Keukenhof: Awash in Color

Of all the things I remember from my first visit to the Netherlands at age 16, none is quite as vivid as the huge flower displays at Keukenhof. Visiting again this spring, more than sixty years later, I understand why.

Even on the last week-end of the eight-week viewing season there was an amazing depth to the displays, amazing color to the selections, and a wide variety of my favorite tulips, the fringed varieties.

Which is not to say that Keukenhof has nothing but tulips; it also has shrubs, hyacinths, daffodils, lilies, roses… you name it. I’m not going to try to name everything I’m posting here; I’m not a botanist… I just love to be surrounded by flowers.

In between the pictures, there are facts and factoids to share as well, including its status as the champion of all Dutch attractions on a visitor per day basis. The Rijksmuseum averages 8,000 visitors a day; Keukenhof gets 26,000. Of course, the museum is open year-round, so it’s not really a fair comparison.

The gardens are an attraction in themselves, but their modern origin, since 1949, was an effort by Dutch bulb growers to publicize their wares and show them off for wholesale buyers and shippers. Many of the bulb companies have elaborate individual displays in the four indoor pavilions.

Keukenhof covers 79 acres, planted each year with about seven million bulbs. It takes 40 gardeners to plant them, starting in early October and ending early in December. Three bulbs are planted in each spot; as the first one fades, the next later variety opens, and then the third.

Some history factoids… The name means ‘Kitchen House.’ The land it sits on was a hunting ground and kitchen garden (keukentuin) for 15th-century Teylingen Castle.

In 1638, the land was bought by Adriaen Maertensz Block, head of the Dutch East India Company and one of the richest men of his time. He built a large manor house, and called it Castle Keukenhof. Perhaps a sense of humor there….

The layout of the various gardens predates today’s Keukenhof, which largely followed the existing designs laid out in the 1850s by Jan David Zocher, who also designed Amsterdam’s Vondelpark.

As is by now obvious, it is difficult to limit the number of pictures; these are a selection from over 200. Before digital photography, it was hard to make enough images; now it’s too easy to make too many!