|
|
On the basis of anecdotes, stories, occurrences and interviews Leslie Leijenhorst describes in Hortus Bulborum, treasury of historical bulbs the history of the remarkable bulb garden in the shade of the Protestant church in Limmen village, in the province of North-Holland (The Netherlands). Small and modest, but a unique piece of Dutch cultural heritage, and second to none in the word. In this botanical treasury for over 75 years bulbs, often very old, come to bloom spring after spring.
|
|
|
Hortus Bulborum
treasury of historical bulbs
Author – Leslie Leijenhorst, Arnhem
Graphic design – Ontwerpgroep Lâle, Amersfoort, www.lale.nl
Photography – Philip Friskorn, Oldemarkt, and historical illustrations from several archives and museums
Publisher – stichting Uitgeverij Noord-Holland, Wormer
Size – 220 x 165 mm, oblong
Volume – 144 pp., including complete List of Plants of the collection
Design – stitched, with turnovers, Dutch-English edition
Price – 22,50 euro | $ 26,50 (exclusive of postage & package)
ISBN 90-71123-74-X
Publishing date – spring 2004
|
Eighty years ago headmaster and horticultural teacher Pieter Boschman started collecting old tulip cultivars and species around his principal’s house in Limmen village. With increasing concern he saw how many historical bulb cultivars from this pre-eminently Dutch symbol were in serious danger of extinction, in the mid 1920s. Soon his spacious garden proved too small, as within a few years he already had collected over 400 different kinds of tulip and some daffodil cultivars. It was in the same period that Pieter Boschman came into contact with well-known hyacinth breeder Dr. Willem E. de Mol van Oud Loosdrecht, who had an impressive collection of historical hyacinths (after-1830). Nicolaas Blokker, an old friend of the headmaster, from the well-known Limmen firm of wholesale bulb growers and exporters Van ’t Hof & Blokker offered them a small plot on the grounds of his firm on which they could plant this valuable array of bulbs. The two devoted men decided to join their collections in 1928. The Hortus Bulborum (Latin for bulb garden) was born.
Tulip mania
Leslie Leijenhorst takes the reader back to the first beginnings of the tulip growing in Holland in the sixteenth century. Although the tulip is the single greatest national icon, its cradle was situated in Turkey and Persia. In 1593 botanist Carolus Clusius supposedly planted tulips for the first time in The Netherlands (then called Holland) in the first botanical garden, the current Hortus Botanicus of the University of Leyden. The bulbs became so popular that a true Tulip mania broke out in the Netherlands. It was the period when prices for tulip bulbs rose till unprecedented heights. One had to take three tulips bulbs along to buy a stately home on one of the picturesque canals in the East India Company city of Hoorn. A façade stone with three tulips still refers to the sale of this house at the time.
Occurrences and anecdotes
A great deal of the chapters are dedicated to tulip collector and founder of the Hortus Bulborum Pieter Boschman, his fellow collectors and the history of the Hortus Bulborum and Neversie (Netherlands Society for the Promotion of Scientific Breeding of Ornamental Plants). This visionary headmaster deserves our gratitude for his initiative, and the opportunity given to us to admire these old cultivars in the Hortus Bulborum even to-day. Cultivars of which the commercial production has been discontinued for many decades already, or even centuries. The oldest cultivated tulip dates from the time of Clusius: the Single Early ‘Duc van Tol Red and Yellow’ from 1595. The oldest daffodil dates from 1603. Many stories, occurrences and anecdotes pass in review: the opening of the Museum of Flower Bulb Culture in 1933 – another initiative of the driven principal – the foundation of Neversie, which would take the Hortus Bulborum under its wings from 1935 onwards and the years during the German Occupation in World War II.
Further attention is also paid to the growing contacts with scientific gardens and institutions abroad and the decision to function as a pollen bank. Through this development this bulb garden has gained a national status as gene bank for bulbs. Also the importance of the cooperation between the Hortus Bulborum and National Plant Collection Foundation is briefly pointed out.
Palace gardens, horti and botanical gardens
Also discussed are the development in quantity as well as variety: not only tulips and hyacinths but also the miscellaneous groups like fritillaries. An overview of the collection is shown through a lavishly illustrated section with prominent representatives of the different groups and cultivars, both in word and image. The role of the large number of volunteers, many of whom worked or are still working in the bulb sector, who often gave many years to the bulb garden, will be mentioned occasionally.
A separate chapter deals with the growing interest for historical plant material amongst head gardeners and curators from often recently restored castle and palace gardens in The Netherlands as well as elsewhere in Europe. Some of these gardens that have been briefly highlighted are a.o.: Paleis Het Loo in the town of Apeldoorn (the Netherlands), Frederiksborg Castle (Denmark) and Hampton Court Palace, south-west of the city of London (United Kingdom). In these gardens extensive use has been made of historical cultivars of the Hortus Bulborum.
Bilingual
In the back of this bilingual edition (Dutch and English) the complete List of Plants of the collection of the Hortus Bulborum as of 2004 is included, which makes this lavishly illustrated book attractive to professionals as well as hobbyists and laymen in The Netherlands as well as abroad.
Bookshops
The book will be for sale at the entrance kiosk of the Hortus Bulborum, the better bookshops in The Netherlands and several historical museums such as the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem and Stedelijk Museum in Alkmaar.
|
|
