Arboretum Mustila

In early August, I participated in the Nordic permakulturfestivalen in Finland and took the opportunity to visit Arboretum Mustila, that might have been one of Scandinavia's most interesting collections of trees. Arboretum located outside the small town of Elimäki and is on the border between the cultivation zone II and III according to the Finnish system, which corresponds to Zone IV-V in the Swedish system. Average annual temperature in Mustila is 3.4 ° C and the precipitation is 600 mm. So it is both slightly cooler and drier in Mustila compared to Stjärnsund and Putt Myra forest garden, which made the visit even more exciting.

Arboretum was founded by Axel Fredrik Tigerstedt as 1901 Mustila inherited the mansion and its grounds. The pine forest behind the mansion was affected by a disease and a major part of the forest harvested needed. In the gaps planted mining engineer, geologist and dendrologen Tigerstedt from 1908 and forward foreign wood that he had come up from seed. Work on the arboretum continued in the family for decades and today the land is managed by a foundation. Although the arboretum is best known for its collection of exotic conifers (over 100 species) and rhododendrons (150 species) there is much to see the forest gardeners.

When I hear the word arboretum, I think for some reason the solitary tree planted on a lawn. Such was not the case at Mustila, but where it really had created functioning, multilayered ecosystem that it has largely allowed to take care of itself. Countless seedlings everywhere testified that these exothermic thrived in the really quite harsh climate.

Most impressing was the so-called southern slope where most forest garden plants were. In one area, there were dozens of large Manchurian walnuts (Juglans mandshurica) who had released their seeds enormously in all directions. Even black walnut (Juglans nigra), Japanese walnut (Juglans ailanthifolia) was in the area and bore fruit.

During permakulturfestivalen spread the rumor that there was Paw Paw (Asimina triloba) who had put fruit on the arboretum and nursery on Mustila had started selling seedlings from the mother tree. I put on Paw Paw glasses as soon as we approached the area where the trees would be enough and missed both the one and the other tree (t.ex. dvärgkastanj (Castanea pumila), American chestnut (American chestnut) and Shagbark Hickory (Carya ovata), all of which should be in the same area). In the end, I came to the tree that was barely 2 m high. It had small, but clear frost from the previous winter and the further investigation showed that the tree has never bloomed. The seedlings nursery sold came from a larger purchase of seeds from North America. Nevertheless, it was fun to see that Paw Paw can survive so well in the open in this climate and it had planted a large number of new trees around the old.

Two other plants, I was pleasantly surprised by the, silverlind (Tilia tomentosa) and basswood (Tilia americana). Both linden trees seemed to thrive storm and had huge sheets I almost imagine that better lettuce alternative to the Swedish forest linden tree with its fairly small leaves.

The shrub layer in the North American embossed portion of the arboretum dominated by hazel, serviceberry (Amelanchier spp.) and Rhus typhina (Rhus typhina), the latter is something of a surprise to me, when I thought that it was not hardy beyond perhaps the Swedish culture zone III.

In örtskiktet there were in addition to the familiar hazel herb also has another little surprise, namely nutkahallon (Rubus parviflora) I have grown in a few years, but as I have not experienced that any further ground cover.

This summer I planted Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana) Putt in Myra woodland garden and it was fun to see the trees in reality. The fruits happened to be mature now and tasted really good, far from the inedible native bird cherry.

Finally, it was pure delight to see some decades old mini kiwi plants (Actinidia kolomikta). I like my own plants is the right cool with their 3 m long vines, but here they grew over 10 m in the big trees. Unfortunately, all the copies I saw staminate plants and there was not a single fruit on them.

The planned hours at the arboretum became three in the end and I did not really understand why the other plant nerds who I met at the festival felt arboretum was the number one attraction in their country. It's very encouraging to see so many trees that also I have planted in an equally harsh climate, thrive and be included in a work context.