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"Unusual seeds & practical tools"
Background & history
Trädgårdsdags was founded from the desire to bring people closer to nature and what benefits us. We want to awaken the joy of growing and inspire more people to cultivate what they themselves consume – to reconnect with a way of life where plants have a more natural place in everyday life.
Our range is based on the plants’ practical value – what they can contribute in terms of edibility and usefulness primarily, but also ecological balance. The focus is on uncommon and edible plants with sufficient hardiness for outdoor cultivation year-round in our Nordic climate, from regions including North America, northern China, and Japan. At the same time, we highlight forgotten Swedish species that previously had a natural role in the household.
The purpose is simple: to create diversity in cultivation and give more people the opportunity to grow more of what they actually use – from hardy citrus fruits and nuts to larger tropical-like fruits such as Asimina (paw paw).
Since we started in 2020 under the slogan “Uncommon seeds & practical tools”, the business has grown into a broad range of plants, shoes, teas, and growing accessories.
The foundation remains the same as from the start – to unite knowledge, quality, and usefulness to bring us closer to nature.
Trädgårdsdags first motto & the development since then
The business was started in 2020 with the slogan
"Uncommon seeds & practical tools".
- At the end of 2022, the assortment consisted of about 50 seed varieties and only 2 types of seedlings: Asimina and Pecan trees.
- In 2023, we had 45 different kinds of edible, uncommon seedlings.
- During 2024, we expanded the assortment to almost exactly 100 exciting varieties.
- After moving to Ågården, we gained space for a significantly larger selection for 2025 – about 180 different edible plant varieties in the seedling section.
We have planted all plant varieties ourselves in the ground for our own cultivation.
Founder:
Johannes Billsten
Studied Garden Engineer at
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
I have always been fascinated by nature and health. A traditional way of life close to nature has always been appealing – including ancient cultures and Eastern philosophy. Altogether, I have spent 5 years in Asia where I have lived, studied, and traveled around countries such as Burma, Laos, and Thailand. It was the longing for a nature-close lifestyle, mainly inspired by the tropical vitality, that made me start studying at SLU. Once at SLU, I applied for several exchange terms to gain a more global profile of cultivation knowledge. I studied one term of Tropical Agriculture in Bangkok and was then to go to Uganda for a second term focusing on, among other things, food forests and soil science. Due to administrative difficulties after a pandemic, Uganda was cancelled, and I decided to put all my effort into my new company that had begun to show good growth: Trädgårdsdags.
During my stays in Asia, my interest in cultivation grew, largely thanks to a climate where one can grow crops year-round. There was much trial cultivation of different varieties and use of natural resources in the surroundings to build the environment one wanted to create. The closeness to remarkable plants, a more self-sufficient way of life, and a glimpse of the plant kingdom’s endless diversity gave life to a new interest: the pursuit of more plants that can be grown for useful purposes: edible, medicinal, or for household use.
In the search for these plants, I came across more and more plants that had good hardiness despite coming from, for us, exotic cultures. Common for these varieties is often that they originate from mountain environments where the climate has made the plants hardy for an environment more like the conditions we have here in the North. It could also be plants that come from countries we simply see as “exotic” but which actually have environmental conditions more similar to ours than we think; examples of such regions are, for instance, the northern parts of China and Japan. In North America, there are also quite a few useful plants with good hardiness to benefit from.
The whole purpose of drawing inspiration from species from different countries is to build a cultivation that is more diverse in our climate, and thereby provides better conditions for self-sufficiency in a larger part of what we consume.
The search therefore became more specific to: hardy exotic useful plants. All these plants we bring in are planted both on our farm in Marieholm where we are building a display garden with the entire range of edible plants. But they are also planted on a piece of land next to the Kävlinge River where the business was previously located – in both these places the goal is to build a useful park-like garden.
Subjects of interest: reforestation, food forests, erosion control, trees and perennial cultivation cultures.
A unique assortment of exotic hardy plants
What sets us apart
What we are perhaps most proud of is our unique range of seeds and plants. The guideline has always been to bring in exotic plants that have good hardiness in our climate. We have some that we are alone in offering on the Swedish market, including Black Goji, various types of hardy tea bushes, and a number of different seed varieties. These varieties can be grown in Sweden but have not yet received much attention—perhaps because we think we have a cold climate and that plants from countries outside our latitudes simply cannot survive here. But it is not so clear-cut; different countries have different regions with varying climate conditions—some of which produce plants with hardiness more similar to our native plants.
Many plants in our range are old cultivated plants that humans have grown and used for their good qualities for several thousand years. There is a certain forgotten knowledge about the usefulness of the plants around us—culinary, as well as medicinal and purely practical uses. This knowledge is something we want to help shed light on again through Trädgårdsdags. For this reason, we always highlight as much as possible of the plants’ useful qualities in the plant descriptions.
The business grew thanks to the unique range
We quickly gained a foothold in the market: largely thanks to the unique range and focus on usefulness. We were, among other things, probably the first to offer Asimina seedlings in Swedish online trade and, as far as we know, we are still the only nursery selling Asimina seeds.
It was incredibly enjoyable to see that the interest in rarer plants was great even outside our own business. This first showed on the Swedish market, and eventually we also received interest from the other Scandinavian countries. The result was a strong growth of the business.
A combination of ancient knowledge & modern innovation
Vision
The vision is to shorten the distance between what we consume and ourselves. As the world's need for food grows, the area available for farming decreases.
This leads to a need for new solutions. Through a combination of ancient knowledge, useful plants, and modern innovation, we want to steer development in the right direction.
One method of farming that we believe could be a possible solution to this challenge is so-called forest garden cultivation - read more about what it is and how we use it below.
The latest addition to the business's development: Ågården
In 2024, the business had grown too large for its previous location in a house in the countryside. We then looked for a new place and ended up at Ågården - a beautiful farm right on the outskirts of Marieholm, Eslöv municipality.
Here we have greenhouses with the entire range of plants and a shop divided into "theme boxes" in a newly renovated stable.
The natural thing that does us good
Center for cultivation & well-being
With our move to Ågården in 2024, we have entirely new opportunities to further develop the concept. Since the beginning, the plant assortment has always been based on the plants' underlying qualities, that is, what they are used for—whether it concerns edible, medicinal, or household value. A clear goal has always been to bring us humans closer to the natural that benefits us. - In a time when we more often than not are consumed by technology, raised expectations, and demands for increased pace from all directions.
The aim at Ågården is to build a place where people can come to relax in the natural, find inspiration for both cultivation and a more relaxed—and exciting—way of life. This will happen partly through continued acquisition of various interesting plant varieties, but also an introduction of harvested end products from the plants we sell, such as teas, various herbs, fruits, and nuts. In addition, different events such as markets and lectures will be held, as well as activities like test-driving garden tractors.
Spacious areas in a relaxed setting
There is plenty of room both indoors and outdoors to walk around and stay in peace and quiet.
Tea cultivation can be like when people started growing grapes a few years ago
Tea cultivation in Sweden
We have firmly established ourselves as one of the pioneers of Swedish cultivation of the world’s most consumed drink: tea.
The tea bush has for millennia grown in seasonally snow-covered climates with below-zero temperatures. This may not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of tea cultivation – but the tea bush actually originates from the mountains of eastern Asia, which in some cases have a climate that can even be classified as temperate.
Besides this fact, there are plant breeders in Europe working to develop extra hardy varieties for cultivation in a European climate. We are probably the first and only in Sweden to bring in some of these varieties. The tea varieties with extra good hardiness that we have now are three Georgian varieties – 'Georgian Classic', 'Kolkhida', 'Kymin' – as well as 'Tearoma®' from Switzerland.
Last year's tea bushes have passed the hardiness test
In the summer of 2024, we purchased a large number of 'Tea By Me' and 'Tearoma®'. In November, the temperature suddenly dropped to -10ºC here. It was a sudden shock for the plants, but they managed. They also survived the rest of the winter, which stayed between -6°C and -9°C for extended periods. The varieties we have now are supposed to be hardy down to -15°C.
'Tearoma®' was the variety that fared best in 2024. In 2025, we will work with 5 new varieties, of which 3 should have as good hardiness as 'Tearoma', or better. We have also successfully overwintered non-varietal tea bushes.
An efficient and easy-to-manage cultivation system
Food Forest as a method
As a cultivation method, we have always been interested in food forest gardening. In English: food forest, or referred to by the term agroforestry. It is a system of growing where one takes inspiration from nature’s own effective systems. Nature’s ecosystems have taken time to find the perfect balance between vegetation in different layers and various types of microorganisms, insects, and animals.
The most distinctive feature of the method is that it uses different layers to get more yield per growing area while reducing the need for weed clearing and pest control. Since you choose your plants yourself, you can, for example:
Let a Minikiwi climb on a Ginkgo tree and within the same 1-meter radius let a nitrogen-fixing Goumi bush grow underneath, while in the herb layer below, let Moroccan Mint or any chosen vegetable take over. If you want to really cover the ground, you can plant, for example, Lily of the Valley or Cranberry if it is an acid soil bed. In this way, you let chosen plants take the place where you otherwise would have had to clear unwanted weeds. Moreover, the diversity of plants creates a favorable climate for various organisms and helpful animals that keep any pests in check. With a variety of different organisms, no pest can run wild because most pests also have natural predators.
In the summer of 2024, we opened a Food Forest Shop where we have divided the plants according to their different associated layers to facilitate the building of a food forest. You will find it at our new Ågården, on the outskirts of Marieholm.
The Food Forest Shop at Ågården
The plants are divided according to their associated layers: Crown layer, Second layer, Shrub layer, Herb layer, Ground covers and Climbers.
It should be easy to know what you can get from the plant
Plant descriptions & images
All plant descriptions are written by me, Johannes Billsten, based both on thorough research and personal experience. The idea behind the often quite detailed plant descriptions is partly to give each plant the presentation it deserves, but also to make it easy to know what you can gain from growing each plant.
If you wish to use the source in literary works and wonder about the year the text was written, just get in touch.
Likewise, many of the images on the site are taken by me and belong to Trädgårdsdags; in other cases, we have used purchased stock photos or CC images to cover where we lack our own material. Both text and images are protected under copyright law – if you want to use images from the website, please contact us and we will find a solution.
Company info
Trädgårdsdags
Johannes Billsten
Company address: Trädgårdsdags, ÅKARP 301, 241 72 Marieholm, Sweden
VAT registration number: SE970204355601
Registration number Agricultural Board: SE-M10691
Organization number: 970204-3556
