Today I want to share an experience I had while in Germany in March. I went to Paris and Berlin. While in Berlin, my friend, Lava, drove us to a Kandinsky exhibition in the Barberini Museum near Berlin in Potsdam, Germany. It was fantastic. Never seen so many Kandinsky in one museum.

I’ve been dying to see some green-not evergreen green but spring green as spring has been so harsh here in Santa Fe with the horrid winds. Both in Paris and Berlin spring was barely starting-not much green yet. After the Kandinsky exhibition, Lava drove to a garden in Potsdam that she thought I’d like.

It was the green I was craving. It was a small informal garden vs the very formal gardens seen elsewhere in Paris and Germany. It was arranged so beautifully!  It was a highlight while in Germany. I took a lot of photos while in the garden with it’s meandering paths.

While home and organizing my photos, I called my friend and asked if she knew the name of the garden. She said, Karl Foerster garden-I never knew that while there. She didn’t really know who he was but I did.

The garden is over 100 years old and his house, nurseries and greenhouses and a beautiful rustic birdhouse for doves on the property exist there.

So who is Karl Foerster? He is one of Germany’s most famous botanists. He was a German gardener, nurseryman, garden writer, and garden philosopher. He bred over 350 new plant specimens including some delphiniums, phloxes, and Karl Foerster reed grass that many of us in the states have in our perennial gardens.

The story of Karl Foerster grass
‘As the story goes, Karl was on a train when he saw the grass along the tracks. To seize the chance to collect the specimen, Karl pulled the emergency brake, stopped the train, and then quickly collected the specimen that now bears his name’-courtesy of https://thedailygardener.org

My guess was he was the train operator to be able to do that. While many gardeners have heard of Karl Foerster Grass or Feather Reed Grass, I didn’t know the story, or where he was from or really anything about him except that he was one of the most famous botanists in Germany and had a grass named after him.

“Grasses are the hair of mother earth.” I love this quote from him!

Karl kept his Jewish friends employed all through World War II war. After the war East Germany became under the control of the Soviets. Karl was allowed to have his gardens and nurseries.

Karl Foerster grass was the Perennial Plant of the Year in 2001. Karl’s plant performance expectations and appreciation for low-maintenance spaces with year-long seasonal interest helped shape the New German Garden garden design style. Karl Foerster garden had signature plants: grasses, delphinium, and phlox. https://thedailygardener.org

Foerster’s philosophy of planting is current today as we try to create gardens that are friendly to wildlife and the environment.

He bred hundreds of new perennial plants-over 350! What interested me was his influence of making his gardens with year-long interest for every season, hence his garden was already in spring and i got to see it. I hear it is glorious in the summer and fall but it was already beautiful to me in the beginning of spring.

Here are some photos I took while there.

“In my next life, I’d like to be a gardener once again.
The job was too big for just one lifetime.”

Karl Foerster