In a high summer afternoon in Sweden’s Sofiero garden Sandra finds an explosion of flowers resonating with messages of love.

It’s late afternoon when I finally arrive at the front gate of Sofiero, one of Sweden’s most beautiful gardens. I’ve driven up from Copenhagen and crossed from Helsingor, Denmark over to Helsingborg, Sweden, on the car ferry. It’s been a hot day, but now the sun has lost its intensity and there is a cool breeze blowing. The light, which will last well into evening, is lovely as I set off to explore the garden.

The Wall Flowerbed lies inside the front boundary wall, and runs its entire length. Big blocks of colour make this extremely long border impressive.

There are tall yellow clumps of golden rod, spiky clumps of purple liatris, pretty mauve bellflowers (campanula), solid blocks of magenta phlox and hazy clouds of dusky pink eupatorium. In front are huge clumps of white cosmos, yellow rudbeckia, coral snapdragons, the pretty foliage of grey-green hosta, lime sedum, soft grey lamb’s ear and deep purple lobelia cardinalis. And never have I seen such a display of hollyhocks! In full glorious flower, and in many shades: primrose, lemon, crimson, all shades of pink, white and lilac, the petals have a translucent quality, especially when the sun shining through them.

There’s a photograph here, taken here in 1917, of Crown Prince Gustav and Princess Margareta planning the wall border. Sofiero was Gustav’s great passion. The estate was given to him as a wedding gift in 1905 by his grandfather Oscar 11, King of Norway-Sweden. After Margareta died in 1920, Gustav married Lady Louise Mountbatten, who also enjoyed the garden. There’s another photograph here of Gustav with Louisa in 1937, she with a flower basket over her arm.

All through the garden large posters of these old photographs  of Gustav with Margareta, and Gustav with Louisa, give the place an historical perspective, and bring to life its owners and creators.

A series of arbours lead off through the rose walk, each arch smothered with the tiny pink blooms of the rambling rose  ‘Dorothy Perkins’, a favourite of Princess Margareta. Here I find a wedding party posing for photographs. The bride is in a white gown with a  green circlet of foliage around her hair, tied with orange rose buds at the back. The same rose is in her bouquet. The groom is in black top hat and tails, with a white scarf - it’s a swish affair!

I don’t want to intrude and head off to The Pleasure Garden, a formal garden with buxus outlining intersecting squares. These spaces are planted with a romantic mixture of colourful flowers, including violet verbena, mauve heliotrope, pink foxgloves, feathery grasses, crimson carnations, whispy pink gaura and white gypsophila. Each section has an urn mounted on a plinth as its centrepiece planted with trailing geraniums. Quirky topiary shapes; a hen, a duck and a fish, enliven this garden.

Back through the Rose Walk, via the kitchen garden, the vinery (where vines from the original plantings still bear fruit), and a really inspirational children’s garden, is one of the best dahlia gardens I have ever seen, spied through windows in a hedge of linden. The gardener here has chosen the very best varieties, each one in its own bed, set into a lush lawn. Dutch dinner plate dahlias including Otto’s Thrill, Pink Skin, Pompon Roze, Spartacus and Arabian Night are all huge, jaw-dropping in full glorious flower. And the bride has found it for more photographs!

Back out across the broad walk, I walk out to an open lawn surrounded by Margareta’s Jubilee garden, a full curved garden with masses of blue and white hydrangeas, rose-pink astilbe, lime-green sedum, feathery grasses and violet verbena  - full, flowery and feminine.

I decide to find the Palace, so head back down the Princess Margareta’s Flower Walk, a double herbaceous border with warm-coloured annuals and perennials on one side and cool colours on the other. The display in high summer is bold with large blocks of snapdragons, phlox, nasturtium, helenium, coreopsis and blue salvia.

This broad walk leads down a flight of steps, well planted with impatiens and ornamental grasses, into a primula gully a stream running into a pond and then through the rhododendron garden. Now across the lawn, the beautiful Italianate Palace comes into view. The one-storey palace was expanded to its current size between 1874 and 1876, after Crown Prince Oscar had been crowned King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway. Now it’s an exhibition space and restaurant. The wedding guests are relaxing on the terrace.

Reluctantly I decide I must make my way back to Copenhagen. The photographs throughout the garden have given me a sense of Gustav and Margareta and I feel sad for him. Together they planned and loved this garden, and he lost her just before she was to give birth to their sixth child.  But obviously Louisa enjoyed the garden too, and maybe it was a great source of comfort and inspiration for them both. On his death Gustav Adolf bequeathed Sofiero to the city of Helsingborg. I find it inspiring, and hard to leave.

Join Sandra to see the Gardens of Scandinavia and St Petersburg. For a detailed itinerary and more information call Royce at Ross Garden Tours on 1800 809 348.

Plant notes: summer flowers

Hollyhocks

This tall plant gives a strong vertical accent at Sofiero, growing well over 2m tall. Some self-seeding varieties are biennial, meaning they will flower in the second year. Annual varieties will grow and flower in the same year. Grow in full sun, from seed or seedlings. Yates sells a seed variety called ‘Double Elegance’ with double flowers in apricot, crimson and cream. Keep a Yates Rose Gun on hand for instant treatment of pests like red spider, aphids and fungal diseases like rust. These pests are not so prolific in cool gardens.

Nasturtium

Large beds of red nasturtium climb up bamboo frames along the path through the orchard at Sofiero. Large blocks of nasturtium are also included in the warm colour flower borders. Look for Yates seed varieties: ‘Jewel Mixed’ with single and semi- double flowers in a range of warm colours and ‘Cherry Rose’ in cheerful cherry red.

Dahlia

Dahlias are show-stoppers at Sofiero. Each variety has its own bed and the whole area is bounded by a Linden hedge with peep-hole windows. Otto’s Thrill, a Dutch dinner plate variety, measures 30cm in diameter and is a vibrant fuchsia colour and flowers for a long time. Spartacus is a wonderful shade of black/red that looks like velvet and blooms 25cm in diameter.

Hosta

Shady borders of hosta are cool and luxuriant but only for cool climate gardens. The variegated variety ‘Albomarginata’ has wavy, dark-green leaves streaked with lighter green, and a wide creamy-white margin with pale lavender flowers in summer. This classic of the perennial garden needs rich, moist, well-drained soil. It makes a lovely background for the pretty iron bench seat at Sofiero.

Roses

‘Dorothy Perkins’ was a favourite of Princess Margareta, who had them planted over a series of arbours along the Rose Walk. This is one of the most famous of all roses, a classic old rambler from 1901, bred by the famous American rose breeders Jackson Perkins, with clusters of small fragrant clear pink blooms. Prune after flowering, and protect against mildew  with a fungicide such as Rose Shield. There is a hybrid available with continous flowering called  'Super Dorothy'.

Phlox

Perennial phlox have strong stems and showy domed clove-scented flower heads. Solid blocks of colour - white, lavender, violet, brick, salmon and soft pink - give huge impact. At Sofiero violet phlox complements blue monkshood and purple eupatorium and the salmon-pink variety is lovely with coral snapdragons. Phlox are heavy feeders and need rich, well-drained soil with a high organic content. Water them with a drip hose, never overhead as they are susceptible to mildew.