“The goal was to find clear and vibrant shades of red that don’t cross over to the orange spectrum,” says Ane Guldahl, who is Section Manager in the Estate Department’s Landscape Services.
Playing with species and colours
The selection of flowers includes the dinnerplate dahlia Dahlia 'Babylon Red,' the amaranth Amaranthus cruentus 'Velvet Curtains,' the upright Lobelia speciosa 'Fan Scarlet,' and the dark-leaved, single-flowered dahlia Dahlia 'Mystic Illusion.' The red is combined with white, lime, and green.
Landscape Services has experimented with species that have similar shapes but different colours. For example, the red amaranth has a lime green relative, the Amaranthus caudatus 'Viridis’. They have also used white, lime green and red ornamental tobacco: Nicotiana sanderae 'Perfume Lime' and 'Perfume White,' and Nicotiana hybrida 'Tinkerbelle.' The white spider flower Cleome spinosa plays an important role in adding variation in flower shapes, and Juncus effusus, a type of rush, helps break up the structure.
While the flower beds at Frederikkeplassen and Universitetsplassen are a wild combination of this year’s varieties, the bed outside Georg Sverdrups hus is dominated by white and green, broken up by the towering Nicotiana ‘Tinkerbelle’ with its elegant red and lime green bell-shaped flowers.
See glimpses from the flower beds in the photo gallery below: Hover your cursor over the image and use the arrow to scroll through.
Station for insects and small birds
It is always a goal for such rich floral displays to be a station for insects – bees, bumblebees, hoverflies, ladybugs, butterflies and many more – as well as small birds. For insects, open flowers where they can collect nectar are important. The open dahlia ‘Mystic Illusion’ is perhaps the most valued flower by insects. The taller, more robust plants are often visited by small birds that eat seeds and hide or play among leaves and stems.