Many of you know my love of fresh flowers. I love to grow them and I love to look at them. So I was VERY excited when we decided to get tickets to the Keukenhof Garden this spring.
Keukenhof is an 80 acre area near Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It is only open for 8 weeks of the year, from mid March to mid May. And in those 8 weeks they get 1.4 million visitors, about 26,000 per day.
There they hand plant thousands of bulbs every year. Many tulips, hyacinths, daffodils and other lovely plants decorate the land in interesting shapes and stimulating colors. It is truly magnificent. The garden smells like Hyacinths in most areas.
Canals surround the garden, bringing water to the plants in the garden and to the flower fields around it. The canals used to be the main means of transportation from the ocean, the way that salesmen would bring goods to the garden.
Mostly this post will consist of flower pictures. There isn’t a lot of explaining that needs to be done. Just enjoy the beauty of the earth.
The Day Begins
We were advised to check out the pond in the back of the garden before the crowds came in, so we passed through the entrance and passed the street organ on our way back to the pond area. The fountain in the pond was our first destination.
The Beautiful Pond Area
Unfortunately, there were already lots of people in the pond area when we arrived, but we still enjoyed it immensely. Check out the lily pads for humans.
Boat Ride Through the Flower Fields
We took a brief boat ride on the canals. They took us through the fields of flowers. Turns out the fields surrounding the gardens aren’t for growing flowers. Their purpose is to grow bulbs. About 2 weeks after the flowers bloom, they cut off the blooms in order to force energy back into the bulbs. And after the bulbs grow bigger, they are harvested and sold.
Flower Beds In The Gardens
The Orchid House
In the back corner of Keukenhof is the orchid house. I never knew so many varieties of orchids existed! My favorites were the blue orchids. They aren’t natural. They are injected with a blue dye. Fine by me. I love them.
Flower Close Ups
Other Random Sightings
And that is the end of our day at the Keukenhof Gardens! Such a unique and fun experience. I can’t imagine the amount of hours that go into getting the garden ready for 8 weeks of viewing.
Thanks to all of you for reading my blog and supporting our experiences here. I appreciate you all!
WOW! Absolutely gorgeous. What a great place to tour! It is beginning to look like that here. Tulip Time begins this week Thursday. The tulips are ready and so are the crowds.⚘️🌷⚘️🌷⚘️🌷
But certainly not the variety you saw. My favorite would be the hyacinth and smell. The narcisse smell good too.