The flower clock

This beautiful booklet gathers useful and interesting facts about Linné's flower clock. It gives an overview of what time plants open and close their flowers, and it explains identifying features such as locations. Also included: illustrated planting instructions for creating a flower clock in your own garden.

"(...) we have all clocks smashed, all calendars banned, and count hours and moons only by the flower clock, only by flower and fruit."
From Georg Büchner, Leonce and Lena.

Flowers have their own fixed daily schedule - they regularly open and close their flowers at the same time (if the location is the right one and weather conditions do not change abruptly). At noon, for example, the marigold closes its flowers, while the tiger lily first opens its. The famous Swedish naturalist Carl von Linné found this out during his observations and thereupon had the first flower clock installed in the botanical garden of Uppsala in 1745. Legend has it that he always told the time to within five minutes after looking at the garden. In cooperation with Jan Thorbecke Verlag in Ostfildern, we have now developed a flower clock with historical illustrations based on Linné's model. It shows for a selection of flowers and perennials the time of day at which their flowers open and close - and thus offers an excellent aid for creating a flower clock in your own garden.