Floriade 2012 – World Horticultural Expo Garden Tour
Including Keukenhof
April 19th – April 27th, 2012
 

April 21, Day 3

The inspirational gardens at Keukenhof are the ideal place for visitors to not just gaze in admiration but also be inspired and encouraged to use flower bulbs in their own garden.

The seven gardens vary in size and each have their own individual character and theme. The sizes are based on the average Dutch garden and vary from around 50 to 120 m2. Each garden has a permanent basic framework of trees, shrubs, hedges and wooden walls or fences, but the rest of the planting with perennials and flower bulbs is changed each year. Besides this, each spring, containers and garden furniture are used to create a totally different character.

Keukenhof presents a permanent floral abundance of unprecedented beauty, in three specially designed pavilions. This year there are about sixteen permanent and varying indoor shows. They promise visitors a genuine ‘spring experience’, with thousands of delightful flowers and colours in classic, contemporary and futuristic arrangements. Thanks to these indoor shows Keukenhof is always attractive: 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. 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. http://www.keukenhof.nl/