18th century garden. Artisanal gardener Johann Georg Haetge Senior’s flowerbed.

(Text by Risto Paju, Tallinn City Museum)

At the end of the 18th century, in front of Tallinn’s Karjavärav, or more precisely where Sakala theatre is located today, artisanal gardener and merchant Johann Georg Haetge Senior ran a garden and flower seed shop. One copy of the shop’s sales catalogue has been preserved until this day, and the booklet gives us an idea of what you could buy for your garden (or conservatory) in Tallinn at that time. Haetge starts his sales catalogue with the following address:

Since I, as a gardener, test all types of seeds beforehand to see if

they really are good (despite the fact that I order fresh ones from Germany every year)

and apart from these tried and tested seeds, I

sell none other: I ask my honourable supporters and friends, so they can

corroborate my claims, to be so kind as to take the seeds they get from me,

label them or keep them separate from others, as many people who are not gardeners,

often sell seeds that they themselves do not know, and much less have the

opportunity to evaluate their quality.

A list of sold seeds and seedlings follows, and this flowerbed features a selection of these plants. The selected plants’ names are spelled as indicated in the Haetge catalogue, so there are some spelling mistakes. The names have been translated into Estonian and the list considers seasonality.

Text by Risto Paju, Tallinn City Museum

The plant boxes are groomed by Kalamaja Museum, come and visit the museum garden!