Drottningholms nya lindalléer. En undersökning om beskärningsåtgärder och deras historiska källunderlag

Abstract

Drottningholm palace, one of Sweden's royal palaces had between the years of 1997 - 2011 planted c. 800 lime trees in their avenues for the site's baroque garden. The avenue's original trees have been there since the end of the 17th century. The aim with the structural pruning and pollarding for the new trees has been to create a candelabra form. The project for renewing these avenues is this study's main case. It examines historical sources, inventories of trees and cultural historical values as a basis for new trees' pruning strategies in a historical site.The relationship between strategies and their basis can illustrate what sources and values that the strategies are directly based on and not. Modern arboriculture is used as a tool to analyze this relationship. What follows is that there is not a lot written about pruning and its process in the historical material from the 17th- 18th century. There is little literature and some illustrations which show the trees' heights and forms from this era. The original trees are one of the most important sources about their pruning levels and structure. The candelabra form can be seen in the old trees and trees from similar sites. The values that have been priority in the renewal project is the preservation of the architectural composition of the baroque garden and the trees' appearance and form from the baroque era.The original structural pruning plan for the new trees, the candelabra form has been changed during the years which has lead to that they have been built up with another intention. Though the latest tree plan has gone back to the original one, it has then gotten older trees with another structure to work with. In modern arboriculture young trees undergo structural pruning to have a good structure and to avoid making big pruning cuts in the future. In this case there is no historical source material or inventory of older trees that entail the pruning's intention, which scaffold limbs should be selected or how often the tree should be pollarded. The old trees and the sources about heights and forms illustrate an objective but there is no historical knowledge of the process for how the new trees should be pruned.