Plant nursery from Rechtenbach

Built: 1957/1958
Dismantled: 2017
Reassembled: 2017 to 2018

Founded in the 1950s, the Weidmann nursery brought joy to many a plant lover until it was forced to close in the 1990s. The greenhouse and several cold frames were dismantled in Rechtenbach in the summer of 2017 and transported to the Open Air Museum to be rebuilt here.
Making use of the historic nursery in the Open Air Museum allows us to preserve and pass on long-held gardening knowledge and practical skills. In future, the building will offer green projects for school groups as well as growing, breeding and thus preserving old cultivated plants for future generations. Long-standing varieties will be used to grow both ornamental and useful plants for the museum’s historic gardens and beds. Particularly special species, such as the dye plants, will also be on display in show beds. The ability to collect seeds from the nursery’s very own seed bearers underpins the important archaeological role the museum has to play in the field of useful plants. The compost heaps also help to explain many biological processes and are used to produce planting soil for the museum. The variety it offers means the nursery, historic though it may be, is a forward-looking project for the Open Air Museum. By watching Hessenpark employees at work in the greenhouse, visitors can surely learn a great deal about a wide range of horticultural skills.
A new permanent exhibition has been on display in one of the two greenhouses since summer 2019. The exhibition focuses on the importance of nurseries for everyday village life and the social changes that led to the flourishing and then decline of such businesses within just a few decades.