Heritage plants in historic gardens - case Jokioinen Manor Park, Finland

Summary

Owners of the manors have multiplied the biodiversity of horticultural plants in
Finland by importing the seeds and seedlings abroad to their gardens over the
last three hundred years. For many reasons in manor gardens are only some of
these heritage plants left, like roses, perennials and ornamentals shrubs. We have
developed a method for gathering knowledge of original plants in historic gardens
and for rediscovering and repatriating them as heritage plants back to the
gardens. This method includes an inventory of the existing cultural flora, search
for the lost vegetation (so called run-a-away-plants) and gathering the cultural
knowledge of the plants. In our case study we rediscovered several original plant
strains originating from Jokioinen manor in Southern Finland. In this paper we will
also demonstrate some ideas on how to bring out the cultural history of plants to
visitors in historical gardens.