Springtime in Holland and Belgium

April 25-May 7, 2015

Join University of Illinois Master Gardener Coordinator Monica David for an exciting tour of

the tulips and the springtime gardens of Holland and Belgium. The group will also visit some of the historical highlights of these two lovely countries. Registration is open to any-

one with an interest in gardens, with preference given to Illinois Master Gardeners.

Tour Itinerary Day 1—Saturday, April 25 Chicago– Amsterdam

Travel overnight from Chicago to Amsterdam.

Day 2– Sunday, April 26 Amsterdam-Haarlem We arrive into Amsterdam early this morning. Time to freshen up and have a light lunch. Our activity today is a wonderful canal house and garden tour with Andre Ancion. Discov-

er the hidden secrets behind the facades of Amsterdam canal houses. Andre will provide us architectural, interior and garden information of these 17th century houses as well as stories of the merchant families who lived there.

Welcome Dinner

Carlton Square Hotel in Haarlem

Day 3– Monday, April 27 Haarlem Today we visit the tulip fields of Keukenhof. This world renowned display garden is a 70 acre estate where over 7 million bulbs are planted annually by local growers. The pavilions

feature 30 alternating flower and plant shows. Discover the latest trends in gardening and get new ideas from the seven inspirational demonstration gardens. Numerous works of art

are shown to advantage among the flowers. Next we will visit the Royal Delft factory– the only remaining factory of 32 earthenware

factories established in Delft in the 17th century. On our way back to Haarlem we will drive through the glorious bulb fields– which should be in bloom this time of year.

Dinner at leisure Carlton Square Hotel in Haarlem

Day 4—Tuesday, April 28 Haarlem Today we start very early with the amazing and world renowned Aalsmeer Flower Market. This is the largest flower market in

the world and visitors walk out over a gallery through the auction complex. During your tour of the auction complex you will hear

information over an audio system (in English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Hebrew and Czech).

We then will have lunch at De Kas Restaurant (included). In 2001, top chef Gert Jan Hageman, who had earned a Michelin

star in Dutch haute cuisine, found a new direction for his own career and a new purpose for the old greenhouse that belonged to Amsterdam's Municipal Nursery. The greenhouse, which dated from 1926, was due to be demolished. With a lot of luck and, most important-

ly, with help from the municipality and his family and friends, Hageman succeeded in con-verting the unique 8-metre high glass building into a restaurant and nursery.

This day will also feature a visit to a Commercial Bulb Grower to learn about planting, cultivation, harvesting and marketing bulbs.

Late afternoon–early evening canal cruise in Amsterdam.

Carlton Square Hotel in Haarlem

Day 5—Wednesday, April 29 Amsterdam-Haarlem Today is a free day to explore Haarlem and Amsterdam. Only 15 minutes by train, Haarlem

makes an excellent base for visitors to Amsterdam. Haarlem is at the center of the Dutch flower-growing

district and is a main export point for bulbs. It is lo-cated on the banks of the Spaarne River and is actu-ally the provincial capitol of North Holland. Haarlem

dates back to Gothic times and has beautiful archi-tecture and cobbled streets.

Amsterdam is one the greatest small cities in the world. It has all the advantages of a big city– culture, museums,

nightlife, and international restaurants but is quiet with little road traffic due to the lovely romantic waterways and canals. You may choose to visit the Anne Frank House, the

Van Gogh Museum, The Rijksmuseum (National museum) or stroll along the Prinsengracht canal and visit the float-

ing flower market.

Carlton Square Hotel in Haarlem

Day 6—Thursday, April 30 Haarlem-Otterlo/Apeldoorn Todays highlight will be the Palace of Het Loo. Built

in the late 17th century in the forest of the Hoge Ve-luwe, the palace of Het Loo was inhabited by members

of the House of Orange until 1975. First to live there was Stadtholder William III, who was to become king of England in 1689 and for whom it was originally built

as a hunting-lodge. When the Stadtholder's family was in exile during the French Revolution, the palace was

lived in from 1806-1810 by Napoleon's brother, Louis Napoleon, the first King of Holland. He had the garden re-planted in the English landscape style. In 1814 the palace became the property of the state and was used by members of

the House of Orange until 1975. On the death of Queen Wilhelmina it was turned into a national museum. The palace and gardens were opened to the public in June 1984. The

palace's type of baroque garden is unique to the Netherlands. The layout as we see it to-day is a reconstruction of how it was laid out at the time it was built, based on contempo-rary accounts, records, paintings and drawings, and archaeological evidence revealed dur-

ing the reconstruction process. However some evidence of Louis Napoleon's landscape garden remains in the form of the mature copper beeches and tulip trees growing in the

parterres around the King's Fountain. Our second stop today is the Kroller Muller Museum. Helene Kroller-Muller collected al-

most 11,500 art objects with capitol paid for by her husband Anton Koller, director of Wm. H. Muller & Co. The sculpture garden here is world–renowned.

Hotel Keizerskroon in Apeldoorn

Day 7—Friday, May 1 Apeldoorn Described as the “most beautiful garden” in the Netherlands, the De Wiersse Garden is

our first stop today. Surrounded by its farmland and woods, away from the world, lies the moated manor house, with 38 acres of garden and 74 acres of landscape park, lived in,

designed and managed by the family since 1678. In this historic and beautifully kept gar-den a sequence of surprises awaits the visitor – avenues and pergolas, fountains and stat-ues, meadows and formal parterres, bridges over a gently flowing stream and a serpentine

tunnel of beech. Guided tours start in April to take advantage of the flowering of the wild daffodils – as well as of countless other bulbs and spring flowers, naturalized in the wood-

land and meadow. Next the group will drive to Piet Oudolf’s Garden in Hum-

melo. Piet Oudolf is an influential Dutch garden designer, nurseryman and author. He is a leading figure of the "New

Perennial" movement, using bold drifts of herbaceous peren-nials and grasses which are chosen at least as much for their structure as for their flower color. His list of design projects

includes the High Line (New York City, 2006), Battery Park (New York City, 2003), ABN Amro Bank (Netherlands, 2000),

and the Lurie Garden (Chicago, 2003). His own garden, at Hummelo, near Arnhem in the Netherlands has been created since 1982. It has gone

through many changes which reflect Oudolf's constantly developing planting design.

Hotel Keizerskroon in Apeldoorn

Day 8—Saturday, May 2 Apeldorn-Antwerp

This morning we drive about 1 1/2 hours to Appeltern to visit the De Tuinen van Ap-peltern. This is a 23 hectare park with over 200

model display gardens with the largest collection of plants in the Netherlands. Stroll through the

national fixed plant garden, a vast sculpture gar-den, the Living Garden of Sustainability, a charm-ing plant market and natural outdoor spaces for

children while you learn about the latest garden-ing trends.

We will travel on to Antwerp. Rubens Hotel in Antwerp

Day 9—Sunday, May 3 Antwerp-Brugge

Enjoy the Rubenshuis, home of the great painter

Peter Paul Rubens. Most of Rubens’s works were created in this studio. On the work floor, he demonstrated his talent as artist and organiser.

Pupils, assistants and colleagues assisted him in the production of more than 2,500 ‘Rubens paintings’.

During the restoration that took place in the 1940's, the garden of the Rubens House was completely re-laid. It has been faithfully reconstructed to depict

the garden from Ruben’s painting The Walk in the Garden. The garden opens into a straight axis

between four parterres which lead to the Pavilion of hercules. The parterres are planted with colorful perennials, herbs and potted lemons and figs.

Next up today is the Gardens of Antoon de Clercq. In the first years, only the small

area around the house was designated as the garden. As the years passed, he persuaded neighboring farm-ers to give up pasture land and his garden continued

to grow. Hence the name “Pascua Garden” which is Latin for pasture garden. There are over 1,500 spe-

cies of rhododendrons in this garden along with Mag-nolia, Prunus, Camelia, Cornus, Hamamelis. In front of the house white hydrangeas, rose and clematis are

cool and delicate against the large collections of ever-greens. A box hedge surrounds the garden and a

group of blue conifers clipped like lollipops grace a clipped columnar yew hedge.

Hotel Navarra in Brugge

Day 10—Monday, May 4 Brugge The historic town of Bruges Belgium (Brugge) is a gorgeous Gothic city located near the Belgium coast. In the 11th cen-

tury, Bruges was one of the world's largest cities. Today, it is a popular tourist destination that features famous land-

marks, tourist attractions and some great museums and art galleries.

Brugge is an outstanding example of a medieval historic set-tlement, which has maintained its historic fabric as this has

evolved over the centuries, and where original Gothic con-structions form part of the town's identity. As one of the commercial and cultural capitals of Europe, Brugge developed cultural links to different parts of the world. It is closely as-

sociated with the school of Flemish Primitive painting.

We will have a short tour of Brugge before having the afternoon at leisure. Hotel Navarra in Brugge

Day 11—Tuesday, May 5 Brugge-Ghent David and Alice van Buuren Museum. We will

visit the Art Deco house of the David and Alice van Buuren husband and wife, with it’s collection

of works of art from the 16th to the 20th century. The gardens were laid out by Jules Buyssens and René Pechère. Forty five years later, Alice consid-

ered René Pechère's gardens as a complement of her villa. The actual garden is made of the

"Picturesque Garden", "The Labyrinth", and "The Garden of the Heart". The "Picturesque Garden" was designed by Jules Buyssens in the twenties,

and represents the geometrical ideas of the Art Deco era.

Today we are fortunate to visit the Royal Gardens in

Brussels. One of the most anticipated spring garden events in Brussels is the opening of the Royal Green-

houses at the Palace in Laeken Belgium. The palace is the main residence of the Belgian Royal family and their private grounds are only open to the public for

several weeks in the spring. The glass house complex was built between 1874 and 1895 and is 2.5 hectares.

The plant collection includes giant palms and ferns from Africa, azaleas, geraniums, orchids and bleeding hearts among many others. The Winter Garden and

Orangery are spectacular with tropical plants from all over the world.

Hotel NH Belfort in Ghent

Day 12—Wednesday, May 6 Ghent

Today we drive to Annevoie Castle and Gardens.

The gardens were constructed between 1758 and 1778 and were influenced by Charles-Alexis travels in

Italy, France and England. The gardens feature over twenty ornamental ponds and lakes fed by approxi-mately fifty water jets and waterfalls, and are widely

regarded as some of the best, not only in Belgium, but also in the whole of Europe. Behind the chateau

and past the giant columnar beeches are a series of allés bordered by hornbeam hedges and filled with bright flowers such as snapdragons. A gloomy grotto

features a figure of Neptune sitting beside one of the four water sources. High on the hill above the castle is the Grand Canal and a stroll along the length of the canal is rumored

to make you one year younger. Afternoon at leisure.

Farewell dinner tonight.

Hotel NH Belfort in Ghent

Day 13—Thursday, May 7 Ghent-Brussels-Chicago

We board our motor coach to return to Brussels for our flight back to Chicago.

Trip Details

Tour cost per passenger (twin share) $4,100. Single supplement is $850. Airfare is not included and will be released in June 2014.

Tour cost covers all hotels, luxury coach transportation, entrance to all gardens and at-

tractions listed in the itinerary, 11 breakfasts, 5 dinners and 1 lunch. Should a garden not be available a suitable alternative will be included.

To book the tour or for more information contact Robyn Gulstrom 269-629-9248 or

rgulstrom@comcast.net