Especially in wintertime when all the trees and greens are gone you can pass the abandoned nursery houses in the park of Ramholz Castle close to the hassia town of Schlüchtern. And if you listen carefully you can hear the ghost whispers of geraniums, tagetes, phlox and roses which were once sold to the folks living around.
Little is actually known about the buildings itself. Beautifully rounded steel girders might date back to the turn of the 20th century green house architecture. In the 1890s nearby castle Ramholz was newly rebuilt by Hugo von Stumm who also made plans for the widespread park imitating the ideas of Fürst Hermanns von Pückler-Muskau (1785 – 1871).
The end is unclear
The heating system of the nurseries which probably consumed a lot of energy and money seems to be in use until the 1990s oder even to the turn of the millenium. Back in 2013 the Castle’s Garden inherited a Garden Fest. Folks who live nearby told us, that the plants were sold until something like 2000.
Nature absorbes what once was it’s nursery. Nature cultivates were nature once had been cultivated. But nature should not conquer nature, I thought.
When you pass the dilapidated green houses watch out for plastic plant pots which ly around here and there, beware of empty plastic bags for plant soil and the broken glasses which came down from the roof windows. The whole premise seems to be abandoned in midwork.
That made me dream about geranium offshoots spreading through the green house racks turning the past into purple, rose and pinky colours, longing for a garden to be planted, to be cared about.
Decay, abandoned flowers and my dream of arcadia
I’ve been fascinated by the lost greenery houses but felt a sadness as well. Nature should not conquer nature, I thought, but empowering each other. I know, this image itself is a dream of a „wonderful wilderness“, but I felt sorrow to realize that it’s going to stay a dream of the arcadian ideals.
The modern ruins are paired once in a while with signs of neoclassical architecture which were added to the landscape park by Hugo von Stumm. It might have uplifted my impression in sunny weather. The Castle itself now belongs to a chinese investor and is closed for public.
