Munich has many spots with stunning floral and plant displays that transform the cityscape almost overnight several times a year: One day it's winter, the next, it's suddenly spring. Thomas Seltmann, who has been responsible for the blaze of flowers for over 20 years, talks about the meticulous planning that goes on behind the scenes.
THE LORD OF THE FLOWERS
Mr Seltmann, how is spring brought to the city?
It all starts in September, when we start filling the mobile wire baskets with soil. Each basket is planted with 180 carefully colour-coordinated flower bulbs, including daisies, pansies and forget-me-nots. The daffodils, hyacinths and early-flowering tulips are the first to bloom. Our goal is for the baskets to bloom from mid-March to mid-May. The transport companies then pick up the baskets, bring them into the city and replace the winter pines and box trees with the spring flowers. This is how the city switches from winter to spring in just two weeks. As soon as the spring baskets are in place, we set up new wire baskets in the nursery, fill them with soil and prepare the summer planting. In the second half of May, the transport companies return, remove the spring baskets and replace them with summer flowers – then it's summer.
Seltmann opens the door to the first greenhouse, revealing a sea of flowers in vibrant shades of red, pink, yellow, purple and white.
Wow. Does it still impress you to enter a greenhouse like this?
Yes. It's great to see such a mass of flowers. In summer, every greenhouse is packed to the last square metre. Hang on, I need to close the door quickly, because all the greenhouses have different air-conditioning. We plant the sprouts by hand, so our plants are just small seedlings at first. They need a little more warmth at this stage. In addition to the mobile containers we prepare here for places like Brienner Strasse, Preysingplatz, and Westenriederstrasse, we also create ornamental flower beds at 26 locations across the city, including Gärtnerplatz, Weißenburger Platz, Bordeauxplatz, and the Old Botanical Garden. Every year, we come up with a new colour concept for spring and summer.
So, you always live in the future. Is there a season when there is nothing to do?
Not really. If there is a quieter time, it's in August – the summer flowers are already out and spring preparations have not started yet. But even then I'm busy with new plans. Here, I’ve brought an example of a summer plan that I have sketched out. You can see the design for a flowerbed at Karolinenplatz. This square is in the museum quarter, with the obelisk in the centre. Four beds are arranged around the obelisk and I have planned shades of pink, rosé and violet that fade into light pink and white. The lantanas form the centre – these are tall-stemmed evergreens that grow to a height of around two and a half metres.
Why did you plan it this way?
As you pass Karolinenplatz by car or tram, it has to be a striking square with intense colours that catche the eye as you drive past. If I add height in the centre and tier the rest downwards, it has a stronger visual impact.
You’re also responsible for planting the flowers at Gärtnerplatz, which is named after architect Friedrich von Gärtner. Do you feel a certain pressure to make it particularly beautiful?
All squares have something unique about them. Well, Gärtnerplatz is special with the fountain in the centre and the beautiful façades around it. At Gärtnerplatz, you can walk right up to the flowerbeds along the paths and admire the plants much more closely. I have to pay particular attention to details – like combining different leaf structures and textures, pairing light leaves with dark ones, big ones with small ones and making sure the flower colours harmonise.
Do you sometimes have issues with theft given the beautiful flowers?
That happens from time to time. If only a few plants are pulled out, it's not so dramatic. But it’s frustrating when someone rips out five square metres of a bed – it leaves a noticeable gap.
Does that actually happen?
Well, it has happened. We also had an incident when we planted tall laurel trees, which then disappeared.
Back to work! Do you sometimes take a walk through Munich to inspect your work?
I try to check all my plants twice a season and document them with photos so I can see how they’ve turned out. It usually takes me two to three days each time.
Do you get feedback from people in Munich?
Definitely! I even have several folders labelled “Praise and Criticism.“ Flowers usually bring joy, so I get more positive feedback, but there is also criticism. Sometimes people don’t like the colour combinations. It's amazing how closely residents pay attention to the details. Last year, for example, we had red colours at Weißenburger Platz. If I did that again this year, the residents would wonder: “What's going on there?“
It must be a great feeling when your work is observed so intensively.
Yes, it is indeed. I start with an idea and in the end, the plants blossom. It's exciting to see if my ideas actually turn out the way I imagined them. Mistakes can also happen, for example if the wrong seeds are delivered. You can't tell by looking at the seeds whether they will be the right colour. Sometimes you get surprising effects and think: “Well, that’s quite nice, too.”
What makes a good colour concept?
That's really in the eye of the beholder. There are the classics: Monochrome plantings in a single flower colour like red, yellow, blue, for example. You can work with contrasts, such as yellow and violet-blue, or use triads: white, yellow, blue. You can create colour gradients, from white to rosé to violet and dark violet. I also take inspiration from modern museums, for example. If I see an interesting colour combination in a picture, I might incorporate it; for example, pairing orange tones with dark purple, which is not a classic colour gradient ...
By the way, here is a plant for summer that is still very small.
A preview of summer.
Yes, that's right. This is a bidens, a marigold. We already grow them for the balconies at the Rathaus (town hall), so this will be a town hall flower. My duties also include floristry – bouquets for receptions, wreaths for memorial services and arrangements for graves of honour. According to a city council resolution, only fairly produced cut flowers may be used for municipal arrangements and wreaths. That's why we produce half of our cut flowers ourselves and the rest come from fairly produced sources. The florists supply us with specifications and we grow everything in the nursery. Our gardeners come through here every morning and cut fresh flowers, which are then sent straight to the second nursery on Eduard-Schmid-Strasse, where they are freshly arranged in the floristry department.
Speaking of floristry, your official job title is quite a mouthful. Head of Department ...
... of Cultural Gardens, Decoration, Floristry and Interior Greenery. Yes, that's right.
So what do you say when people ask you what you do for a living?
My team and I are responsible for everything floral in Munich ... By the way, we have even more cut flowers here – these are carnations. We concentrate on making our plants resistant to diseases, pests and fungi. The most important thing is that the plants feel good. If a plant feels good, it has a high resistance to diseases and pests.
Like humans.
Like humans. When a pest problem arises, we use beneficial organisms, since every pest has a natural predator. This little bag here contains sawdust and larvae of a beneficial species – they crawl through a small hole into the crop and reduce the pest population. So everything stays organic. And since the referendum to save the bees, we are paying even more attention to planting pollen and nectar-producing plants.
Finally, can we ask you if you have a favourite flower?
The plant kingdom is too vast to choose just one. As gardeners or engineers, we always have to remember that we’re only scratching the surface. Even if you know two or three thousand different plants, it’s still just a fraction of them. Therefore: no favourite flower – but the right flower for every space!
