Lecture tour in Ofoten
Published 12 October 2026
The museums and libraries in Ballangen, Kjøpsvik and Narvik invite you to a lecture tour with Arne Håkon Thomassen from the Sami Parliament!
20 August 2026
Do you love gardening and are interested in creating a colourful outdoor area in your own garden? Do you want to learn more about flowers that come back year after year, and how to make them thrive? On Sunday 23 August, SKREI invites you to an educational and inspiring garden walk for all garden enthusiasts in Lofoten!
The event is led by the experienced gardeners Gro Rundfloen at Melbo Hovedgård and Judith van Koesveld. In the garden outside the manor house, they share their knowledge about the practical care of various perennials adapted to a northern Norwegian coastal climate.
What is a perennial?
Perennials are a collective term for perennial plants. The advantage of these plants is that they produce flowers year after year, meaning you would not need to sow them again the following season. In a commercial context, the term is primarily used for ornamental plants that can be grown and decorated with in gardens and parks. Perennials include several categories, including flowering perennials, leafy perennials, ornamental grasses, and ground cover plants. Common to all of them is that the part of the plant that sprouts above the soil will eventually wither. While the root system itself will be able to establish and accumulate enough nutrients for the plant to return next year.
Climate and hardiness in Lofoten
The climate in Lofoten is characterized by fluctuations in weather types and temperatures, and occasionally longer periods of low pressure. A typical summer in Lofoten can thus go through “four seasons in one week”. Where temperatures alternate between 11 °C, precipitation and wind at one moment and warm, sunny days at the other. The midnight sun is present between 25 May and 18 July.
Based on the Nordic division of climate zones, Lofoten is located in hardiness zones H6-H7. (The scale goes from H1 to H8.) In practice, this means that plants that are adapted to H6-H7 are of the hardy variety. In order to establish themselves here, they must therefore tolerate the cool, humid Lofoten climate all year round.
What is special about the garden at the Lofoten Museum?
The garden outside the manor house at the Lofoten Museum is centrally located in front of the main entrance. In the 1800s it may have contained ornamental and useful plants, as well as several deciduous trees. Today, we can find an exquisite collection of historic perennials that since 2004 have been brought here from old gardens in Lofoten.
At the Lofoten Museum, you will find, among several beautiful flowering perennials, auricles, heart-leaved oxeye, garden pink, autumn aster, larkspur, maiden pinks, dotted loosestrife and purple wolf’s bane. In addition, it is worth mentioning that Museum Nord contributes plant material to the association KVANN (Knowledge and Protection of Useful Plants in Norway).
