In “The Botany of Desire” Michael Pollan suggested lightheartedly that plants manipulate humans into furthering their needs. It is a charming thought but probably unlikely. Still there is one genus in which I can see how it might work and that is the tulip. The blossom is so gorgeous many people of very strong character have become utterly obsessed by the flower. I am not yet of their number but getting very close. Witness, I dragged my long suffering family to Lisse in The Netherlands to see the Keukenhof Tulip Gardens at their peak this spring.

The place, Keukenhof, which means kitchen, is the residual garden area of a great medieval estate. After World War II Dutch nurserymen and the owners of great seed houses decided to develop that property into show gardens as a way of advertising their bulbs. They succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest imaginings. The garden opened in 1950. Since then they receive up to one and a half million visitors a year during a brief season of six weeks, from the end of March to mid May. We were there on May 1. Even though it was the tail end of their working year the place was immaculate. All the flowers we saw were in perfect condition.

Keukenhof employs forty gardeners year round but in the spring they add dozens more so that their final tally is one thousand workers. That includes catering staff and other peripheral services. The level of organization is breathtaking. In spite of the fact that there were several thousand other visitors from all over the world crowding the paths one had no feeling of pressure.

Four large cafeterias ensure one can get lunch without waiting more than one or two minutes. The womens restrooms have so many stalls there was no line, an unheard-of achievement in the annals of public spaces.

Having disposed of the mundane but essential foundations one can now turn to the flowers themselves. It is hard to give a blow by blow account of seven million bulbs but one can try. First of all, although we think of Keukenhof as a place for tulips they plant lots of the other spring bulbs like narcissus, snowdrops, crocus and hyacinths. There are flowering fruit trees and ornamental shrubs such as rhododendron and azalea (yes, I know they are now all considered to be in the genus Rhododendron). The narcissus and hyacinths were on their last legs by the time we got there but the shrubs were in full bloom.

In laying out the tulip beds the designers use every dimension available to them: height, colour, texture and petal shape. They also use clever companion planting to heighten the effect. As you enter there are two gigantic beds mounded up to show the tulips from all aspects. (Image 1 Mounded tulip bed)

As you walk along the paths the beds seem to be very much alike until you get closer and see the detail. In one bed there may be three heights of flower, small, medium and tall, all the same color but showing charming variation.
Over the past decades in which tulip crossings have been accelerating a large number have been bred with double petals. Some of them are known as “peony” tulips. (Image 2 peony tulips)

There are also lily flowered tulips. Incredible mixtures of color have also appeared. The fundamental color for a tulip petal is white or yellow. Other pigments then develop, often taking over completely but sometimes not doing that, leaving an opportunity for more than one color per blossom. (Image 3 parrot tulip)

During the famous 17th century “tulipmania” bubble in The Netherlands the white base would be streaked with unpredictable random stripes and shapes of red, causing the owner’s heart to beat faster. (Image 4 streaked tulip)

The uncertainty of this appearance led to huge bets being placed on the same pattern recurring and the resulting “futures” market that arose. At that time they did not know that these patterns were due to a viral infection of the plant and thus unique to that particular specimen. They were all doomed to fail to predict the next year’s patterns. When a single bulb cost more than your house the game was up.

Some beds at Keukenhof were laid out with “hot” colors such as red, orange and yellow. Other were “cooler” colors like pale pink, lavender and hints of white. There are even a few which remain white but have green stripes. The one color tulips cannot provide is true blue. They do not have the correct anthocyanin pigment in their gene base to do that, just as roses do not have it either. The under planting also assisted in the overall gestalt. White headed wild garlic and bluebells set the scene for the cooler beds. Stately fritillaries in a soft orange provided very effective accents throughout the beds. Dark purple alliums also decorated some of the beds. One allium alone is rather dull to my eyes but massing them together is bold and exciting.

A separate small section is set aside for historical specimens, rare species plants not usually cultivated. I have a terrible weakness for antique tulips with pointed petals and fringes like T. acuminata (now given another name because of DNA studies). (Image 5 Tulipa Acuminata)

Everything I have tried to say feels rather lame. The only thing to do is to go and see for yourself.

DeTheetuin

Through a helpful connection I was introduced (on line) to one of the landscape architects who designed some of the tulip beds. Jacqueline van der Kloet built her own garden on the site of a disused fort at the far perimeter of old Amsterdam’s defence system in the small town of Weesp. She laid out a tantalizing set of beds with winding paths taking the eye so far and no further until you walk along to the next section. At this season the garden is highly romantic with soft blue and white bulbs, accentuated by the occasional orange meconopsis poppy or a species tulip chosen for the architecture of its petals. “De Theetuin” is the name of her destination garden and well worth a visit just for itself. She created the garden intentionally for visitors and has a small café on site to enjoy refreshments. (Image 6 De Theetuin)

The Rijksmuseum is surrounded by three gardens, one of which is devoted to children’s education. It is broken down into radial strips and each lucky child can plant seeds in the spring and watch the vegetables grow and develop. In the other section very subtle planting highlights the joys of green hellebores, a few fugitive bulbs and other perennials. Tight planting was in fact a feature of all the gardens we visited. Almost no open soil is visible, giving weeds no opportunity to take hold.

Hortus Botanicus is one of the oldest botanical gardens in Europe, founded in the mid 17th century and still having a gate from 1715. It originated as a medical teaching garden at the time when herbs were the basis of all medical treatment. When modern chemicals took over therapeutics the garden reverted to a more general function, displaying rare specimens from all over the world. The garden is very small and unpretentious and one is apt to look down at it until you examine the beds closely. Then its extraordinary nature hits you and you gasp for breath time after time.

Very close to the entrance is Gladiolus tristis, a pale yellow species plant I had only ever seen as a picture in books. (Image 7 Gladiolus tristis)

Off in the distance I saw a fragile pink mist. It turned out to be a tamarisk tree, something else I had never seen. (Image 8 Tamarisk tree)

About two dozen pots each house species tulips way past their prime but very important nevertheless. Wild garlic and bluebells filled in any spaces under the ancient trees.

The botanical garden maintains a heated glasshouse devoted to butterflies. As these delicate creatures are disappearing in the wild this is of immense value. The house is a magical place in which the staff not only grow the plants butterflies eat but also supply small pieces of fresh fruit to augment their diet (Image 9 Butterflies eating fruit)

A fifth place we visited is not billed as a garden but is an outdoor sculpture museum. The Kroller-Muller Museum is in the center of the Hoge national forest. Miss Kroller and Mr Muller were a married couple who owned the Muller shipping lines and could afford to buy any painting that caught their eye in the early years of the twentieth century.

Mrs Muller was an expert in then contemporary painting and bought Impressionists, Expessionists, Van Goghs and other modern masters as the work was introduced. The museum owns more paintings by Van Gogh than almost any other collection in the world. In the early 1930s they transformed a small hunting lodge they owned in the park into a museum. The paintings were safely stored away during the war.

Floor to ceiling plate glass windows allowed the light to filter in through the leaves of the trees, creating a scene which can never be forgotten. I first visited the museum in 1958. Sixty years later I took my grandson to see it in 2018. By then the building had been extended and a sculpture garden added.

Great masters of the twentieth century are represented as well as many contemporary works. The setting of a rich woodland garden is not discussed as such but contributes to the magical effect of so much amazing work. Many tall trees and midsized flowering shrubs provide background and scale. The ground is covered with spring bulbs at present. Once again bluebells and wild garlic predominate.



There are doubtless many other marvelous gardens in The Netherlands but these are just a sample I had the good fortune to visit.

COPYRIGHT © JUDITH M. TAYLOR MAY 2025