in my last picture post i promised to get more recent & upload the first images from my trip to america, but turns out that my assembling will take a little while longer, i have to put things into order more & still edit quite a few images, so yeah, i'll postpone that particular adventure for a bit. but these pictures from a 2020 may excursion to geisenheim were already finished & were waiting to get uploaded, so here goes!
geisenheim is a small town in the rheingau region between wiesbaden & rüdesheim, & known for all the good things that make this region special, mainly wine of course. there even is a university of applied sciences situated here that is dedicated to enology ( & horticulture ). for garden & nature & architecture lovers geisenheim is quite a wonderful place to visit, it has beautiful hilly vineyards, access to the rhine river, a really cute medieval inner city & also boasts quite a few villas & castles. the place i decided to visit on this beautiful spring day was 'villa monrepos' - which i have visited before, though it was in early spring where not a lot had been in bloom, even though that is what makes the villa & its gardens extra special. since i wrote extensively about the villa back then ( you can read up on it if you click the link ), i will not dive into deep explanations this time and just rather let the pictures talk! the only thing i want to emphasize is that this gorgeous place was even more beautiful in late spring, so green & vivid & lush!
the entrance of the 1861 mansion.
just as i had thought back on the cold early spring day in 2019, the park was even more enticing & gorgeous in may one year later, with plants & trees sporting all kinds of wonderful fresh greens. the sun was out & it was very warm, perfect to linger around for a while & read a few pages in a book i brought with me ( i think it was tolstoy's anna karenina ).
there were still quite a lot of plants in bloom, as spring progresses their florescence gets more & more abundant. the kolkwitzie ( aka beauty bush ) is one of those special bushes that explode with sweet smelling blossoms. usually this bush is growing in china & it only got more popular after the 1930ies in germany. my uneducated guess is that this kolkwitzie bush was planted in the 1950ies under the reconstructions of gerd däumel.
loving the intricate patterns inside the blossom! you can also already see the fruit, it's the fluffy wooly balls behind the blossoms that will eventually turn into little spiky hedgehog fruit.
nice long curved bench at the end of a patio.
there's areas in the park that are not attended a lot by visitors, those were the most lush & green ones, actually!
a lot of overgrowth created a certain kind of labyrinth in these parts.
rose bush blossoms! these are some of the primal kind, those of the multiflora rose.
utterly gorgeously grown beech tree! don't you just wanna sit down underneath it & be sheltered by it for a little pick-nick or something?
i reckon this deep-set pit might both be usable as a seating & a fire pit.
super in love with this little double bench!
a peak of the villa & the little winter garden.
view of the whole patio, which overlooks a pergola & the park.
the pergola from above!
fire pit / seating detail.
walking down to the pergola.
you enter the rest of the park & the pergola through this little iron-wrought gate.
back on my march visit this pergola barely offered any screen from unwanted views, this time it felt like a secret little place hidden from prying eyes. here i sat down & enjoyed my book! the ugly graffiti above the bench was new, though, i wish people wouldn't do these tags all the time. at least create something original & artsy, please 😅
a different variety of the multiflora rose, maybe it could also very well be a dog rose?
it sure had a really nice colouration.
pergola wilderness 😍
now i really wanna revisit monrepos park again, maybe i could time it even that way that there was some snow on the ground, or autumn leaves shining bright in golden & red hues?
casting line shadows.
a view into the adjacent park, unfortunately i can't determine the yellow flower bush blooming here.it might be another rose kind, but it's hard to tell.
i really adored the way they designed the vegetation around the pergola. all kinds of roses were blooming amidst some sage-like plants!
nooks & crannies.
gorgeous red rose flowering!
i think this is a certain kind of sage, maybe a variation of salvia nemorosa?
it really looked awesome next to this full pink rose!
exploring more of the park after a while of reading!
garland spirea is always such a feast for the eyes & they smell heavenly! they mostly are used as decorative shrubs, but are known as a medicine plant by nature tribes.
wilting beauties - super pink weigela.
wandering around the villa's premises gives you plenty of different perspectives of the villa itself!
everywhere was such an abundance of greens, i was super smitten!
isn't this such a charming little spot? i felt catapulted into the land of fairies for sure! rhododendron bushes & wall bellflowers are certainly a good mix!
i know, i know, you must be sick of this view already, but i certainly ain't!
gorgeous sitting spot with hundreds of sunny pansies! ( look what was planted here a year before! )
approaching the pond patio, which was very naked & grey-looking the last time i visited it. this time it was surrounded by lush green bushes & trees 😍
i mean, would you look at this little paradise? sure, the pond water could be a little less brown-ish green, but what do you expect from stagnant waters?
the other side of the patio had marsh plants in the pond.
somehow, the golden sheen of the water makes me think it's not boggy but gold water 😅💛 ( look how cold the same pond landscape felt in march! )
loved that they planted these little patches with all kinds of flowers. the planting changes every year ( the year before they had white flowers. )
still in love with the tile patterns & all the different structures 😍
this diamond wall in various rose hues is such a treat, as is the concrete fence above!
in front of the concrete fence these gorgeous irises were blooming happily. they need close distance to water & are perfect for bog gardens ( which basically the pond patio is supposed to be ).
all the rich & saturated growth was simply turning this garden into an abode of beauty!
i call this fence the 'fence of targets' 😁 it reminds me of the targets you use when you are in a shooting gallery.
close-up of the diamond wall.
sweet pond vista.
chilling out on the mosaic tiles.
i just couldn't get enough of all the various patterns & textures paired with fresh greens.
these metal trellises accommodated a few ranking plants.
nearing the litte garden hut, which had been devoid of any greenery in 2019 march. this time the vines popped out all kinds of juicy baby leaves!
💚
those bright greens, i get all heart-eyed over these!
the duck pond also looked much friendlier this time around!
the honeycomb tiles are truly the bee's knees!
the floating staircase is such a nice detail and the trapeze handrails, too! another detail i can not tire off is the kidney wall. & let's not forget the golden chain trellises! i personally think that this garden shows so very well how versatile concrete can be & how fantastic it mixes with nature!
so many flowering bushes everywhere and daisies strewn all over the lawn.
i feel like they maybe could plant some desert plants underneath the staircase that don't need much water. imagine cacti or succulents maybe!
sigh, i LOVE golden chain! they are so decorative in spring 💛
'twas the time of the rhododendron blooms, generally always a splendid spring time!
all kinds of differently structured plants, creating an interesting contrast of patterns & compositions. ideally my favourite way to plant gardens, i LOVE variety!
greens & yellows.
underneath the trellises.
i feel they probably should have cut & bend the golden chain in a way that it might grow over the trellises, that would have been such a fantastic & magical thing to walk under!
they did so for this part of the garden, these are white blooming wisterias ( silky wisteria ).
close up of the golden chainssssss.
some did hang over the trellis!
a new part of the garden, another pond situation with a tiny foot bridge!
the white wisteria was in full bloom as well, & absolutely gorgeous. these pictures really don't do it justice at all.
dreamyyyyy 😍
the canal pond from a different perspective.
crossing the bridge over murky waters.
looking back at the trellises.
onward i moved, back to the villa.
... where i visited the two plant-bathing statues inside the winter garden.
playing peek-a-boo!
one of the most beautiful parts of the villa for sure. in former times, there even existed an observatory up on the roof, which was removed after it had been hit hard during the second world war.
these cute velvety balls are baby bitter oranges! back when i visited them a year prior they still were about to bloom, this time the oranges were growing. bitter oranges are wonderful fruit, they are used for all kinds of things, such as in marmelades, teas, perfumes, as candied orange peels & even in medicine.
i was very fascinated by their velvet-y exterior!
eventually i left the premises of the the villa & made a short walk into the direction of the university's buildings, passing by this villa, the former dwelling of the 'von lade' family ( whose offspring heinrich eduard built the villa monrepos ). it was built in 1838.
this building is the original germ cell of geisenheim's university - the former research institute for pomiculture & viniculture ( or the geisenheim grape breeding institute ). it was first opened in 1872 - by heinrich eduard von lade, a jack of all trades guy & initiator of many local projects. you can even make out his bust on the left. today the building houses the administration of the university.
the cute as a button blossoms of the elderberry bush. the elderberry bush carries my absolute favourite spring blossoms as they have such a distinct perfume - a very heavenly sweet citrus smell. you can even use the blossoms dried in tea or untreated in lemonade, & the taste is wonderfully refreshing! some describe it lychee-like, some like pear, i think it definitely has both taste properties!
i ended up at the central institute & laboratory of the university ( 2004 - 2008 by staab architekten )! the cladding on the left is attached to the listed building of the phytomedicine laboratory ( first built in 1907 - restored and renewed by schneider + schumacher from 2009 - 2012 ). in the back you can see some of the green houses that the university needs for research.
the old phytomedicine building being mirrored in the institute's glass windows.
i absolutely loved the nature stone clinker facade. especially because of the two colours! also, it mixed well with the metal frames of window openings.
i love a good mirror situation!
the shade system is another nice detail, incorporated neatly into the glass window facade.
this path leads to the original campus which is on the other side of a street & is linked through a bridge.
also part of the campus, a four-storey office & heating building. this one might belong to the 1980ies or such, it definitely was a bit older than the surrounding buildings.
it even looked a tad bit deserted.
not much else can be said about this building, after all it is some very usual normal rectangular module modern architecture fare you're looking at. only the materials used make it a little more interesting.
another modern cube in geisenheim - the new annex of st. ursula school ( 2017 - 2018, hamm architekten ) - a secondary school. you can also glimpse the school's chapel from 1964 on the left, which i want to check out in the future, as its brutalist exterior really gives my brain quite some flares!
it's always good to leave something unseen, as it makes the return ever so worthwhile again ;)
until next time, geisenheim!
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