Coralbells 'Smedsberget'

Description: Coral bells with dense, dark green rosettes of leaves. Small bell-shaped flowers gathered in airy inflorescences that rise above the foliage. Nice as a border and border plant, but also as a ground cover.

Height: 60 cm. Foliage height 20 cm.

Flowering time: At the trial at the Swedish Agricultural University in Alnarp outside Malmö, the variety has flowered in mid-June. The flowering has spanned three to four weeks.

Flower colour: Dark pink flowers on upright, red-purple stems. Flower diameter about one centimeter. Good for cuts.

History: The coralbells has been grown in the Smedsberget district in Lycksele since the 1930s. Around the turn of the last century, there were several blacksmiths in the district, but when the blacksmiths moved one by one or ceased their activities, it eventually became a residential area instead and the district changed its name to Villaryd. Bertil and Tora lived with their family in one of the villas on the mountain. Bertil was a chamberlain at one of the forestry companies, but a knowledgeable and interested horticulturist in his spare time. The coralbells was one of all the plants that he cultivated and it was planted in a rockery. In 1947, the newly married Kerstin moved into a neighboring property on Smedsberget. Kerstin was also passionately interested in gardening and almost immediately started planting new plants, often ones she had received from friends, relatives and neighbours. Sometime around 1950, she received plants of the coralbells from Bertil and Aunt Tora, whom Kerstin had known since childhood. Bertil and Tora's daughter and Kerstin were friends and Kerstin spent a lot of time with them as a child. Kerstin remembers the coralbells since her childhood in the 1930s and it is with Kerstin that the coralbells has been preserved until today. She grows it as a border plant and it provides a nice frame for the flower beds.

Collected in: Lycksele, Lapland

Cultivation instructions: Coralbells thrives best in a sunny-semi-shady position. The soil should preferably be calcareous. Flowering is extended if wilted flowers are removed.

Sales: The cultivar is available for purchase in commercial gardens and garden centers from spring 2019.