Chestnuts from the mountains

I do not usually able to keep me from taking every trip as an opportunity to collect plant material. Oddly enough was a trip to Jämtland in December just such an occasion. By a old students from Östersund I was told that there were viable specimen of the American chestnut (American chestnut) as far up as in Jämtland. They had not produced fruit than, but just the fact that they could survive so far up in the country aroused my curiosity.

When I examined it all closer, it turned out that there was a nursery in Östersund who specializes in very rare tree species. Behind the nursery HeglePlant (which now also added to list of nurseries) is Hakan Schüberg, Katarina Söderlund, Eric Andersson and Margaret Lindhagensgatan. I contacted them and did not expect that I would have to check on their line in the middle of winter. But there was a whole committee of PhD tree researchers who received me at the cavern where they had set up the 1000 trees of over 100 different species for winter. The idea behind the nursery is to enrich the Jämtland flora with new species. "Just because it grows mostly pine, spruce and birch, this does not mean that it is impossible to grow anything here ", told Eric. They thought I was the nerdy best and certainly most fearless customer they had ever had: "Absolutely incredible that you can say without hesitation that you have planted Chinese chestnut in your forest garden" was a comment I received. After a few hours of conversation with these enthusiasts, I wondered, however, who was nördigast really, for example, Håkan had tried to establish truffle fungus of hazel bushes in Jämtland and actually managed to do it, although he has not yet been able to harvest some fruit buds (the part that is sold as expensive).

What I took away from the visit was not only the long-awaited American chestnuts (No. 29 and 30 in Sweden, according to Eric) but also so unusual trees Malus mandshurica, magnificent mountain ash (Sorbus decora), in hjärtnöt (Juglans ailanthfolia var. cordiformis) from Remingstorps arboretum in Singapore (odlingszon 3/4) and a Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis) I have been hunting for a very long time. I also got myself a Manchurian hazel bush (Corylus sieboldiana was. mandshurica) originally from Krasnoyarsk in Siberia and that could be a good pollination variety for all the other hasslarna in Putt Myra forest garden. Furthermore I bought a so-called Indal hazel grows naturally as far up as Angermanland. It puts fruit two weeks earlier than hasslarna grown in the rest of Sweden and should, therefore, be a good fit with us, even if the fruits are not likely to be as large.

Had I had more space I had bought me an exciting kind of wine (a cross between Vitis amurensis and In. vinifera), in vitek (Quercus alba), a super-hardy pear relative from East Asia (Pyrus ussurensis) and Butternut (Juglans cinerea) from extra-hardy Swedish basic material. It may simply be a new visit by summer!