Fraxinus Americana 'Skyline' - White Ash 'Skyline'

He tells us, not without pride, that after his father, Wilhelm Bruns, his youngest son, Michael, is also studying at the HSWT now. Michael Bruns will graduate in the summer of 2021 with the topic "The impact of climate change on production in the German nursery industry", continuing the tradition that began with his grandfather Wilhelm Bruns in the mid-1930s.

"The time at Weihenstephan has shaped my father greatly," says Jan-Dieter Bruns. He visited the campus regularly as a child with his father when the family was invited to old student friends' houses. Jan-Dieter Bruns, who studied Horticulture at the University of Applied Sciences Osnabrück, as his eldest son Jan-Gerd did, was delighted that his youngest son Michael decided to return to the University of Applied Sciences Weihenstephan. Jan-Dieter and his father, Wilhelm Bruns, were awarded the Hans Bickel Prize by the University of Applied Sciences Weihenstephan for their exceptional horticultural work. Against this background, there is no question that the Bruns family will regularly visit their sponsor tree, white ash (Fraxinus americana "Skyline"), in the arboretum in future.

Founded in 1876 by Diedrich-Gerhard Bruns at only 23 years of age as a horticultural business, the company was further expanded in 1900 by his son Johann Bruns. Erich and Wilhelm Bruns, the two sons of Johann Bruns, coined the term "Bruns Pflanzen" (Bruns Plants) and made the nursery known throughout Germany. The company was internationalised with the arrival of Jan-Dieter Bruns in 1977. Today, the export share of around 40 % contributes significantly to the success of Bruns Nursery.

The Bruns company produces a wide range of exemplary species, from the 3 x transplanted specimen plant to the 50-year-old specimen tree for garden and landscape construction, garden and landscape architects, and public customers such as cities and municipalities. Large architectural projects, such as the greening of the Reichstag or the Bundesrat in Berlin, the Landscape Park Riem, the New Munich Trade Fair Centre or the Allianz Arena, were realised with Bruns plants.

Jan-Dieter Bruns sees HSWT as a valuable competence partner when testing new plant selections or cultivars for the Bavarian climate. Jan-Dieter Bruns also readily admits, however, that he naturally also very much appreciates the Bräustüberl on Weihenstephaner Berg, among other places, where he enjoys discussing the challenges of the green industry with his Freising friends, landscape gardeners and landscape architects over a measure. "We have to react to climate change together with appropriate plant species," says the successful entrepreneur who also sees the newly created arboretum in this context: "For the sake of future generations, the effects of climate change can be researched, here in a practical way. The future trees at HSWT will develop well over the next 50 years and provide measurable data on which tree species can be suitable alternatives to our native species." He assumes that the consequences of a changing climate will also highly impact tree nursery production - and thus also on his company.

With a 145-year history of success and tradition behind it, Bruns-Pflanzen-Export GmbH & Co KG is in an optimal position to master future challenges. And who knows how many more Bruns generations will wander through the arboretum at the HSWT and remember their family's deep roots with Weihenstephan.

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