The grove garden


[Translate to English:] Foto: Blick über den Gehölzgarten. [Translate to English:] Foto: Blick über den Gehölzgarten. [Translate to English:] Foto: Blick über den Gehölzgarten.

Since 2009, the wooded garden of the Institute of Environmental Planning has been located on the university grounds at Herrenhäuser Str. 2, on the corner of Burgweg and Haltenhoffstraße. It is located on the former open spaces of the "Villa Maatsch", which was listed under monument protection in 1997. Almost all native woody plants - apart from extensive groups of species such as blackberries - as well as selected ornamental woody plants that are significant for landscape architecture will soon be growing in the woody garden.

Students of landscape architecture and environmental planning will thus have the opportunity to acquire knowledge of species directly on the university campus and to study the change of woody species over the course of the year.

Path construction in the copse garden

In spring 2009, with the help of student assistants, the existing overgrowth on the long-neglected site was cleared. In late summer, a new path system was laid out in a first construction phase and the planting of trees and shrubs began. The material came in part from the collection of native wild roses of the Nursery Department in the Institute of Ornamental Plant and Woody Plant Sciences (Institut für Zierpflanzen- und Gehölzwissenschaften) and from the stock of the Department of Molecular Plant Breeding in the Institute of Plant Genetics at Leibniz University ( Abteilung Molekulare Pflanzenzüchtung im Institut für Pflanzengenetik). Further material, mainly from the Rosaceae family, was supplied by the municipal tree nursery in Hanover.

In spring 2010, the path system was completed in the second section; Urs G. Jäger from Halle provided the willow cuttings for the planting, and several hybrids of the genus Salix were added in summer 2011.

Short break after work is done
Working in all positions
The grove garden after the first plantings in 2010
In 2011, a seating group was purchased with a donation from the Freundeskreises der Leibniz Universität Hannover e. V., Section Horticulture and Landscape Management.

Since 2014, the collection of rose species (Rosa div. spec.) growing in the wild in Germany has been expanded and a collection of endemic species of mealberry (Sorbus div. spec.) has been established. Botanical gardens and scientific institutions have a special responsibility for the conservation of the common mealberry species, some of which have extremely small natural ranges.

View across the meadow planted with various young mealberries to the wall bed with wild roses in June 2017

Contact person

Dipl.-Ing. Christiane Hausmann
Dipl.-Ing. Christiane Hausmann

Scientific conception:

Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Prasse
Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Prasse