Keukenhof ("Kitchen Garden")- The Flower Garden of Europe

   Holland is tulips and tulips are Holland, so what would a trip to Holland be without experiencing the Keukenhof, the world’s largest flower garden.  Our friend Lisa Swatman was visiting from California and is an avid gardner, so we decided to hop on the train and spend a day strolling through the gardens and enjoying the sunshine there. 

Keukenhof grounds

The park, which has been in operation for 63 years, expects 800,000 visitors from all over the world this year.  Over 43 million have visited since the park began in 1949.  The grounds are spread over 79 acres of the most brilliant and dazzling flower gardens you’ll ever see, with 5 pavilions housing imaginative and entertaining displays. Its the largest flower show that you can imagine, located just a short distance outside Amsterdam.  It is probably more popular with women than men, however.  If there was a poll of why men come to the show, the most popular answer would probably be “Because my wife made me come,” right behind “I love flowers” and “I thought I could buy some great marijuana here.”

   For gardeners, Keukenhof is the “Super Bowl” of flowers (without the Bud Light commercials, of course).  The park is open for just about 2 months out of the year.  The rest of the year is spent doing maintenance and preparation for the coming year.  All the flowers in the park bloom at different intervals, so the planting schedule has to be meticulously staggered to get them to all be in bloom at the same time.  Just planting the more than 7 million bulbs by hand that will burst into bloom during the Keukenhof takes over 2 months.  

Castle Keukenhof

   The name Keukenhof actually comes from the nearby “Castle Keukenhof”. The park was once part of the castle grounds (including the herb garden outside the castle kitchen) dating back to the 15th century.  In 1857, the Baron who owned the estate at that time had the same landscape architects that designed Vondelpark in Amsterdam create an English landscape garden for him.  The original layout still remains the foundation of the park today.

   Tulips have long played an integral part of the Dutch economy. In the 17th century, wealthy investors paid enormous sums for tulip bulbs. Eventually, the middle class also saw a chance to earn immense profits, and the first commodities hype was born: the tulip mania. Traders could earn the fantastic amount of 30,000 Euros per month by trading in tulip bulbs. Some people sold their companies or their family jewels in order to take part in the trade. But in 1637, the market collapsed completely, and thousands of people were ruined in a very short time. (Funny how history repeats itself, eh?)  Tulips have remained an important part of Dutch culture, however, and today the Keukenhof is directly and indirectly responsible for more than 350 million Euros per year in the tourist industry. Flower growing is responsible for 23% of all revenues and employment in South Holland.

A delicious day

   What a delightful day we had.  A delicious day. It truly was a storybook; actually storybook upon storybook. Just when you thought you had seen every imaginable flower or combinations of, there were more around the next corner, or in the next pavilion. Flowers from all over the world, as one name implies, ‘Tulipa World Expression’. Then there is the Tulipa Sorbet, The Tulip Candy Club, The Tulip Apricot Beauty, The Tulipa WhiteTriumphator, The Tulipa AngClique, and on and on. Best of all, there is no test at the end of the day, but for you who don’t get it, possibly you will remember this one, along with its’ combinations of names, “The Narcissus Minnow”, or the one which the Dutch men voted as their favorite, ‘The Narcissus Dutch Master’. Go figure!  My favorite Narcissus is the ‘Narcissus Cheerfulness’. Everyone loves cheerful narcissism, don’t they? Well, the flower is beautiful. 

Tulipa "Cummins"

   Along with the 5  pavilions, the Park has several individual themed areas, much like being in Disneyland. There is the Zocher Garden, with its beautiful fountain on which the swans move gracefully atop the water while the carp feed on the bottom. On this pond there are also stepping stones for the children to walk out on, but they also allow the adults to enjoy them. It gave me a great feeling of ‘walking on water’.  Then there is the ‘Mill Square’, which is one of the most popular locations in the park. “The windmill was originally built to pump water in Groningen, ( a nearby town), but was gifted to the park in 1957 by the Holland America Line. The guide book boasts of this being the perfect place to take pictures. Personally, I  felt every place was the perfect place. And I have to tell you, because it is true: Keukenhof would not fare well for the family if it were not for the Kinderparadijs, (the children’s park). The Dutch love their young, and it is manifested in the thousands of parks throughout the Country, so naturally this beautiful flower park had to include one. It contains the most wonderful petting zoo, a fantastic jungle gym of climbing ropes and obstacles, a maze that even we got lost in, and a wonderful arts and crafts area.

Every flower has a place

   Beyond the children’s park are The Inspiration Gardens: For us Americans this would be the Martha Stewart "You Can Design It" section. There are seven Inspiration Gardens in all, The Town Garden, the Woodland Garden, the Garden Lover’s Garden, the Seductive Garden, the Urban Garden, the Forest Garden, the Patio Garden, the Hobby Garden, and the Historical Garden.  Wonder which garden we would find you in? Right! You can’t leave the park without visiting all of them. I took two cameras with fully charged batteries, and still I became very frustrated when the second one boasted a dead battery. Not a bit funny, but I had to accept the fact that I probably had taken enough pictures for the day.

   There is, of course, even more here than what we have included in our short summary. You just have to come see for yourself. I’m quite certain if I were a local, I would spend more than a few days ambling through the park, taking in the delicious aromatic  senses and mind boggling views.

   A couple of days ago I was talking to my daughter, Rebekah, on Skype and telling her all about our eight hour day at the park, and she was a bit shocked. She said, “Eight hours, How can you spend eight hours in a flower park?”  My daughter, who is 27 years old, could spend 8 months in Disneyland. How could she ask us how we could spend 8 hours in a flower park? She just has to witness it for herself. Don couldn’t keep up with Lisa and me. We were all over the place, with all the other thousands of happy people who just couldn’t get enough of the spectacular beauty. I’m so glad Lisa got to partake in this majestic wonder of the world with us. If you ever get the opportunity to come to Holland, make sure you time your arrival during the months the Keukenhof is ‘Boasting in all Its’ Glory’. You’ll be glad you did.