Blooming diversity

The Parkhotel Brenscino in Ticino is located near the Italian border in Brissago, in an idyllic location with a magnificent view over Lake Maggiore. Garden included. Whereas park is the more appropriate term for the green area. It measures 38,000 square meters. Or to put it another way: over five soccer fields. Martin Russenberger is the master of this blooming miniature universe. For more than 35 years, he has tended and designed his area with great attention to detail and a flair for subtropical plants. In the process, he himself is always discovering new things that surprise him.

Anyone who talks about rarities must also think in terms of diversity. The Kartause Ittingen north of Frauenfeld in the canton of Thurgau is emblematic of this. The time-honored walls of the monastery building are lined with a garden that is just as steeped in history and whose operators have been dedicated to rose cultivation since the Middle Ages. The rich wealth of experience has resulted in the largest collection of historic rose varieties in Switzerland to date.

Devotion to plants. Looking at them in all their complexity and diversity. This is also what Matthias Thalmann does, who has been taking care of the park of Schloss Wartegg near Rorschacherberg in the immediate vicinity of Lake Constance for more than two decades. Around the magnificent property, he grows exclusively organic crops. In many cases, he even goes one step further and follows the Demeter philosophy. The world's oldest organic label is fully committed to so-called biodynamic agriculture.

This plant has even made it onto the five-franc coin. It is a symbol of Switzerland and is characteristic of the mountains that characterize the country. The edelweiss has an unmistakable, symbolic value and, on top of that, is beautiful to look at. Small detail: There is not only one Edelweiss. In our latitudes we commonly know the alpine edelweiss. The original comes from the Himalayas. The whole variety of this impressive flower can be found in the botanical garden of the Hotel Schatzalp in Davos.