The World’s Northernmost Botanical Garden

To the north-east on Tromsøya, framed by lush birch woodland and sheltered from the city’s noise, lies Tromsø Arctic-Alpine Botanical Garden.

Here there are plants from all corners of the world spread across 27 collections, says general manager Jarle W. Bjerke.

For example, visitors can get acquainted with the saxifrage, gentian and primula families, or wander through the collections of plants from the Arctic, Himalayan and South American regions.

“We also have a small Africa collection with plants from the Atlas Mountains and the South African mountain ranges. So, we have covered all the mountainous areas in the world,” says Bjerke and continues:

“Here we even have plants from Antarctica. There are only two species that grow there. One is a grass plant, and the other is a tiny herb.”

The traditional garden

From the wider world to more familiar surroundings: the botanical garden also offers the collection Northern Norwegian Traditional Garden.

“This is a collection of plants from private gardens across Northern Norway. Just as one travels around the region and collect cultural historical objects to present them in museums, this is a natural history collection with living plants,” says Bjerke.

Small signs say where the plants come from, such as Tana in Finnmark county and Steigen in Nordland county.

“Here we have, among other things, primulas and auriculas. Some of these species are still in people’s gardens today, while others have become rare. In many ways, this collection shows what a Northern Norwegian garden was like around 50 years ago,” he points out.

The traditional garden transitions into a collection of useful plants. It offers plants such as field mint for lamb dishes and rose root, known as ‘the ginseng of the North’ with a strengthening effect on the whole body.

Great interest

As we continue walking along paths and up stone steps, new visitors arrive.

The buzzing of bumblebees is accompanied by small talk in Norwegian, English, French and German.

"A great many tourists and other guests come here. Last year, we had a total of 68 000 visitors. The gowth has been strong in just a few years. By comparison, we had 58 000 visitors around four years ago," says the general manager and continues:

"The increase is largely due to the fact that more and more foreign tourists are finding their way here. We see a clear Instagram effect. At the same time, we are also experiencing that more Norwegians are coming by, and that people's interest in gardening has increased. Many garden enthusiasts, both new and experienced, come here for inspiration."

Receives acclaim for the landscape

Tromsø Arctic-Alpine Botanical Garden has also been put on the map by international media.

In 2022, it was named the world’s fourth most beautiful botanical garden by Argentina’s largest newspaper, La Nacion, and in 2016 it made The Guardian’s top ten list of the world’s finest gardens.

The international attention is linked in particular to the garden’s distinctive stone landscape, created with natural, large boulders covered with lichen and moss.

“We get just as much praise for the landscape itself as we do for the planting,” smiles Bjerke.

“The first sketches for the garden were based on a typical central European classical garden landscape with squares and rectangles. Such landscapes stem from the principle that one should tame nature. We moved away from these sketches because we do not want to tame nature, but rather to showcase it.”

“Our aim became to imitate the stone landscape in nature – the kind you can see in the mountains around Tromsø. In this landscape, the plants thrive especially well, and vistors get to experience something completely different than in the traditional gardens in Europe and other parts of the world. This has contributed to the fact that there is hardly an international garden book published that does not mention us.”

Conservation gardening in the north

The botanical garden also stands out as the world’s northernmost, at 69 degrees north.

“We are the only botanical garden north of the Arctic Circle. Just south of it, in Iceland, there are two botanical gardens. Soon we will have company in the north from a large botanical garden in Boden in Northern Sweden, which is under development. We have supported it with a letter of support and hope that it receives good funding," says Bjerke.

“In the botanical garden community, we are not competitors. We work closely together and exchange material so that rare plants can be preserved in several places."

Botanical gardens are not just ornamental; they play an important role in preserving biodiversity, he emphasises.

“Many plants are threatened because the tree line is moving upwards as a result of climate change and due to land use changes. Here, we cultivate threatened plants for conservation from, among other places, Northern Norway and the Himalayas. If a plant dies out in its natural habitat, we can propagate it from seed and have the opportunity to reintroduce it into nature.”

Coveted peonies

We continue to wander through the garden, which measures 200 by 200 metres.

Bjerke shows off the poppy collection with purple, blue, and red eye-catchers from the Himalayan mountains.

The next stop is the peony collection. There, yellow, pink, and reddish hues dominate among plants brought from places like China, Tibet, and southern Italy.

“The peony collection is among our newest and most popular collections. For garden connoisseurs, peonies are one of the most beautiful things you can have,” Bjerke points out, before offering a little history:

“When peonies were discovered by Europeans in China and brought to Europe, the price could be equal a whole year's wages for an ordinary worker, and only the wealthiest could afford such plants. Now peonies have become more commercialized and more people can indulge in them. However, we have several varieties that are not on the market, and here you can enjoy the sight of them without paying a cent.”

Early flowering, but more to come

While most of the plants in the garden are blooming at full strength, there are also some that have finished flowering.

With this year's unusually warm spring, Bjerke and his colleagues saw flowering three to four weeks earlier than normal.

“We have had incredibly beautiful flowering for well over a month. The downside is that there may be a little less flowering in the autumn. At the same time, there are always some plants that bloom later and others that have long flowering periods. So I'm not too worried that there will be little to show when we get to mid-August,” he says.

Fears cloudbursts and mild winters

With regard to climate change, more cloudbursts and mild winters are a greater threat to the plants than warm spring and summer seasons, Bjerke says.

- Heavy rain can knock the plants over, and the flowers can lose their petals. And mild winters bring ice cover that no plants like. In 2009–2010, we had a dreadful winter with a lot of ice, and many plants died then. Since that time, we have taken preventive measures, but if another mild winter comes, quite a few plants will probably still be lost.

However, the clouds on the horizon do not dampen the spirits in these blooming surroundings, where there is also plenty to do.

We meet the garden's summer staff, including permanent employees and students from France, Austria and Sweden who have filled several wheelbarrows with weeds.

“They have done a good job here. At the same time, there is a lot of work ahead. We do not use chemicals to eradicate weeds, and by the time we have done one full round of weeding through the entire garden, so much has grown that we have to start all over again, says Bjerke, smiling with energy and determination.