Helsinki’s Winter Garden is donning its Christmas celebration attire

Christmas settings will stay in the garden until Epiphany

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By Matti Huhta
     
      The decorations give the City of Helsinki’s Winter Garden a glow that creates a real Christmas atmosphere, both indoors and outdoors.
      The greenhouses north of Töölönlahti Bay bring light into the Finnish capital in the winter darkness, while inside the greenhouses the staff have created some spirit of Advent amid the various plants.
      ”Every year the greenhouses are decorated for Christmas. Visiting the garden is an annual tradition for a great many people”, said gardener Hilkka Pynnönen on Sunday, the first Sunday in Advent.
     
The traditional decorations of the Winter Garden include Christmas gnomes and real candles.
      Some cottage furniture will be placed near the hall, while Christmas straw-bales will be brought into the garden and spread out on the ground. The idea is to create something new every year to complement the traditional old decorations.
      ”Christmas plants will naturally all be there, including hyacinth, amaryllis, poinsettia, and the lily of the valley that should be in flower just before Christmas ”, notes Hilkka Pynnönen.
      Many of the basic plants in the garden spend this time of the year in a dormant state.
      ”The camellia trees on both sides of the entrance have already produced their first pink flowers”, Pynnönen reports. Many cactuses also begin to flower conveniently for Christmas.
     
”It is possible to come here to spend Advent either with one’s own packed meal or to enjoy what our café has to offer”, Pynnönen advertises.
      At the first Advent weekend, several hundred people visited the Winter Garden. The garden will wear its Christmas dress until Epiphany.
     
The City of Helsinki’s Winter Garden on Hammarskjöldintie 1 is open on Mondays and Fridays from 11.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m., on Tuesdays from 9.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m., on Wednesdays and Thursdays as well as at weekends and on holidays from 11.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m.
      The building itself dates from 1889 and was designed by the architect Gustav Nyström.
      Originally it was the property of Major-General Jakob Julius af Lindfors, who then donated it to a local garden society, with the understanding that it always be open to the public free of charge.
      The City of Helsinki bought the property in 1907.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 30.11.2009


Previously in HS International Edition:
  St. Thomas Christmas market opened in Esplanade Park (9.12.2008)

Links:
  The Winter Garden in Helsinki

MATTI HUHTA / Helsingin Sanomat
matti.huhta@hs.fi