A green dumb visiting a botanic garden
Inspired by all the greenness around me, I went to meet the head gardener of the Kumpula Botanic Garden, Marko Pesu, and discussed with him what really goes on in there.
Photos: Jan Jansson
I don’t know the first thing about plants. I’ve tried growing basil (Ocimum basilicum) at home but I never got to see as much as any sprouts. I recognise a very few species of plants. Mostly conifers (from the Pinaceae-family). The first member of this family that I learned to recognise was probably christmas tree (Picea christinatalis), and the glittery things on the tree helped a lot.
Based on this botanical knowledge I presumed that something must be blooming at the beginning of June when I prepared myself to indulge in an overflowing richness of colours when I entered the botanic garden in Kumpula, Helsinki. I’d arranged a meeting with the head gardener Marko Pesu.
First impressions
Already at the gate I saw colourful not-so-exotic-looking potted plants that seemed somewhat familiar to me. On the other hand, I have once heard that several of our ornamental plants and flowers originate from rain forests and have been brought to Europe to make up for the lack of size and colour in our native species. These samples probably are of the very common species Blossomius terracicus that people often grow on their balconies.
I was a bit early so I decided to walk a little around the area. For my untrained eyes it all looked like variations of the same theme: a stem of some sort with a lot of green leaves. However, there were many signs with different names in them. Between some rocks, there seemed to be only blank signs. More careful look confirmed that clearly some sort of a grass (Stickus dullus) was growing there too.
I met up with head gardener Pesu, and we sat down in the terrace at the middle of the garden. I asked about the sandy, rocky part that I saw earlier, and as it often happens, those who ask get an aswer.
These species are different in the sense that they don’t manage competition very well. They grow well on river banks where the land is constantly eroded from the river, and other species haven’t spread there yet. To ensure their success in the garden, they must be isolated from other plants. And this, I was told, is essential in a gardener’s work. It’s all about holding the pause button down, about stopping the competition between different species so that the wanted species will grow in the places appointed to them. I hadn’t thought about it like that.
Gardening according to bioclimatic theory
So, how do you decide what to grow in a botanic garden? There seems to be millions of plants to choose from. Pesu explained that one important aspect in choosing the plants is the bioclimatic theory. You can grow in your garden either indigenous plants, or plants that are from places with a similar climate. The closer to the equator one goes, the higher altitude one has to go to make sure that the plant can live in a climate that is further away from the equator, just to give one example. The collection of plants in Kumpula includes samples from North-America and Far East.
Botanical garden’s collection is always under diligent caretaking. It also serves as a bioindicator for changes in the climate. The Kumpula garden is just a few hundread meters away from the meteorological institute that gathers physical data of the climate. The plants tell about the climate in their own way. These sources of information can be used to complement each other. Only physical data doesn’t tell anything about the effects on the environment.
From international co-operation to nursing plants based on a hunch
Collecting exotic plants is by definition an international effort. The collection has to be kept in good shape, and new species added. The University of Helsinki orders seeds from abroad regularly. Different botanical institutes around the world collect seeds from their area and send them to other institutes around the world when needed. Pesu compares this to girls swapping stickers, although this co-operation is supposed to aid scientific work.
I guess that swapping seeds might also help in building social networks. In any case botanical gardens around the world know that they can expect to receive a small plastic bag with a nice new addition to their collection when needed.
In bookstores one can find shelves full of books on how to grow orchids or other complicated species from faraway lands. Botanical gardens often deal with plants that have grown never before in a specific area and climate, therefore the plant’s behaviour can not really be predicted. Pesu says that often the practical work requires an educated quess. The experimenting results in additional information on the bioclimatic theory, for example.
Effects on the green dumb
After a bit of looking into, the authenticity of a botanical garden is a bit of a surprise. The head gardener compares the botanical garden with a zoo. In zoos the animals are kept in cages, but there’s no need to put plants in them.
In the end it’s the same with plants and animals. They are the real thing. They are what actually lives and grows in those distant corners of the world where they come from. There’s nothing fake about it really. It is possible to walk around the world in 80 minutes in a botanic garden.
Open daily from 9 am to 7 pm. Admission €0/3/6 to the green houses, admission to the gardens is free.
Jan Jansson is a chemistry teacher that spends his little free time doing molecular gastronomic experiments.