At Gunillaberg in Småland, Sweden, the Danish floral artist Tage Andersen has collected the contrasts of his life. It has become Sweden’s Fairy Land.
In the forest highlands of southern Sweden’s Smaland province, you’ll find the garden and manor house of renowned Danish florist and artist Tage Andersen. Andersen is a polymath: sculptor, chef, designer, author, and the proprietor of a “floral boutique and museum” in Copenhagen.
Gunillaberg is his ultimate vision. In a landscape of pastures, ravines, streams, ponds, and fields, it’s home to farm animals, topiary courtyards, an orangery, and sculptures made by the floral artist himself.
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When you approach Jönköping by car and the signs along the road end at ‘hult’, as in Katthult, you have come to Småland, where Emil ravaged in Lønneberget and Ingvar Kamprad started IKEA. Here the earth is barren, the winter is merciless and the people frugal.
It’s a four-hour drive from both Copenhagen and Stockholm. From Copenhagen, make it a straight shot (there isn’t much to stop for). From Stockholm, it’s a proper road trip, with places worth pulling over for and great views of Vättern, one of Europe’s largest lakes, for most of the drive.
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So, what has Tage Andersen created here?
In the woodland paths you can enjoy birch and aspen trees hung with acrylic paintings or see a huge tree that in fact is a sculpture ‘growing’ from a block of concrete. Gunillaberg was, however, not Andersen’s first botanically trippy venture — garden nuts have been queuing up to see his Narnia-like floral creations since he opened his Copenhagen store in 1987. Gunillaberg is nevertheless by far his most ambitious.
Tage Andersen was born on March 29, 1947 in Thy, Denmark. He is Denmark’s most famous floral artist, originally trained as a pastry chef. The seventeenth-century house set on 42 acres was discovered by Andersen and his husband, Monz, in 2008. They transformed it into a summer retreat/quasi-public garden which is open to the public 11 am–6 pm daily from May 29th to August 31st, and on Saturdays and Sundays in September.
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“The former owner was almost 100 when he died,” says Monz. “He’d all but ignored the property, which means the estate was not a garden experience.”
Tage Andersen has exhibited in prestigious castles, gardens and museums in all the Nordic capitals, except Oslo, as well as in London and several German cities.
Sweden’s Fairy Land, written by Tor Kjolberg
Feature image (on top): Photo © Patrik Svedberg/Gunillaberg