Our next day took us for a quick visit and talk by the owner, Martin Vis, of Tropisch Rozenland, or Tropical Rose Paradis. This is a family business and we sat and enjoyed the talk about how roses are grown today and how it was done in the past. Here the roses are grown in cases or sacks of material and if you can see the pictures of this, you will see a white tube, which pumps in hydrogen gas, it’s at the bottom so the gas floats up, plus they are all water individually. This is a place that grows roses for the cut rose industry. They also had a wonderful indoor garden display with waterfalls, many, many tropicals and of course a shop where you can buy bouquets of flowers and gifts. 

Afterwards we headed to Keukenhof – where we were also going to have lunch in the Koningin Juliana Paviljoen.

I did know that Keukenhof was something to visit but I was not prepared for what was there…it was incredible…as I am sure you will see from the pictures. The weather was perfect, the bulbs were at their peak and when you were there you felt that you were in a secret world…simply incredible. It is only open for a very short time and it was without a doubt the highlight of the tour. 

The Keukenhof estate has a long history … during the 15th century it was part of a region covered by forests and dunes. It was the hunting ground for the little community of residents at Teylingen castle, which lies in ruins today. From 1401 – 1436 the land belonged to Countess Jacoba van Beieren. It was her home, her hunting grounds and her garden from which to gather herbs for the castle kitchen. Her passion for herbs is where Keukenhof derived its name, which literally translated means ‘kitchen courtyard’. The basic design for the park was done in 1830 and in 1949 a group of prominent bulb growers and exporters came up with a brilliant new idea: an open air museum for flowers. It was to serve as a window display for the bulb growing industry. That year 40 businesses participated and today there are around 100. In total seven million bulb flowers cover this spectacularly designed park.

You will experience the Historical garden – a formal garden enclosed by walls featuring old to ancient bulbs. The Nature Garden features a combination of perennials, bulb plants and tuberous plants, overlooked by blooming shrubs and a coppice of oaks. The Music Garden, Theme gardens, flower arrangement workshops, and pavilions full of plants finish off the offering.

We toured around this place on our own and met for a wonderful lunch in a pavilion surrounded at that time by arrangements from all over South Africa. Each of the pavilions contain exhibitions that change on a regular basis.

This place impressed me so much that I am putting together a tour to Holland just because people must go and see it for themselves.