens, kitchen garden, formal garden and landscaped parkland. The formal garden will feature decorative elements which are true to the Gustavian period. Temporary light installations and concerts will add a contemporary touch.

Three kitchen gardens will be created at Gunnebo answering the ‘brief’ to create a kitchen garden of the future. American Topher Delaney, Swede Monika Gora and Brit John Tizzard have each come up with different concepts.

Topher favours the kitchen garden as a labyrinth, Monika’s is a novel mobile kitchen garden and John’s goes back to the roots of an authentic kitchen garden, providing as much food as possible for the family. The restaurant and coffee house at Gunnebo House relies on home grown organic produce from the kitchen garden for all of the food served.

Previous visitors to Gothenburg will no doubt associate Liseberg Park with fun fair rides and Christmas markets but Gardens of Gothenburg 2008 will present this iconic city park in a new light, with a greater emphasis on the beauty of the natural landscape. Along with the already popular Promenade Park, Gardens of Gothenburg will unveil 20,000 square metres of previously undeveloped park land, a collaboration of Swedish and English landscape architects. This area will be transformed into an exciting area of natural beauty giving room for the visitor’s own imagination and interpretations. Artists will be invited to take part in creative workshops to complement the planting and landscape, some of which will become permanent. The White Falls, Shadow Walk and Deep Woods will all be resplendent with colourful blooms, a delight for mind, body and soul – a new oasis in Scandinavia’s favourite park.

Ulf Nordfjell is the exhibition architect for the gardens at the Garden Society of Gothenburg (Trädgårdsföreningen), where there is a truly international presence with designers from Britain, Sweden, Denmark, Holland and Germany all putting their individual stamp on gardens and woodlands.

The Garden Society has been an ornamental garden since 1842. For 2008 preservation, reconstruction and renewal is in focus. During the exhibition the aim is to offer visitors a journey through time in a park currently being restored to its former glory but with some contemporary additions such as a modern rose park designed by Ulf and consisting of old fashioned roses in meadows of perennials and grasses.

Stroll through newly planted rose gardens by luminaries such as Piet Oudolf, and marvel at the themed and woodland gardens. Patterned flower beds will be recreated and new ones reflecting modern trends will be planted by the very best designers in Sweden.

Chelsea Flower Show gold medal winners Julie Toll and Philip Nixon have designed a woodland garden and more modern, conceptual garden respectively. Julie is working in association with Dutch designer Jacqueline van der Kloet. James and Helen Dooley are Swedish residents who have previously designed gardens for Paul Smith and Petersham Nurseries and for Gardens of Gothenburg they have come up with a modern vegetable garden in cooperation with Gardens Illustrated magazine. The garden will revisit the classic English Kitchen garden and give it an up to date spin.

Swedish landscape architect offices 02Landskap (Göteborg) and Sydväst (Malmö) are doing contemporary Swedish gardens.

For more information visit:
Gardens of Gothenburg 2008: www.gardensofgothenburg.com
Gothenburg Official Events and Visitors Guide: www.gothenburg.com

More Gardens in the region >>

West Sweden – a seafood sensation! Food of the earth Lobster season Gothenburg Cultural Festival, 12-17 August Sideline soccer on a peaceful Swedish island – two nights for £125 pp

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