Collections
Dutch mountains
Immediately on entering, the visitor sees the Rock garden: it is ten meters high with a babbling waterfall and mountain streams. Created at the 19th century fortress, Fort Hoofddijk, the rock garden is one of the largest of its kind in Europe. Visitors can find over 1,600 species of (mountain) plants that were able to adapt ingeniously to the harsh climate of their natural surroundings. The Rock garden is at its most spectacular at the end of April and beginning of May, when most of the plants are in bloom.
Millions of years in a nutshell
In the Systematic garden, visitors can follow the course of a botanic development of millions of years and discover the enormous variety of plants that have come into existence. Information boards provide visitors with explanations about the peculiarities of the plant families and their inter-relationship.
Warm and damp
In the Tropical Greenhouses visitors can imagine themselves in the rainforests of South America. Here they can find plants such as Coffee, Cacao, Banana and Papaya, as well as Cycadaceae, living fossils from the age of the dinosaurs, and Cecropia that can grow eight meters per year.
Theme garden
Eat a flower, follow your intuition and caress the geraniums! In the Theme Garden visitors have the opportunity to brush up on the many different aspects of plant life in a fun way. The various themes examine matters such as the smell of plants, the defence mechanisms in the plant world and the use of plants in magic.
Wild plants and butterflies
While strolling through the Gardens, it is also possible to opt for the wild nature of Buitenfort with its indigenous vegetation. And don’t forget the Diertjestuin! This specially designed garden houses butterflies, (solitary) bees and damselflies.
Specific information on the collections
More specific information on the plants in our collections, a seachable database and our annual index Seminum (for certified gardens and institutions only) can be found on a special collections site.