GARDENING

138A PEARL OF LUXURY

GARDENING

138A PEARL OF LUXURY

TENDED BY PASSIONATE GARDENERS AND DESIGNED TO MELT

EVEN THE STONE-HEARTED, THE HEART STOPPING BEAUTY OF

KEUKENHOF PARK, ALSO KNOWN AS NETHERLANDS MOST FAMOUS

TOURIST DESTINATION, IS THE PLACE TO HEAD TO IN SPRING

FOR A BREATH OF FRESH AIR AND MIND BLOWING SERENITY. A

MAGNET FOR TOURISTS AND INTERNATIONAL FLORISTS, IT IS SAID

TO BE DIRECTLY AND INDIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR AN ANNUAL

TURNOVER OF MORE THAN 350 MILLION EUROS.

ANASUYA KESAVAN

THE SEASON OF SMILES

SPRING

01 The stunning colors which greet

you as you walk into the Keukenhof

Garden make it feel as though it is

spring year round.

WHEN KEUKENHOF PARK BRINGS

ALIVE THE EXUBERANCE OF

NATURE IN THE HEART OF EUROPE

GARDENING

140A PEARL OF LUXURY

S pring is a time when nature’s bounty can be witnessed at its colorful best, and the Keukenhof Park, situated between Amsterdam and The Hague in the Bulb region, has been recommended by specialists worldwide as the ultimate place to soak in the season’s magnificent splendor.

Open to public for just eight weeks in a year, this popular destination in the Netherlands attracts more than 800,000 photographers, horticulturalists, florists and tourists from all over the world.

Mesmerized by the splendid sights offered by neatly trimmed and beautifully laid out flower beds, visitors come to witness the abundance of colors and fragrances, garden arrangements and landscaping created with roughly seven million blossoms.

Prized as Europe’s most valued attraction, Keukenhof is the largest bulb flower park in the world that is spread over an area of 32 hectares with 15 kilometers of footpaths and 4.5 million tulips in 100 varieties. It has more than 2,500 trees in 87 varieties and not surprisingly, is believed to be among the most photographed places in the world.

The park was once a hunting area in the 15th century and a section of the estate of Slot Teylingen, a Dutch castle. Covered with beautiful untamed bushes and dunes, it was also the area from where the herbs for the castle kitchen were collected and hence the name - Keukenhof meaning kitchen garden.

After the estate moved hands from royalty

to rich business families, it was landscaped in an English style and is today filled with blooming tulips, hyacinths, daffodils and other spring bulbs.

In 1949, along with a number of leading flower bulb growers and exporters, the Mayor of Lisse, the town where Keukenhof is located, organized an open air flower exhibition for the first time in the region. The annual tradition caught the imagination of flower growers in a big way and has found a defining spot in the tourism and economy of the country.

The legendary park is today in an enviable position of providing a substantial contribution to the country’s tourism industry with an annual turnover amounting to tens of millions of Euros.

If guided tours in a variety of languages can be seen as a measure of the park’s popularity, the unique destination provides tours in Dutch, English, Spanish, French, German, Swedish, Russian, Japanese and Chinese.

The magnificent spring showcase also has a variety of events that pull together the entire picture for the wonderstruck visitor. The most famous parade in the country, a Flower Parade, also fondly referred to as the “face of spring”, is organized during this time.

Musical groups lead the procession of about 20 floats and more than 30 vehicles decorated generously with the season’s blooms. It follows a 40 kilometers route from Noordwijk to Haarlem and passes Keukenhof along the length of the “Keukenhof Corso Boulevard”.

02 Today the park is

filled with blooming tulips,

hyacinths, daffodils and other

spring bulbs.

03 The park was once a

hunting area in the 15th

century and a section of the

estate of Slot Teylingen, a

Dutch castle.

04 Keukenhof is the largest

bulb flower park in the world.

With its unique identity and distinctive feel and trend, the inspirational gardens provide from the modern to romantic and robust to sweet impressions.

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04

GARDENING

142A PEARL OF LUXURY

05 The lovely purples and

pinks of the garden can

mesmerize any onlooker.

06 Visitors can walk through

the blooming abundance of

ancient varieties of tulips and

other flowers.

07 The park is spread over an

area of 32 hectares with

15 kilometers of footpaths.

A high quality flower exhibition is organized for nine weeks by hundreds of different growers, breeders and product groups who put their best foot forward for the international guests.

Every year a different theme gets precedence to present natural beauty arranged in a classic, contemporary and futuristic way. The theme this year was “Poland - Heart of Europe”.

A number of indoor flower shows that go by stimulating names for example, Tulip Theatre, Dazzling Daffodils, Romantic Roses and Flower Power, are created specially to entice and charm the audiences.

The park also offers its loyal fans an illustration of how to replicate the sense of beauty found in the impressive grounds in gardens back home. After all, it is every gardener’s dream to have a sparkling ribbon of spring flowers winding through their garden, a river of blue muscari nestle among the trees or perhaps a border in which the most special tulips show their beauty.

Keukenhof has also created seven inspirational gardens that demonstrate how different flower bulbs can be used in a domestic garden that could range from 50 to 120 sqm in size.

With its unique identity and distinctive feel and trend, the inspirational gardens provide from the modern to romantic and robust to sweet impressions. Among them is the striking historical garden - an oasis that lives and breathes the atmosphere of a historic castle garden.

Showcased here are various collections of historical spring bulbs and tuberous plants, which include seventeenth century daffodils along with old tulip varieties from the Hortus Bulborum, the only museum garden in the world where you can find over 4,000 different tulips, hyacinth, daffodil and other bulbous cultivars, species and varieties.

The plants in the historical garden include some exotic species that have been cultivated for hundreds of years and are not any longer available for purchase.

Recent additions to this area include the reconstruction of eight flowerbeds from the oldest Dutch Botanical garden - the Hortus Botanicus in Leiden, along with a bust of its founder, Carolus Clusius.

It provides a lesson in olden times for visitors who can absorb the highpoints of Dutch flower bulb history with a walk through the blooming abundance of ancient varieties of tulips and crocus, anemones, fritillaria and lilies.

Bringing history to life is also a century old mill

that was built in Groningen in 1892, and was used to pump water out of a polder and was donated to Keukenhof by the Holland-America Line in 1957.

Upcycling, described by some as reusing a material without degrading the quality and composition of the material for its next use, was the theme for Keukenhof’s forest garden this year. It exhibited new ways of thinking and innovatively reusing materials while making conscious choices between global and local.

Keukenhof is also a live demonstration of the most popular gardening styles, from the English landscape garden, to the historic garden with old species of flower bulbs, to the renovated Japanese country garden. The treasures in this park include the nature garden, where the shrubbery and perennial plants are combined with wild bulb plants and the bridal lane for the romantic at heart.

For the orchid lovers, Beatrix Pavilion that spreads over 1000 sqm has been dedicated for orchids, rated among the most beautiful flowers in the world. Another prime attraction is the well known lily show in the Prince Willem Alexander Pavilion, which has approximately 35,000 lilies in more than 300 different varieties.

Keukenhof also boasts the largest sculpture park in the Netherlands. Under the name “Art Keukenhof”, 150 figurines and monuments by a number of artists are on display.

Biking enthusiasts have been encouraged to cycle around Keukenhof bulb fields for years, but recently the park has added charm to the visitors’ experience with the introduction of whisper boats that provide a view from the waters of these beautiful Dutch surroundings.

The sailing sessions for about 50 to 75 minutes are on boats that were once used by gardeners, growers and farmers for all types of work. These whisper boats have been equipped with electric engines that are environmentally friendly and are almost silent.

For children, Keukenhof offers an exciting labyrinth, a playground and a menagerie. The treasure hunt and the “Brainbox Puzzle Trail” lead them along the most beautiful places in the park.

Netherlands most image defining destinations is open for eight weeks between March and May including Sundays and public holidays. This year the park closes on 20 May, and will reopen from 21 March till 20 May 2013.

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06 07

GARDENING

144A PEARL OF LUXURY

08 Keukenhof Park houses 4.5

million tulips in over 100 varieties.

09 Visitors visit Keukenhof Park

to witness the abundance of

colors and fragrances.

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09