On October 1st, 2016, the MENDELU Faculty of Horticulture, based in Lednice, made available to students and all horticultural experts its Theme Gardens – Labyrinth of Nature and Paradise of Gardens. The Theme Gardens are part of faculty campus in Lednice and present to the general public the results of research, experimental and artistic activities of the faculty’s departments.
Follow Theme Gardens page on Facebook: @TematickeZahrady
The gardens are designed as stand-alone functional, spatial, and compositional units. At the same time they presented a significant and highly demonstrative educational complex presenting topics related to horticulture, garden tradition and the environment. The Theme Gardens of the Faculty of Horticulture are a new functional and design complex within the historical Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape. The gardens continue to present the forms and the spirit of the cultural heritage and the creative traditions of garden art and landscape architecture. In the context of European education, tradition and culture of humanism these tendencies shaped garden as a phenomenon of human quality of life and a manifestation of our relation to nature, landscape and environment of home.
The authors of the Theme Gardens – Labyrinth of Nature and Paradise of Gardens project are prof. Ing. Jiří Damec, CSc. a doc. Dr. Ing. Dana Wilhelmová, together with Ing. Viktor Filipi, Ing. Eva Damcová a Ing. Jaroslav Novotný. The project was co-financed by the European Union – the European Regional Development Fund within the Operational Programme Environment.
The Theme Gardens – Labyrinth of Nature and Paradise of Gardens represent these 11 separate design units:
- The “Silver Garden” presents an assortment of perennials and (semi-) woody species of Mediterranean origin.
- The “English Flower Garden” is based on the basic principles of visual and ecological grouping of plants, typical for the classical flower garden period of the turn of 19th and 20th century.
- The „Peony, Iris, and Hibiscus Garden” is a presentation of three popular groups of garden plants attractive for their unique visual and symbolic qualities.
- The “Garden of Grasses” focuses on the presentation of a wide range of currently popular and worldwide fashionable plants – grasses that symbolise the form and spirit of the universal modern garden.
- The “Garden of Green Shades and Tones” is designed as an educational display of plantings for shaded and semi-shaded habitats.
- The “Utility Garden” is a multifunctional outdoor space combining both social and educational activities of the MENDELU Faculty of Horticulture.
- The central theme of the “Water Garden” is a pool with a wetland habitat where the visitors can walk on a wooden deck.
- The “Garden of Colours” is an exhibition of flower special beds of flowering plants with various displays of grouping and use in urban environment.
- The “Kitchen Garden” is based on classical patterns known from the history of garden art. There are typical elements of designed kitchen gardens, such as mixed vegetable beds, medicinal and aromatic plants, fruit tree espaliers, hot beds, and a even a small vineyard.
- An example of a timeless simplicity is the “White Garden” based on the elementary compositional principle of the white colour.
- The “Rose Garden” is an exhibition presenting new, modern, and resistant species of roses that are suitable for both private and public gardens. Climbing roses are presented on the central arbour structure, park roses and tall sturdy cultivars are planted in square beds.
