Cemetery plants

[arillady]

I am interested to see plants in cemeteries around the world - anyone have photos??

[TheOnionMan]

Hello Pat,  

A fairly broad topic; are there specific aspects of this topic that you are focusing on?  In the USA at least, I will defer to Mt. Auburn Cemetery, one of the first large scale cemetaries in the USA to become not only a cemetery but a rich arboretum rivalling many in the country, in this case, with connections and proximity to Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
http://www.mountauburn.org/

While focusing on rare and unusual trees and shrubs, there are also perennials, groundcovers, annuals, and bulb plantings as well.  My workplace of some 20+ years until I recently became laid-off, was within a couple miles of this wondrous place, but I still venture back to revisit the extraordinary mature specimens found there.  The grounds also serve as a laboratory pushing the understanding of hardiness in our USDA Zone 5 climate, with lots of surprises.

[arillady]

Thanks Mark.
I started looking in cemeteries for old roses originally but in Australia you find lots of old daffodils, irises, scillas, watsonias, gladiolus, Madonna lilies, etc and a few old trees - those that have not been removed.
In France in 2002 I visited many cemeteries with Nigel Service to find old roses and old irises - plus I visited Pere Lachaise, Toulouse, Pithiviers,Glasnevin (not all as it was a drizzly early evening and I was not comfortable wandering on my own and I did wonder if the hugest chain was used at night on the gate - didn't think I would be able to scale the 15' plus stone walls or the spiked fence), Brookwood (London) cemeteries.
And the cemeteries in the USA: Sacramento Pioneer, Salem, Portland (Lone Fir), San Juan Bautista, Easton Cemetery, a couple of New Orleans cemeteries (before it was inundated). Plus some of the Gold Country cemeteries and Texas cemeteries. 
There is often remnant native vegetation if it is not a scorched earth policy as in some.
Scilla peruviana can certainly take over in time in some cemeteries here in Australia as do some of the gallica roses on their own roots.
I have a photo somewhere of a cemetery with blue irises in India.
I found the Sangerhausen Friedhof fascinating as there were plenty of plants which would be killed off once the snow came.
So after that long ramble I am interested in mainly the older varieties of bulbs, etc. Trees have been overlooked or should I say underlooked sorry to say.

[Ed Alverson]

Rochester Cemetery, in Cedar County, Iowa, is one of the botanical wonders of the world.  Most of Iowa was prairie or savanna when the first white settlers arrived in the early 1800's, but nearly all of it has been converted to agriculture and people these days think of Iowa as nothing but miles of corn (maize) and soybean fields.  Rochester is a pioneer cemetery that has never been plowed, and as a result it hosts an amazing diversity of prairie and savanna wildflowers.  Though only 14 acres in size, and disturbed in places because it is an actively used cemetery, it is home to nearly 300 native plant species.  It is particularly known for its display of Dodecatheon in early May.  I visited lat year in late May, when the Dodecatheon was past its peak but many other flowers were coming on.  There is a continuous succession of native wildflowers blooming from spring till fall.

[Ed Alverson]

Here are some of the wildflowers that were blooming during my visit last May:

Dodecatheon meadia
Aquliegia canadensis
Geranium maculatum
Phlox and Osmorhiza

I should note that on this sunny spring day, the cemetery smelled like a mountain meadow, with all of the different wildflowers in abundant bloom, unlike most of the rest of Iowa, which smells like agricultural chemicals and livestock.

By the way, Rochester Cemetery is located just off Interstate 80 so it is easily accessible to anyone driving west from Chicago toward Des Moines.

Ed

[ashley]

Those are magnificent Ed.  Thank you for bringing us there.

[Ed Alverson]

Along the same theme, here is a set of photos from a local historic cemetery, Eugene's Masonic Cemetery, which is managed in part for its native wildflowers (see http://www.eugenemasoniccemetery.org/mowing.html).  It is  located within an older neighborhood in Eugene, and is the final resting place for may prominent early citizens of Eugene.  The cemetery supports about 100 species of native plants.  One part of the cemetery has a small camas prairie, and elsewhere there are a variety of savanna and woodland plants, including:

Camassia quamash
Saxifraga oregana
Tellima grandiflora with Trillium albidum
Thalictrum occidentale
Erythronium oregonum
Fritillaria affinis

Ed

[arillady]

Ed what a wonderful set of photos. I did visit Eugene Masonic on my 2002 trip with Mirra Myer. I do have Part 2 of 2 Eugene Masonic Cemetery Landscape Management Plan which details the different areas of the cemetery and how each are managed. So wonderful to see that all the native plants have been kept at the same time that burials are made so that they are not too intrusive on the landscape.
So different to most cemeteries that you come across.
Rochester Cemetery seems like another wild cemetery - these are the ones I really like.

[Ragged Robin]

Wonderful photos evoking an atmosphere of peace and tranquility, my idea of heaven - thanks Ed

Some of the English graveyards left to go wild are wonderful too, Pat, and the old trees give a sense of timelessness.

[TheOnionMan]

ED, both examples are fascinating, but I particularly like the camas prairie  Do either of these institutions promote the native flora with tours or outdoor classroom events?  Both seem rich in species count and present themselves as unique educational opportunities.  

Back to the example I cited, Mt. Auburn Cemetery, since it is really a green oasis among an urban setting, there is not much in the way of representing native flora except those that have been planted (which is extensive), almost all trees and shrubs are labeled (usually with the year of planting to get an idea of the age of plants viewed), and it is an excellent classroom experience for landscape architects, garden designers, and gardeners in general, to see what mature trees and shrubs look like, many well over 100 years old.  Some of the examples are amusing, such as in the first two images I show of Taxus cuspidata 'Nana', widely planted in New England.  Having been planted in 1939, it's not so "Nana" anymore.

The firm I worked for the past 20 years, until recently laid off, was a couple miles away, and the head Landscape Architect would periodically schedule visits to the cemetery with groups of young Landscape Architects to learn plant materials, see what mature tree branching looked like, the intricacies of tree bark on different specues, winter buds identification, etc.  I always tagged along as the only non-Landscape Architect in the group.  Third is a stock photo of a tower at the top of a hill, which can be climbed to get a 360 degree panoramic view of Bostom, Cambridge, and suburbs.  The last photo, at the top of the tower, is one of the Landscape Architecture tour groups (I'm the one with black shirt and bluejeans).

[cohan]

interesting stuff--especially those 'wild' cemetaries ed showed! i don't think there is anything similar around here--mind you the cemeteries i have seen locally are very tiny things, probably an acre or so--a few nice old trees, but the ground is just all mowed..
luckily alberta was never as fully plowed as you mention iowa being (probably in certain areas here) so there is a lot of wild land in my area--how many tracts have been left untouched (vs having possibly been cleared and regrown) for that long a time is another question...

[arillady]

I would love to do a cemetery ramble of English Cemeteries. I have heard that some have been left to go wild but don't know which except for the Brookwood Cemetery which is wild in parts but they have problems with wild deer and rabbits eating most plants - so you see graves with plants being protected by chicken wire fences.
A few photos from Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney - Australia's best for old plants and a few natives.

[Stephenb]

Fantastic pictures all, particularly the Camassia meadows and nice to see the Osmorhiza too in a wild setting.

Let me take you to a cemetery north of the Arctic circle. I travelled last June to the Lofoten Islands on a personal onion safari to find naturalized Allium victorialis. Rumour had it that all cemeteries on the island Vestvågøy had good populations, so I did a tour of the local graveyards . The first one was the Rise Kirkegård (the google map marks the place). As promised, there certainly was a good population of this Allium growing scattered between the graves, but mainly around trees and other unmowed areas. I found another Allium too which had been planted (Mark: could you float down here and suggest an identity?)

(Aside: the Norwegian word Kirkegård as the Scots here will have no problem with means literally Church Garden (or yard))

[cycnich]

Hello Pat
             Thought this might interest you. These are two old churchyards Wilmington and Folkington nestling in the south downs in Southern England about two miles apart and a pleasant dog walk between the two. Both are filled with snowdrops this time of year and the second one Wilmington has a very old Yew tree which is now supported by timber and the two main trunks are chained together.
 

[Armin]

Pat N.,
the Yew tree is amazing! Any idea how estimated old it is?