Schloß Ippenburg 2020
On 11th June at 11. a.m. the gardens will be opened for the first time in 2020. In order to comply with all safety measures, the open gardens will take place four days in a row. Subsequently the gardens will be open every Sunday. (in the summer?)
Now in Corona times, when big gatherings are strictly forbidden, the Ippenburg gardens have become a welcome focal point.
On 11th June Schloss Ippenburg is opening the gardens
Corona – a long period of speculation!
Originally the memorable Ippenburg Summer Garden Festival was due to take place from 11-14 June. For the time being it has had to be postponed until June 2021.
We have to wait and see what will happen with the Brocante Festival in the autumn.
Schloss Ippenburg stands firmly in place – no ifs or buts. It has been standing securely there, a stronghold in the marshy lands of the North German Plain. The castle and the gardens are more than a short-lived event – even if they are celebrated as ‘the Mother of the Garden Festivals’, giving the impetus nearly 25 years ago for the beginning of the garden festival movement. A completely new flair took hold of Germany’s Gardens and Parks. ‘Gardening is the new sex’ echoed across international borders. Pictures of ladies sporting big summer hats and men in stetsons held sway.
In a few short years this new festival addiction, almost a pandemic, had caught hold of the whole of Germany, up to that moment when a real pandemia brought it all to a standstill.
What remains?
The garden. In Germany 36.50 million people have a garden. 67% of all households have a balcony or terrace, 48% have a garden at their house, 7% have access to a garden and another 7% own an allotment.Germans spend 5 hours and 30 minutes a week in the garden. In comparable countries it is only 4 hours and 12 minutes. ( FAS, 01.05.2020 P. 29)
Schloss Ippenburg and its gardens – it is a story of passion. A passion for gardens and plants, for trends and tradition, for the historical and contemporary, for nature, art, and cuisine, for everything that grows, flowers and lives!
The festivals that started here and took Germany by storm, were never an end in themselves – they were always there to maintain the gardens and make them lovelier, more exciting and more splendid.
On 11th June at 11a.m. the gardens will open for the first time in 2020
In order to comply with all safety measures the first open gardens will take place on four days in a row. Following this the gardens will open every Sunday.
One of the main attractions is the exhibition ‘Outside Wonder Rooms’ in the Ippenburg Wilderness. An installation full of curiosities from nature and art, a happy and exciting journey for children and adults alike.
A further highlight is the kitchen garden with the newly made physic garden, the ‘hands on’ and citrus fruits garden, the thousands of summer flowers, the slow flower beds and the abundance of herbs and vegetables from artichokes to zinnias.
The cabinet of the hedge labyrinth which has been home to the Ippenburg Wilderness since 2017, contains not only the wonder rooms but also a veritable insect resort with many little insect hotels and a big old brick bee wall. The rosarium opposite is full of the bright colours of summer.
There are many new details to discover. Winding paths lead through woody groves and wilderness, dead straight axes extend the view. Everywhere your inquisitive spirits are uplifted by the clear geometry and the luscious, sometimes untamed, growth. The diversity in the kitchen gardens is unique. Raised beds for Asian, Italian or traditional vegetables, containers and pots in many variations and earthy mounds where courgettes, New Zealand spinach, butternut and Hokkaido pumpkins trail. Vigorous potato plants, onions and carrots stand in straight rows, and the spaces between the espalier apples and elegant copper beech hedges and the greenhouses are bursting with gherkins, tomatoes and the Ippenburg nursery with countless young plants, which are also on offer in the Ippenburg garden shop.
It is a garden full of life, where love, dedication and passion are the name of the game. For the florist creating her enchanting bouquets, for the chef who succeeds in transforming nature into a fine art – an edible art – and for the visitor whose heart rejoices over the diversity and abundance.
Joy is an expression of happiness. It is said that over Epicurus’s garden stood the words, ‘ Here is where happiness resides’. The same could be said for the Ippenburg garden, especially the kitchen garden and at the entrance to the Wilderness. They are places of happiness, especially for me and my team. I am happy to be part of this wonderful team. And I am very happy that we will be able to open the gardens for you again from 11th June.
‘Enter stranger! A friendly host is waiting for you with bread and water without end, for here your desires will not be roused but stilled.’ This is how Epicurus welcomed guests to his garden. At the opening of the Ippenburg garden a welcome awaits you, not with bread and water, but coffee and cake, waffles with strawberries and ice-cream, and savoury baguettes.
First garden opening from 11-14 June 2020
and on all the following Sundays till 3-4 Oktober
Opening times: daily from 11.00 to 18.00
Admission adults: 10€ – children and teenies free
