Mynnilän Arboretum is a privat initiative established in 1998 by Ensio Soutamo. The area of about 120 hectares consists of three properties – Salmela, Hörhä and Mynnilä, which are located in Southern Finland about 80 Km from Lahti and 200 Km from Helsinki. The area of special tree species covers over 20 hectares of the forest where the different species have been planted in small areas together with native trees, e.g. Curly Birch with Silver Birch. The aim is to see which combinations are suitable for forestry in economic sense of cultivation and which planting or sowing methods are the most productive.
Salmela is the oldest part of the arboretum with a large garden and the oldest plantings of special trees. There you can also see some single conifers and deciduos trees.
The main attraction of the arboretum is Curly Birch (Betula pendula var. carelica), which naturally grows in a small area of the northern hemisphere. The different origins of Finnish curly birch found in the nature – as well as trees, e.g. Sorbus and Alnus, with similar mutation. There are running several experiments on curly birch cultivation, forestry and cultivation of economic forests together with the Finnisch Forest Research Institute and the Finnish Curly Birch Society