Fragments from the history of the Museum Garden

The Museum Garden 125 years in 2023

The Museum Garden was intended as a living extension of the indoor exhibitions in Bergen Museum and on the 4th of May 1898, the museum's board opened the garden to the public. In 2023, we celebrated 125 years of botanical dissemination in Bergen.

The museum's first botanist Jørgen Brunchorst wanted to show domestic species and an exhibit of the systematic groups of plants. The original plan for the garden has not been found, but a map from the museum's 75th anniversary book (1900) shows how the garden was laid out with curved paths. Very few of these remain today, only in "Gamlehagen" (the old garden). The Museum Garden was listed as protected in 2013.

Photo:

Universitetsmuseet i Bergen

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The rock garden is found in the garden's most favorable spot. Heat-loving plants and those that tolerate little frost thrive here. A collection of different camellias, a number of winter-flowering low shrubs are found here, as well as perennials such as wreath nasturtium, from the Andes. It flowers in Muséhagen since 1930. The rock garden was completed in 1927 and before that, there was an artificial tumulus (burial mound) here.

Photo:

Siri S Jansen and UiB

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The greenhouse consists of three sections: A ten meter high palm house in the middle, with two side wings, one tropical and one cooler. Originally, the house was a gift from Conrad Mohr, a merchant, and it came from Germany as a building kit. It was officially opened in 1901. The area by the museum's south wing was originally a marshy area or a pond. This was filled when the garden was being constructed. Initially, the area consisted of a lawn and rounded flower beds and a menhir (standing stone). Later, the bust of Armauer Hansen was moved here.

Photo:

UiB

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Prof. Nordhagen wanted to grow water plants and had a rectilinear water garden built. It has three ponds and was inaugurated in 1931. The water garden area is the garden's main area for cultivars.

Photo:

UiB

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One of the oldest and among the most interesting of the garden's trees is the japanese angelic tree, which was planted in 1898 by Brunchorst. It stands by the fence along Olaf Rye's vei and flowers in late September, for the first time in 1901, with large inflorescences that are very popular with bees and other insects. It has long root shoots with large thorns and has been known as "the devil's walking stick".

Photo:

Per Harald Salvesen, UiB

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Victoria is the world's largest water lily. The species that we grow is from Paraguay. The heated Victoria pond was built in the 1960s. Every year, the pond was covered in winter, until we received a gift in 2019 that made it possible to build a glasshouse over the pond. The Victoria house also contains some other tropical aquatic plants. The water temperature inside is a constant 28°C.

Photo:

Torsten Eriksson, UiB

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23.08.2024