Joscha Huter cultivates plants and flowers used to make a popular line of German natural cosmetics, Dr. Hauschka.

By MARK LANDLER

ECKWALDEN, Germany - You know you are not in an ordinary garden when a man in dirt-covered trousers, tending witch-hazel plants, describes his work in words that could come from Nietzsche.
“It demands a higher level of consciousness and a force of will to garden at this level,” said Joscha Huter, 40, who cultivates the plants and flowers used to make the popular, expensive line of German natural cosmetics, Dr. Hauschka. “There’s a point where gardening becomes an art.”
There’s also a point where it becomes a thriving business: this rarefied garden in a southern German valley is the seedbed for an environmental marketing phenomenon that has captivated Hollywood.
Julia Roberts, Jennifer Aniston, Richard Gere and Robert Downey Jr. are among the celebrities who have publicly extolled Dr. Hauschka’s skin care products. Their devotion has helped to win Dr. Hauschka a cultlike following.
Sales of WALA Heilmittel, the maker of Dr. Hauschka, have more than doubled in the last five years, to nearly $150 million . The 73-year-old company now finds itself in the middle of a booming market for green cosmetics. Estee Lauder, L’Oreal and other giants are pushing all-natural brands.
WALA is one of dozens of German companies - from windmill manufacturers to organic beverage producers - that are benefiting from a growing global appetite for environmentally friendly products.
But even by German standards, WALA is uncommonly rigorous. Visitors to the garden are asked to switch off their cellphones, for security reasons and to avoid disturbing the harmony of nature.
The company’s roots are in herbal medicine. WALA was founded in 1935 by Rudolf Hauschka, a Viennese chemist who sought to develop remedies using only natural ingredients. In 1967, it added the skin care line, named after the founder, who died two years later.
The company’s name stands for Warmth and Ashes, Light and Ashes. WALA is based on a school of early 20th-century European philosophy known as anthroposophy. Developed by the Austrian theorist Rudolf Steiner, the philosophy is predicated on the existence of a spiritual world that can be accessed by the human intellect.
He championed biodynamic agriculture, a rigorous form of organic farming that shuns pesticides and uses no fertilizers that were not already present in the garden.
An acolyte of Mr. Steiner, Rudolf Hauschka planted a biodynamic garden in this town, 45 kilometers west of Stuttgart, in 1955. There, a team of eight gardeners cultivates more than 150 types of plants, flowers and trees, ranging from Echinacea to monk’s hood.
Dr. Hauschka clings to its image by shunning department or convenience stores. It is available in natural product stores, pharmacies and from licensed skin care specialists.
The fact that WALA’s green label comes with a dash of Hollywood glitter makes its German managers squeamish, given that they run the company almost as a collective, with all the profits either plowed back into operations or handed out to the 700 workers.
“If celebrities like Dr. Hauschka, we’re happy, of course,” said Philip Lettmann, WALA’s chief financial officer. “But we’re even happier if an ordinary person with a skin problem finds help by using our products. Our philosophy was here long before the green trend began.