freilicht

Journeying to the other end of the River Werra, where it’s fed by the tributary Schleuse in County Hildburghausen, we attended a nice garden show on the grounds of the former abbey Veßra.
Abandoned since the Reformation by the order of Premonstratensians (the White Canons) the ruins of the cloister, built in the 1140s, was an impressive setting and was considered the family chapel of the dukes of Henneberg until secularisation and became imminent domain of the court of Prussia thereafter.
The considerable property became in the early 1950s an annex of the agriculture and history network of museums of the Suhl district and a working, demonstration farm and in 1990 became the open air (Freilicht-) museum that it is presently, having conserved and relocated several historic buildings from the area and curating them as glimpses into how people lived and worked in the past.
As for the garden show, H and I ended up getting some lavender for the front yard for the bees and a rather fetching shrub that was a specially cultivated sort of Physocarpus opulifolius (the ninebark or auf Deutsche, Schneeballblättige Blasenspiere).
It is called “Amber Jubilee,” and by a funny coincidence we learned it was created in 2012 in anticipation the sixtieth anniversary of the Queen’s coronation, which happened to be on that very day. Due to the scaffolding blocking our garage (where all the gardening implements are), however, we couldn’t plant it right away but will be able to do so soon.