Flowers 28

Created on 120,000 square metres of natural moorland near Rifferswil to the south of Zurich in Switzerland, the Seleger Moor is an exotic and lush landscape of rhododendrons, azaleas, water lilies, ferns and other plant species. It was created by Robert Seleger in the mid-1950s. Seleger, who was the project leader of the 1953 Zurich Spring Flower Show, discovered that the soil on the moorland, formed when the Reuss and Linth glaciers merged and deposited moraine thousands of years ago, was ideal for cultivating rhododendrons. After the harsh winter of 1956 destroyed most of his plants, he travelled the world collecting the hardier species that now thrive and transform the moor into a riot of colour every spring and summer. Rhododendrons and azaleas, of which there are over 1000 species, are native to as diverse regions in the Northern Hemisphere as the Himalayas, Japan and tropical Borneo, and are prized as landscaping plants for their structure, size and bold colour variations. Many species are evergreen. Water lilies - also called Nymphaea after the Greek word for nymph - can be found thriving all over the world. There are around 50 species of this delicate aquatic plant, all of which have characteristic leaves with a radial notch from the circumference to the leaf stem in the centre and are mostly found in pastel-hued variations.