domestic apple
Malus domestica Borkh
Is represented in the garden by the following varieties: Spartan, Boskovské, Coxova reneta, Zvonkové, Grávštýnské, Strýmka, Rubinola, Melodie, Topaz, Orion, Řehtáč soudkovitý, Parkerovo, Elise Rathke´, Červencové, Růžena Bláhová. From a pomological point of view, we classify apple trees as pome fruits. Apple trees live for 60-100 years and grow as trees or shrubs with deciduous entire to lobed leaves with a mostly serrated edge and stipules. The flowers of apple trees are usually pink, white to crimson red in spike-like inflorescences. The seed is 3-5 capsules, the lower one with 2-5 heads, which, unlike pears, are fused at the bottom. The fruits of the apple trees are pomes, which carry a calyx on the crown, either perennial or deciduous. Apples are the most cultivated fruit trees of the temperate zone, more than 8000 cultivars have been bred. From a cultural point of view, apples have accompanied man since the beginning of history – see the biblical tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden, from which Adam and Eve tasted the forbidden fruit. When growing apple trees, different growth shapes are used, which differ in the direction of the shoots, the height of grafting or the establishment of the crown, etc. Different varieties of apple trees are shaped and maintained differently, also with regard to the way of growth and fruit formation. In old extensive orchards, tall trunks are mostly grown, on the other hand, for dense short-lived plantations oriented towards high yield, smaller dwarf forms are preferred.
pear tree
Pyrus communis L
Is represented in the garden by the following czech varieties: Williamsova, Hardyho, Konference, Šídlenka, Madlenka, Boskova lahvice, Lucasova, Clappova, Muškatelka šedá, Červencová, Čáslavka. Pear tree often has a distinctive conical crown, reaching often a height of 15 meters, having gray bark, later cracked in a scaly manner. Glossy, leathery petioled leaves with an ovate shape have a slightly serrated edge. It blooms with white flowers in the spring, the inflorescence is a low-flowered corymbus. The fruit is a pome (pomum), which varies in color, size and shape according to individual varieties. Pear trees are mostly cross-pollinated, so it is necessary to plant pollinators nearby (other pear trees, even quince can work), otherwise they will not produce well. Among fruit trees, the pear tree is one of the longest-lived, living up to 200 years. In culture, it appears in several thousand cultivars. However, it is regularly attacked by rust and fireblight caused by dangerous bacteriosis. In the last few years in Europe, the saplings have suffered significantly and a number of younger trees die before reaching maturity. Noble pear varieties are propagated by grafting or grafting onto rootstocks. The principles of pruning pear trees are similar to those for pruning apple trees. When pear trees reach fruiting age, they should be pruned so that the crown is not too elongated and dense. Among fruit trees, pear wood is one of the hardest, suitable for turning, woodcarving, and for making musical instruments. Boiled pears are a suitable food for heart and circulation diseases, high pressure, bladder diseases and for strengthening the stomach. A powdered food ingredient made from dried pears is called by mysterious old Czech name “pracharanda”.
European chestnut
Castanea sativa Mill
The chestnut tree lives up to 600 years and grows to a height of 25 m, and with the thickness of the trunk exceeding 2 m. The bark is smooth when young but turns brownish-gray and cracked over time. The leaves are oblong-elliptical, serrate, on the nerve with a thorn, arranged alternately on the twig, and the one at the top of the twig is usually the largest. It blooms profusely in May to June in rich up to 15 cm catkins. It is a monoecious plant; it has monoecious and unisexual flowers. The plant is mainly cross-pollinated, it bears better if there are two or more trees in the vicinity. The fruits are achenes (chestnuts) of 2–3 in a prickly shell that bursts with four seams. They are shiny, dark brown and ripen in September. The seeds are edible, eaten after baking or cooking, they contain a lot of starch, sugar and protein. Edible chestnuts have a higher caloric value than potatoes. The chestnut tree is not very widespread in Prague. There is just one tree in Vojanovy sady, with height over 15 m.
common fig
Ficus carica L
Native to Asia Minor, widely cultivated in the Mediterranean. Dioecious deciduous shrub to tree 2-9 m tall, with a spherical crown. Leaves 3-5 lobed, up to 20 cm large, rough on top, long petioled. The flowers are very small in a pear-shaped inflorescence, the so-called syconium. The fruits, the so-called figs, are mostly pear-shaped, rarely almost spherical, 3-6 cm in diameter, green, brown to purple. Very tasty table fruit, preserved even by drying on trees. In our park, it thrives by the warm wall next to the gloriette, similarly in the neighboring Valdštejnská garden. During the warm course of the summer, it also bears abundantly in Bohemia. The Book of Books speaks of the plucking of the forbidden apple of knowledge, the shame feeling of nakedness, and the covering of Adam and Eve’s private parts with fig leaves. From the mid-16th century in the late Renaissance, such desk masters as Raphael, Rubens, Titian, Da Vinci and Michelangelo used fig leaves to cover nudity. The edict of the Council of Trent expressly forbade the depiction of nudity in church art and the bull of Pope Paul IV. – in 1557 – determined fig leaves as a means to cover it. The Catholic Church simply wanted to prove that it was more pious than the Protestant Church.
common medlar
Mespilus germanica Mill
As for Bohemia, a relatively rare tree with a wide crown, usually growing up to 5 meters, sometimes double that. It blooms from May to June with white five-petaled flowers up to 4 cm in size. The leaves are alternate, hairy, leathery, lanceolate with a slightly serrated edge. The fruits are felted bronze-colored malves of a special „cut“ shape with five calyx lobes. They are edible only after being frozen, and for their fans even in a liquefied state as a distillate. In ancient times, it was a popular remedy for intestinal catarrh. In Vojanovy sady, it is represented by several trees – one at the main entrance and three others in one group in front of the adjacent Ministry of Finance.
black sea wallnut
Juglans regia L
One of the most cultivated tree species in the world, mostly a stout tree with a gray bark sometimes blackened, growing to over 40 m in height. The original area of the walnut extends from the Balkans to the western slopes of the Himalayas. It was probably brought to our bohemian basin during the Bronze Age. The leaves are generally oblong-ovate and pointed at the end. A monoecious tree with male (larger dogwood) and female (small inconspicuous scars) flowers. It is grown for its fruits (walnuts), but also as honey-bearing plant and as an ornamental and shade giving tree, with high-quality and relatively fast-growing wood. By the spring of 2024, there are 16 walnut trees in the park, a number of old trees already at the end of their lives, but also newly planted individuals; two of the younger trees belong to red fruits (Sychrov variety).
Other fruit trees represented in the park include cultivars of plum (Prunus domestica), wild cherry (Prunus avium), sour cherry (Prunus cerasus) and apricot (Prunus armeniaca), which is unfortunately already at the end of its life journey.
Other perennial plants are represented in the garden by heartleaf bergenia (Bergenia crassifolia), Hosta sp., creeping ivy (Hedera helix), yellow oxeye (Telekia speciosa), Iris ssp., Indian pokeweed (Phytolacca esculenta), raspberry (Rubus ideus), Clematis – cultivar ‚Neli Moser‘, grape ivy / Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus tricuspidata + quinquefolia), stonecrops (Hylotelephium sp.), Japanese anemone (Anemone hupehensis), and from other remarkable plants, e.g. potted portable 4 specimens of rare dragon blood tree (Draceana cinnabari) from the island of Socotra, or the rare stinking goosefoot (Chenopodium vulvaria).