If it’s Monday this must be Austria…

Just a quick post from on the road.  My family and I have been traveling through Europe the past week and a half.  A bit of a whorl-wind trip combining some vacation and work travel.  We started off a week and half ago, flying into Frankfurt.  We rented a car and drove to Paris where we spent a couple of days sightseeing. Then it was off to southern France to visit friends that run a bed and breakfast there.  This weekend we drove from France to lower Austria where I am attending our biennial International Christmas tree Research and Extension conference.  I’ll have a few bits to report from the meeting later but for now I’ll just close with a few random acts of Horticulture from France.


Trees shaped like boxes…


Trees in boxes…


Horsechestnuts.  Europe is big on horsechestnuts.  Unfortunately most of them are scorched to a crisp and look like crap.


Pollarding.  Europe is big on pollarding.  Occasionally it’s done well and creates some neat effects.  More often, like here, it’s done poorly and just makes a mess.


A green wall.  Green roofs and green walls can help to reduce urban heat island effect.  This green wall is mainly for show, I think.  It’s made up of ferns and other mesic plants and requires constant mist irrigation.  Not exactly a sustainable system, but it is dramatic and certainly commands attention.

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One thought on “If it’s Monday this must be Austria…”

  1. Not surprised that the horse chestnuts look so bad. Look how densely they’re planted, and how little root space there is! Talk about drought stress!

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