Recreating your paradises: Ornö - Chelsea

One of the most captivating views of my vacation was this field of barley, grown as fodder for the sheep of the beautiful island of Ornö near Stockholm. Like sparkling sapphires emerging from a feathery sea, bright cornflowers filled the stony soil between soft mounds of bedrock, blissfully oblivious to the fact that weed-free, roundup-ready seed for barley has ever been invented... The golden greens and radiant blues were stunning in their simplicity, shimmering against a background of leaden greys and greens provided by the surrounding cliffs and forests.

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While contemplating how hard the elysian look of natural meadows is to recreate, I suddenly remembered  a picture that I snapped at the Chelsea Flower Show back in 2007. Somehow this tiny, highly-groomed show garden planted with Mexican feather grass and hot orange Potentillas managed to deliver an impression that resonated with the ancient agrarian fields of Ornö, despite their being each others complete opposites in purpose and execution, and even contrasting in colours. 

At their best, meadows are like grassy seas interlaced with flowers, large enough to be waded through to get that special feeling of paradise-like freedom that I think is so typical for them. Usually, to achieve their  natural, wild beauty, a fair amount of space and land is required. But sometimes, as the picture from Chelsea shows, miniature meadows can work like gem-like icons, conveying in a condensed form all the qualities of a larger meadow. 

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I'll keep this pair of pictures in my mind; I find them completely fascinating. And maybe, a mini-Ornö will appear somewhere in my garden one day. You never know.

Special greetings to my dear friend Yvonne, with whom I've wandered through both show gardens in Chelsea and barley fields at Ornö...