Gigantic entwined trees and exotic rarities

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Wood Anemone
Wood Anemone
(Photographer: L. Koch)

"The paths are bordered by all kinds of trees and plants with highly varied flowers, among which are 600 exotic trees and bushes from North America."
(Travel report by Crown Prince Friedrich Karl von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt in May 1775. He visited the Bendeleben park about 10 years after its completion.)

Karten-Bodentafeln-2

  1. Douglas fir* (Pseudotsuga menziesii)
  2. European crab apple (Malus sylvestris)
  3. Copper beech (Fagus sylvatica f. purpurea)
  4. Common oak (Quercus robur)
  5. Bald cypress* (Taxodium distichum)
  6. Common alder (Alnus glutinosa)
  7. European bladdernut (Staphylea pinnata)
  8. Big-leaf linden (Tilia platyphyllos)
  9. Little-leaf linden (Tilia cordata)
  10. Eastern white pine* (Pinus strobus)
  11. Wild service tree (Sorbus torminalis)
  12. Ponderosa pine* (Pinus ponderosa)
  13. Weeping willow (Salix babylonica)
  14. London planetree (Platanus × acerifolia)
  15. European larch (Larix decidua)
  16. European ash (Fraxinus excelsior)
  17. European beech (Fagus sylvatica)

* The tree species marked with an asterisk come from North America. They were great rarities when the palace park was created.

 

Trees from North America maintained to the present day

The park's rich variety of then very rare plants from North America are proof of the excitement over rarities from the "new world". Some of the trees, such as the Ponderosa pine or the bald cypress, are still standing. When you walk through the park, note the variations in the leaves and shapes of the trees.

Gärtnerbild von der 250-Jahr-Feier (Fotograf: W. Slodczyk)
Garden shot from the 250-year celebration
(Photographer: W. Slodczyk)

 

Gardeners from Kassel at work?

The rose called
The rose called "Perle von Weißenstein" is the first rose yielded from controlled breeding in Germany. It was bred by gardener Daniel Schwarzkopf at Weißenstein castle (today: Wilhelmshöhe) around 1773
(Photographer: W. Neumerkel)

Hilda von Deichmann (1848-1932), the widow of Hugo von Krause, noted in 1926 that the selection of plants in the Bendeleben Park was similar to that of the Wilhelmshöhe park near Kassel. One suspects, she wrote, that the same landscape gardener was at work in both places. Unfortunately, there is no evidence that the gardener Daniel August Schwarzkopf (1737-1817), who stayed in London at the same time as Johann Jacob von Uckermann (1718-1781) and went to Kassel in 1766, was employed in Bendeleben.

Larch spur (Photographer: L. Koch)
Lärchensporn
(Fotograf: L. Koch)

The history of Bendeleben Palace Park

  • 1765 - Johann Jacob von Uckermann had the park put in next to his estate.
  • 1860 - Wilhelm von Krause, owner of the estate since 1849, had the new palace built.
  • about 1920 - Wilhelm Hugo Ernst von Krause built a bathhouse, riding arena and tennis court.
  • about 1930 - Alexandra von Arnim (adopted daughter of von Krause) established a seed breeding business.
  • 1945 - The government expropriated the von Krause family from palace, park and seed breeding business
  • 1960 -The old rows of linden trees were felled. A pond was put in at the front of the palace.
  • since 1990 - The von Arnim family returned to the estate. The new palace is a nursing home. The park remains public property.
  • 2015 - The 250th anniversary of the palace park was celebrated in baroque style in Bendeleben.

Baroness Johanne Christiane von Uckermann was particularly fond of intertwined multi-trunk trees. To get this effect, she had several individual trees planted very close to each other.
Baroness Johanne Christiane von Uckermann was particularly fond of intertwined multi-trunk trees. To get this effect, she had several individual trees planted very close to each other.
(Photographer: L. Koch).