Gardens

When I wrote this post about black houseplants, a little over five years ago now, I had no idea it would be so popular. Black plants fascinated me way before goth gardening became a trend. And I can guarantee I’ll be just as smitten with them a long time after goth gardening goes out of fashion.

First among the bloomers in a goth garden are the black tulips. But is there such a thing as a real black tulip? Or is it just a myth?

I read a very informative display on the topic on my third visit to the Keukenhof Gardens, the largest tulip garden in the world, located in The Netherlands. I believe this was a temporary display, so I took advantage of the curated exhibit and took some notes to share with you about what makes black tulips so special. It might not be there this year. 

3 Things you should know about black tulips

1. Black tulips are not a new fad.

The quest to develop a real black tulip goes back centuries. It’s not just a new InstaPinterest trend, but something that professional growers have been trying to achieve for hundreds of years. 

The obsession with black tulips reached epic proportions after Alexandre Dumas published his novel, The Black Tulip, in 1850. The plot is set in the Netherlands during the tulip mania of 1672 and focuses around the race to grow a black tulip. 

Because true black is a color that doesn’t occur naturally in nature, this quest is still ongoing. 

2. Black tulips are actually a deep dark purple. 

Crossing a dark-colored tulip (such as purple or dark red) with a yellow one results in an even darker colored tulip. It looks black, but it’s not a true black. 

3. It can take decades for a new tulip breed to be registered. 

The first time a breeder claimed success over the elusive black tulip was in 1891, when famous grower E. H. Krelage released La Tulipe Noire (named after Alexandre Dumas’ novel). 

The frilly Black Parrot tulip was registered by C. Keur way back in 1937. 

It was followed by the now extremely popular Queen of Night black tulip in 1944, registered by JJ Grullemans.

The Black Beauty tulip was the next one on the market, in 1955, developed by M. van Waveren. 

Not keen on reinventing the wheel, in the 1970s, breeder Geert Hageman started cross-fertilizing seeds from these previous attempts in an attempt to create an even blacker tulip. It takes about seven years from seed to flower for a tulip and Hageman produced over a thousand specimens. It wasn’t until the year 2000 that he registered the Paul Scherer black tulip. Talk about mixing passion with perseverance. 

As I said, the search for the perfect black tulip still continues. Since 2000, the Dutch Royal Bulb Growers’ Association registered eleven new breeds of black tulip. 

8 Black tulips that are easier to find 

Queen of Night – a single late tulip, one of the oldest black tulips still available to buy

Fringed Black – a single, slightly fringed variety

Ronaldo – a dark burgundy Triumph variety

Nightmare – a classic tulip shape that appears black even in the sunlight (see my photo above)

Black Parrot – a late-blooming fringed variety

Paul Scherer – a cultivar in the Triumph group

Black Hero – a double late variety of Queen of Night

Palmyra – not really black, but a dark shade of burgundy (see my photo above)

Tulip bulbs come up for sale in the fall. So since I’m writing this article in March, I can’t link to any tulip vendors. But I’ve made a note in my calendar to curate a list of black tulips for sale in September and update this post. You can bookmark this page or subscribe to my newsletter and I’ll let you know once it’s ready. The newsletter box is a bit further down the page.

Until then, have a look at this list of other black plants for your garden. They’re absolutely stunning. And all sold by small US-based businesses with good reviews at the time of publication. Click on the image below to open.

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means that if you make a purchase through one of the affiliate links, I will get a very small commission or referral fee at no additional cost to you. You can read more on my affiliate policy page. 

If you want to read more about houseplants and gardening, hop on my once-a-month newsletter list. There’s no endless email sequence here. Just a monthly email to keep in touch and chat about plants.

The saffron crocuses are poking out their sweet and bountiful heads, which can only mean fall is well and truly under way.

Picking the saffron strands is an exercise in dexterity. Last year, I used tweezers; but this year I’m confident enough to start plucking them with my fingers. The strands (the crocus stamen) have a really good grip, so I have to really pull at them. I made a short reel on Instagram to show how I pick saffron.

Waiting to have enough saffron for a delicious paella is an exercise in patience. As it happens, that’s my only form of exercise these days.

The saffron crocus bulbs are naturalizing really well, in spite of being disturbed in the spring when I planted some perennials and again in late summer when I dug out some baby raspberries. I think it helps that, as soon as I accidentally popped some out when I was digging, I just tucked them back in. I didn’t let them dry or leave them exposed to the sun.

It looks like most saffron crocus bulbs have split into four, which is an unexpected surprise and it means that the twenty bulbs I planted last year will yield me about sixty flower heads this year. Although not all new bulbs might flower this year.

One detail I had completely forgotten about is the amazing fragrance of these flowers. To my senses, saffron crocuses smell like a combination of freesia and gardenia. Freesia is by far my favorite spring bulb, but it’s so hard to grow reliably.

If you want to plant saffron crocuses yourself, it’s not too late for this season. You can plant them in the fall (September or October) and they’ll bloom the same fall. Here’s a list of vendors that sell saffron crocus bulbs. I highly recommend you buy bulbs, not seeds, for every plant that forms a bulb. 

If you’re growing this kind of crocus for the first time, my one piece of advice would be: don’t wait too long to pick the saffron. The flowers are rather short-lived and once they flop, the saffron might be blown away or get lost in the dirt.

*I commissioned the cottagecore fall art in the photo above from My Cozy Crafts. She paints wonderfully cozy scenery on wood slices.

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means that if you make a purchase through one of the affiliate links, I will get a very small commission or referral fee at no additional cost to you. You can read more on my affiliate policy page. 

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A gentle look at what I’ve been noticing and doing in the garden this April. My philosophy is slow gardening, in tune with nature and in love with the seasons.

1. The Spirea Japonica started unfurling its leaves.

Spirea japonica ‘Gold flame’ unfurled in all its beauty in April. This colorful shrub is what I affectionately call the “opposite shrub.” When it first leafs out in spring, it’s all decked out in fall colors – beautiful shades of amber, caramel and sunlight yellow. Then as the seasons progress, it turns green. At some point at the height of summer, it will be covered in clusters of fuchsia-pink flowers. 

2. I witnessed the end of camellia season.

This camellia has been blooming all through the spring, including for the first couple of weeks in April, despite never getting enough sun in our suburban backyard. Imagine having it planted in full sun. It would be an absolute riot of flowers. 

Speaking of camellias in bloom, last month I saw this mature flowering camellia was for sale at my local gardening center. It was either very old or very pumped full of fertilizer. Possibly both. If I tell you it was about 16 feet tall (about 5 meters), can you guess the price? 

It was 1250 dollars! Absolute insanity!

3. The lasagna bulb container was in bloom for almost two months.

The lasagna-style spring bulbs container I planted last fall is working out splendidly. The daffodils were the first ones to bloom, followed by really juicy hyacinths. Now the tulips heads are starting to show up and last, but not least, the bluebells. 

I was a bit nervous about cramming so many bulbs in one pot, but it worked out wonderfully. I wrote a lasagna planting tutorial for BloomingBackyard.com last November. 

4. I made small posies from what the garden had to offer.

I don’t grow many flowers for cutting (I much prefer them alive in the garden). But every now and then I bring in a small posy of cut flowers indoors to brighten up our dining room table. This one has camellia (including foliage), muscari, magnolia and golden spirea foliage. 

5. I mused (again) on how gardening is a good memory aide.

In an article for one of my clients, I actually used the phrase “three gardens later” to refer to gardens that I have planted over the past decade. In three different locations. In three different cities. And it dawned on me that I might be measuring my life in gardens. That while time blurs and expands and contracts, I may be able to tell you where I was and what I was doing and what I was planning and what I was daydreaming about based on which garden I was tending. 

Its role as an aide-memoire is one of the many unexpected perks of gardening. I reflected some more about how gardening is helping me take care of my mental health in this post.

6. I have marveled at the beauty of the Gudoshnik double tulips.

The Gudoshnik double tulips have had a full month in the garden, like flaming lionesses ready to shine. I may or may not be squeaking in delight every morning when I’m doing the garden rounds. 

7. We visited the largest tulip garden in Europe (in the Netherlands)

We visited Keukenhof Tulip Garden again this April, for the third time in five years. It was amazing, gorgeous, stunning and … a bit overwhelming. We went on a weekday, but it was still incredibly crowded. I think in the future I’ll stick to planting my own small tulip garden. And maybe expand it some more. I have a lot of tulips on my want-list. It’s still worth visiting Keukenhof, if you’ve never been.

I wrote an entire article about what you should know before you visit Keukenhof Tulip Garden, which I have updated this year. The most important change is the fact that Keukenhof does not accept cash anymore. You can only pay by credit card or debit card, including at the small concession stands.

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means that if you make a purchase through one of the affiliate links, I will get a very small commission or referral fee at no additional cost to you. You can read more on my affiliate policy page. 

If you want to read more about houseplants and gardening, hop on my once-a-month newsletter list. There’s no endless email sequence here. Just a monthly email to keep in touch and chat about plants.

A gentle look at what I’ve been noticing and doing in the garden this March. 

1. I pruned the remaining perennials to make room for new growth. 

You can’t tell where the anise hyssop ends and its shadow begins. I harvested the leaves for tea and some of the seedheads to use on cookies. But I left part of the plant to overwinter in the garden. At the end of March, I cut down the old stems to use in a dry flower arrangement when the new growth started popping up from the base.

2. I finished the world’s easiest floral print DIY. 

Who likes an easy before and after? I bought this hand-painted canvas tote bag from an artist I’ve been following on Instagram. The canvas was so masterfully painted that I didn’t have the heart to use it as a bag.

I kept an eye out for nice secondhand frames and found a new painting (of a cow, of all things) for a dollar at a thrift store. I cut out the cow canvas (I didn’t save it. It stunk to high heavens when I unsealed it!), stretched the tote bag over the frame and secured it in place with some small nails. And now I have a new original botanical painting. Pure bliss!

3. I finally used the saffron I harvested last fall. 

We just got around to making some paella with the saffron I harvested last fall from my saffron crocuses (Crocus sativus). The blooms are long gone, but the leaves are still going strong in the garden, collecting energy for their next blooming session in the fall. They look like delicate little grasses, but I’m hoping they’ll be gone by the time I’m ready to plant veggies in this spot in May.

One of the perils of gardening in a small (sub)urban backyard is that every single inch has to do triple duty. 

4. I marveled at the magnetic magnolia dance. 

The magnolia buds were already out in February, so in March they started to shed their creamy velvet attire and burst into glorious burgundy. 

5. I made small spring posies to brighten up a dark living room. 

I much prefer small posies to large bouquets. These hyacinths (‘Delft Blue’) and daffodils (‘Tete-a-tete’) come from my own garden, all of them in their second growing season. 

I brought the hyacinths indoors to put them in jars about a week apart because I wanted to maximize the mesmerizing scent as much as possible. There’s such a sense of nostalgia attached to their fragrance that just triggers all sorts of memories in my brain, all of them as hazy as the scent itself.

6. I said goodbye to spring crocuses. 

These are probably the last crocuses of the season. Crocuses have been keeping me company in the garden for about two months, cheerful and delicate placeholders while the other spring bulbs were mustering up the courage to poke their heads up from underground. It’s time for crocuses to pass the relay baton and rest until next spring.

If you want to read more about houseplants and gardening, hop on my once-a-month newsletter list. There’s no endless email sequence here. Just a monthly email to keep in touch and chat about plants.

I’ve always been fascinated with collecting, both the act itself (to collect) and the result (collection). I think deep down it’s at the heart of who we are as humans. It’s right there, in the label “hunter-gatherer.” Over time, collecting (much like hunting) has morphed from a necessity for survival into a leisurely pastime. 

Despite my fascination, I was never a collector myself, save for a few quickly abandoned attempts in my childhood and early teens. The intensity of collecting doesn’t quite suit my tendency to hop from one hobby to another. So perhaps this might explain where my love of museums stems from, as the ultimate collectors of societal artifacts minus the necessity of taking it all upon one individual. 

Which brings me to the most meta museum exhibition I’ve ever visited, Collectomania – a collection of collections curated by the Museum of Design in Zurich. 

As a gardener, I was fascinated by this nineteenth century collection of seeds on loan from Agroscope, the Institute of Crop Sciences in Zurich. Old glass test capsules, ink labels written in elegant cursive script and a variety of plant seeds meant that I lingered around this collection the most. 

The Swiss Seed Research and Experimental Institute started operations in 1878. And what started as the first federal agricultural experimental station in Switzerland became one of the few worldwide institutions that still are accredited for certifying seeds nowadays. 

This early seed collection (obviously just of historical value at this point), ensured at the time that seed varieties could be kept pure and ready for germination. It also ensured enough seed was available for further development and research. 

While I do think about planting seeds as a form of resistance and subversion (to consumerism, to the plastification of everything, to long and unsustainable food chains), I hardly think of them as politically-charged. But from a nation state perspective, institutional seed preservation can tip the balance towards either food security or food scarcity. Perhaps that’s why seeing an early example of a seed bank was such an eye-opening lesson. 

Have a look at the trailer of the exhibition if you’re interested in catching a glimpse into the world of collecting. 

The culture of fast ornamentals (very much akin to fast fashion and fast food) bothers me to no end. If a plant dies, that’s ok. No need to feel guilty. It happens to everyone.

But to buy potted plants for the sole purpose of enjoying their blooming period for a few weeks and then discard them? That’s just wasteful. Chrysanthemums, poinsettia and kalanchoe are a few of the plants that are thrown out even though you could get them to rebloom year after year. 

I received these mums as a gift last year. They had been forced to full bloom, so they died back pretty quickly.

Instead of discarding them, I deadheaded them and removed the dry leaves. Then kept them on my deck over the summer. They rebloomed even longer this fall and have bounced back stronger and brighter in color. No fertilizers. No fancy tricks. They just lived on my deck and got watered when it didn’t rain. And this is how they looked in November. Showy, vibrant and boisterous.

I really hope we’re not entering the era of fast gardening.

I stepped outside in the garden clutching a cup of steaming coffee, as I do every morning. I like to inspect the garden before I start work … as if me ambling around will coax it into putting on a bit more growth before the onset of the cold days of winter that are so crisply and clearly coming our way.

My Eryngium ‘Blue Hobbit’ looked like it belonged in Goth Alice in Wonderland, all covered in dew in the diffuse light of sun and fog. I won’t prune down this fall for three main reasons: 

1. The old foliage acts as insulation for the crown. If I cut it off now, I’ll be opening up wounds and pathways for moisture to get into the crown. 

2. Wildlife needs us to stop pruning in the fall; they need the habitat to shelter in and the seeds of perennials make good winter fodder. 

3. It adds structure and visual interest to the garden and it will look beautiful covered in frost and snow.

Here are a few online stores that sell Eryngium (including seeds) this time of year.

I bought this perennial on a whim as we were browsing around the garden center last fall. We had a voucher to spend and too many plants to choose from. This guy didn’t look like much more than a pile of soggy leaves. But the plant tag hinted at the potential of this plant, so into my cart it went. I didn’t realize it will achieve its potential in its first full year in the garden.

I’ve transplanted my Eryngium in the garden in October and it spent its first winter looking barely alive. But once spring came around, it just shot up, growing so fast and blooming so quickly that I had a hard time keeping up with taking photos of its progression.

I highly recommend adding an Eryngium to your garden if you’re looking for a plant that is:

• perennial,
• attractive to pollinators,
• resistant to drought,
• resistant to pests,
• blooming for months,
• very low-maintenace,
• can be started from seed or from a small plug;
• beautiful even during the winter months …

Here are a few online stores that sell Eryngium (including seeds) this time of year.

If you want to read more about houseplants and gardening, hop on my once-a-month newsletter list. There’s no endless email sequence here. Just a monthly email to keep in touch and chat about plants.

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means that if you make a purchase through one of the affiliate links, I will get a very small commission or referral fee at no additional cost to you. You can read more on my affiliate policy page. 

A few thoughts on how gardening is helping me take care of my mental health. It’s a journey. It’s a process. I’m not a doctor and this is not professional advice. I’m a fellow human who likes to grow things and this is my experience. 

Gardening is teaching me how to balance the past, the present and the future.  

One of the ways gardening contributes to my mental health is the way in which “gardener me” manages to tread the fine line between living in the present and planning for the future, while just reflecting (not regretting) on the past. 

The month of September is the perfect example of this philosophy. I’m still harvesting my summer crop, while I’m putting seeds in the ground for a fall crop and ordering bulbs for spring. 

When I’m puttering around in the garden, I keep a mental list of what worked well, what didn’t and things I’m going to try doing differently next year. Gardening teaches me to let go of what I can’t control. To let go of perfection. To practice being grateful for what I do get, while planning and hoping for more, for better, for the future. 

Gardening is teaching me persistence. 

Gardening is teaching me how to be consistent. Consistently consistent, if that makes sense. Say I want something (a certain crop). I sow the seeds, but for different reasons, the seeds don’t sprout. Or they do, and slugs get to them first. Or mildew. Or black fungus. Or drought. 

Should I just give up and leave the soil bare just because I failed? This mindset wouldn’t even get me a lettuce leaf to throw in my salad. 

What I do, instead, is adapt and try again. Trying again is key. I can’t expect results if I just take a woe-is-me approach through the growing season. But adapting is also key. (The secret sauce to the first key, if you will.) 

Not sowing spinach in the middle of a heatwave again. Covering my brassica seedlings much earlier to protect them. Changing what I grow and where I grow it. Gardening teaches persistence. 

Gardening is teaching me that it’s ok to take your time.

My nasturtiums usually grow and bloom in June and July. But because of the drought this year, they waited and waited before fully putting in serious growth. Once the rains came back, the plants burst into growth and flowers. When conditions aren’t right, it’s ok to bide your time. 

Gardening is teaching me to accept the metaphorical seasons.

I don’t know about you, but I have the bad habit of beating myself up when I’m trying to slow down. When I need to rest and unwind. When I need to just process emotions. But in life, just like in gardening, there are slow seasons and vibrant seasons. Seasons of rest and seasons of growth. And seasons just to store up energy, to ponder, to plan for what’s next and reflect on what has been. Planning tends to get unrealistic when there’s no time to reflect on the “why” not just on the “how”. 

And on a lighter note, have you ever seen a daffodil bulb beating itself up for huddling underground and not blooming in the fall. I think not!

Gardening is helping me remember and punctuate my life.

In an article for one of my clients, I actually used the phrase “three gardens later” to refer to gardens that I have planted over the past decade. In three different locations. In three different cities.

And it dawned on me that I might be measuring my life in gardens. That while time blurs and expands and contracts, I may be able to tell you where I was and what I was doing and what I was planning and what I was daydreaming about based on which garden I was tending.

Its role as an aide-memoire is one of the many unexpected perks of gardening.

I started all the plants you see in this post from seeds that I bought from small businesses and farms. Here are a few suggestions, if you want to start plants from seeds too:

Wild mallow seeds from Backyard Impressions

Oregano seeds from Cool Beans N Sprouts

Purple Perrilla (Shiso) from Summer Garden

Nasturtium jewel mix seeds from New Hill Farms

Yellow pear cherry tomato seeds from Sweet Yards

Valerian seeds from Southern Seed Exchange

If you want to read more about houseplants and gardening, hop on my once-a-month newsletter list. There’s no endless email sequence here. Just a monthly email to keep in touch and chat about plants.

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means that if you make a purchase through one of the affiliate links, I will get a very small commission or referral fee at no additional cost to you. You can read more on my affiliate policy page. 

I’ve been absent from this website for a few months, and I must admit I genuinely miss sharing here. I’ve been posting about my houseplants and my garden on Instagram, but the ephemeral nature of that platform is just not the same. 

But since I write for a living, by the time the end of the work day rolls around and I’m done with client work, all I want to do is go out in the garden with a glass of wine (or a pitcher of lemonade) and bask in the glorious sunlight. 

Do you want a pickle plant too? Here are ten stores that sell the pickle plant (Delosperma echinatum) in the United States.

During the past couple of months, I wrote for a variety of projects – from city marketing to tech startups to travel. I even dabbled in a bit of kid lit and flash fiction. But with Green with Purpose being a blog about growing things, here are a few of the posts I published as a plant and gardening writer. Oh, and by the way, if you’re looking for a plant writer, get in touch. 

How to overwinter dahlias – Blooming Backyard

12 Perennials you should cut back in fall – Blooming Backyard

6 Reasons why you should grow anise hyssop – Rural Sprout

3 Methods to overwinter your pelargonium geraniums – Blooming Backyard 

How to plant a rainbow garden – Blooming Backyard 

3 Urban gardens you should visit in Breda The Amsterdamian

7 Edible seeds you can grow in your backyard – Rural Sprout

How to naturalize bulbs in your lawn – Blooming Backyard 

I also consulted with a plant-sharing app on content strategy and worked with another AI plant app on magazine-style launch materials. Most days, my work life revolves around reading, learning, writing and talking about plants; and most days it feels like I’m living the (green-thumbed) dream.

There are so many things that I want to share, so I think I’ll do it in a micro-post format for the time being. That’s how I got into blogging, oh, I don’t know, about a million years ago (actually circa 2006-ish, but I’ve seriously lost track). And microblogs (such as kottke, Cup of Jo, swiss miss, and The Jealous Curator) are about the only blogs that I’ve been consistently following for at least 15 years. I only wish I had their stamina.

If you want to read more about houseplants and gardening, hop on my once-a-month newsletter list. There’s no endless email sequence here. Just a monthly email to keep in touch and chat about plants.

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means that if you make a purchase through one of the affiliate links, I will get a very small commission or referral fee at no additional cost to you. You can read more on my affiliate policy page. 

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means that if you make a purchase through one of the affiliate links, I will get a very small commission or referral fee at no additional cost to you. You can read more on my affiliate policy page.

You know those seed and flower catalogs that you receive in early spring from your local plant nursery? Imagine walking through one of them, with every single flower coming to life and blooming around you. That’s basically the purpose of Keukenhof: a showroom for the Dutch bulb industry.

This Dutch tulip garden is a real-life catalogue in which hundreds of flower merchants are invited to display the beauty and variety of their crop.

If you want to know my opinion on buying tulips from Keukenhof and bringing them back to the United States, I address this question at the end of this article.

Walking through these gardens can be the experience of a lifetime for the botanically-inclined.

To make the most of this trip, here are a a few things you should know before you visit the Keukenhof tulip garden in the Netherlands.

4 practical things you should know when you visit Keukenhof tulip garden

+ Keukenhof Tulip Garden no longer accepts cash! This includes food courts, souvenir shops inside the garden and even the ice cream trucks or sandwich stalls. So make sure you bring a credit card or a debit card with you for any purchase.

+ Get there at opening time, unless your idea of fun is rubbing elbows with a thousand people on any given park alley.

The park opens at 8 in the morning, so getting there before 9 AM will allow you to stroll around in relative peace and quiet for a couple of hours. By noon, the gardens get pretty crowded, but the swarms disperse again around closing time which is at 7:30 PM. So if you can’t get there early enough in the day, another good window is between 3 PM and 6 PM.

+ If you’re coming straight from the airport (there’s a direct bus from Schiphol Airport), there are lockers where you can store your small luggage for free. The size of the free luggage lockers is 25 x 55 x 45 cm (that’s approximately 9.8 x 21.6 x 17.7 in inches). There is a separate place for storing larger luggage. Just ask for the luggage depot.

+ Buy tickets online, if you can. Or ask your concierge for tickets if you’re staying in a hotel. It’s cheaper and you will avoid the lines at the ticket desk.

You’ll notice that the theme of this post is “try to avoid the lines if you want this to be a memorable experience, in a good way.”

Bonus tip! Keukenhof is also suitable for kids. In addition to the colorful flower beds, the garden has a maze, a playground, a Miffy house and a petting zoo. You can also get a treasure hunt map with the purchase of a ticket for children.

3 bits of trivia to IMPRESS your friends at Keukenhof

+ Keukenhof means “kitchen garden” in Dutch. When Countess Jacoba van Beieren owned the land in the 15th century, she used it as a kitchen garden and hunting grounds. And if you’re a history buff, you might like to read a bit about her life. The word tumultuous barely begins to describe it.

Don’t imagine the garden has always looked like a tulip paradise. The park that you’ll visit was first opened in 1949 specifically to showcase the tulip specimens that were on offer from local growers.

+ The bulbs (7 million of them in 2021) are donated by growers, but not saved from one year to another. At the request of the donors, the bulbs are dug out at the end of the season and used to feed livestock. There’s a good amount of new hybrids each year on display, and you wouldn’t want to let those circulate, right?

+  A team of forty gardeners plants each bulb by hand in the autumn. This work takes about three months, and the landscapers take into consideration color, length, and flowering time, to give the illusion that the park is in full bloom at all times.

Bonus! If you’ve already been to Leiden Botanical Garden, you should also know that the founder of that garden, Carolus Clusius, was the one to introduce the bulb to the Netherlands via Leiden.

3 things you should DO when you visit Keukenhof tulip garden

+ Arm yourself with patience. It may sound like a mindset tip, but it’s in fact the most practical tip I can share, and not at all on a negative tone.

You will have to wait (often in a disorganized line) for everything: buying tickets, getting food, using the bathroom, taking a photo without a random stranger’s foot it in. There’s no point in getting frustrated, so practice your patience muscles.

But you should know that it is WORTH IT! Seeing seven million flowers in one place (within an hour of a major airport, no less) is a unique experience, and you’ll be happy you did it. If you’re tempted to get mad at the tourists, just remember you’re a tourist too, and you might even indulge in a selfie every now and then.

+ As tempting as it may be, don’t get into a bottleneck close to the entrance. (Been there, done that. Learn from my mistake, folks!) The old walled garden that you first step into is indeed breathtaking, but go beyond it to discover beautiful vistas opening up with majestic birch trees and rows upon rows of colorful tulip beds. Everyone is going to stop to take photos right from the get-go, but there are much better photo opportunities the farther you walk.

+ Don’t miss the six glass pavilions. If I dare say, I enjoyed the flower displays nested in these pavilions even more than I did the tulip beds. Before I visited, I didn’t even know that Keukenhof hosts the world’s biggest lily expo during the last ten days of the season. (I honestly had no idea there were 300 lily varieties grown in Europe.)

The displays at the Orange Nassau Pavilion change weekly, while in the Beatrix Pavilion you can admire hundreds of types of orchids, anthuriums, and bromeliads all throughout the growing season.

I’d advise you to keep your souvenir-buying impulses in check until you get to the pavilions. You’ll find artisans exhibiting handmade crafts in here – a much better choice than the trinkets at the souvenir shop.

Bonus tip! The pavilions cover massive ground, and they look pretty similar (glass, flowers, benches, swarms of people). In the interest of not turning yourself into a mouse in a maze, decide on a meeting spot with the rest of your party, just in case you get separated. Otherwise, you might end up not seeing your family all day. On the other hand, if that sounds like an appealing prospect, no judgement here.

3 things to bring with you at Keukenhof

+ A picnic. There are concession stands and cafeterias where you can buy your way out of a hangry meltdown, of course. You’re free to try Dutch “cuisine” (you’ll understand the point of the inverted commas once you’ve tasted said cuisine), and there might even be a food truck festival going on (higher chances if you visit on the weekend).

But the main reason why bringing snacks is a good idea is because no matter what your carbs of choice are, there will be a line. And I don’t know about your friends and family, but being hangry (a frightful combination of hungry and angry) doesn’t bring out the best in people. If you’re not inclined to carry food with you, at least bring a picnic blanket or a large shawl to sprawl on the lawns if the sun is out.

You can’t consume your own food and drinks on restaurant premises, but there are picnic tables around. On a nice day, you can even sit on the grass outside the restaurants. You’ll see a lot of people doing that, so there’s no judgement or awkwardness about it.

Again, see my first point about the gardens being cash-free. You can’t pay by cash at Keukenhof, so bring a credit card or a debit card to buy food.

+ Sunscreen & umbrella. Bring them. Yes, both of them! I think the Dutch tourism board should make that their slogan. But there’s always the refuge of the glasshouses if you get caught in the rain or have had enough of the sun (as if!).

+ Walking shoes and comfortable clothes. Granted, you’re not going to walk on every inch of those 32 hectares of land, but just taking the paths will put you above the recommended 10,000 daily steps. Unless you’re planning on taking engagement photos in the garden, you’ll be happy you wore comfy shoes.

Can I buy tulip bulbs at Keukenhof and bring them back to the United States?

As a general rule, U.S. Customs and Border Protection does not allow private citizens to import any agricultural products from outside the country. All travelers entering the United States must declare any plants and seeds they may be carrying, even if these are souvenirs meant for personal use. These items will get inspected and possibly confiscated.

And no matter how much reassurance you get from bulb sellers in the Netherlands, it’s really not up to them to tell you what’s allowed or not into the country. It’s usually a hit or miss when you go through Customs, so I don’t think buying bulbs in the Netherlands is a good idea if you have to travel back to the United States.

You can still have a beautiful spring garden dotted with tulips if you buy your Dutch bulbs from a wholesale importer (they deal with all the paperwork needed to import agricultural products) or a local American grower. I’ve compiled a list of sellers with good customer ratings. Just click on the image below.

Please keep in mind that some sellers only sell bulbs in the fall, when they’re ready to go straight into the ground. So if you see “not available” or “out of stock” in any of these stores, bookmark them (or thus guide) to check back later in the year.

One of my neighbors from Pennsylvania used to get her spring bulbs from Hosta King – a small shop that ships from New York (and specializes in perennials and bulbs, not just hostas).

Another business that has good reviews is Daylily Nursery out of Tennessee – this links goes to the main page of the store because they sometimes have coupon codes listed on this page.

And that’s another reason why I don’t think bringing tulip bulbs from Keukenhof to America is a good deal: the price. Keukenhof is, first and foremost, a tourist attraction. And everything that you buy there is marketed and priced accordingly. So there’s no point in paying gift store prices to spruce up your garden (and yes, at Keukenhof spring bulbs are sold in the gift shop).

When is the Keukenhof tulip garden open in 2024?

In 2024, the Dutch tulip gardens will be open daily (including weekends) from March 21st until May 12th from 8 AM to 7:30 PM.

Read more about tulips:

If you like tulips and spring bulbs, I think you’ll like this article I wrote on the charming black tulips (including a few cultivars that you can buy in the US.) Clicking on the image below will open the article in a new page.

If you want to read more about houseplants, hop on my once-a-month newsletter list. There’s no neverending email sequence here. Just a monthly email to keep in touch and chat about plants.

All photos in this post by Mickey Gast for Green with Purpose. Please link back if you’re using any of the photos.

For more botanical garden guides:

Visit Leiden Botanical Garden, the Netherlands

Visit Trompenburg Botanical Garden in Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Visit Cologne Botanical Garden, Germany

Visit Bonn Botanical Garden, Germany

Visit Phipps Botanical Garden in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Editor’s note and 2020 update: Trompenburg Arboretum has now reopened post lock-down. However, you have to book a spot online, on their website. This also applies to MuseumKaart holders. Once you’re inside the arboretum, you can stay as long as you want. The tea house is also open and observing special hygiene rules.

Where would you choose to spend a sweltering August afternoon?

The beach? Too crowded.

Strolling downtown? Too hard to breath.

The woods? We’re with you on that, but in this case it was too far away.

An arboretum? Now we’re talking.

We love to explore open-air tree museums – not the Joni Mitchell kind – so when we had an afternoon carefully earmarked for relaxing, we headed to Trompenburg arboretum, close to the Rotterdam city center.

Trompenburg is one of those places that doesn’t show up very high on the “things to do in Rotterdam” list, so we didn’t know what to expect. Which, in this case, was a good thing. We were pleasantly surprised by this park and its collections.

Here are a few tips you should know before you visit Trompenburg.

3 Things to KNOW when You Visit Trompenburg Arboretum in Rotterdam

+ Trompenburg is a short tram ride away from Rotterdam city center. It may get a bit tricky to orient yourself once you’re off the tram (stop name: Woudenstein), so as you get off, just walk towards the back of the tram, turn right and cross the street. As you walk down the narrow downhill alley, you’ll see the parking lot and the sign for the garden.

+ Trompenburg Gardens and Arboretum lies on historic ground. In the late Middle Ages, it was a swamp adjacent to the village of Cralingen (now a neighborhood in Rotterdam). Once dykes were erected, the marsh was used as a pasture and then incorporated as part of a farm.

The Van Hoey Smith clan, a prominent Dutch family in the shipping industry, had settled on the land in 1859. The family was the first to plant an arboretum on the grounds in 1928, while they were still using it as a permanent residence. Since 1958, the garden has been administered by the Trompenburg Arboretum Foundation and 100 percent privately financed through admission, donations and event hosting.

+ The garden contains about 4000 different types of trees, shrubs and perennials, with extensive collections of hostas, rhododendrons and cacti. In the summer, there are usually temporary exhibits. The highlight of our visit was the begoniamania show that Trompenburg hosted for three months this summer.

3 Things to SEE when You Visit Trompenburg Arboretum in Rotterdam

+ The succulent and cacti greenhouse. Hidden all the way in the back of the park, the succulent greenhouse is as impressive as it is packed.

In recent years, Dick van Hoey Smith spent a lot of time on his collection of succulents . In the greenhouse of Trompenburg Tuinen & Arboretum , as the Arboretum Trompenburg has been called for a few years, he had, among other things, the Mammillaria spinosissima , which he had received from his grandmother when he was ten years old, and which he has cared for for almost eighty years.

+ The mature tree collection. This is an arboretum, after all, so you should take advantage of your visit to have a look at these really old trees. Some of these trees date back to the 1870s: the bald cypress (Taxodium distichum), the giant tree of life (Thuja plicata ), the Dutch ash tree (Fraxinus excelsior) and an old yew tree (Taxus baccata).

+ The rhododendron collection. Trompenburg is home to around 700 different rhododendrons, and this impressive feat brings visitors in droves in the spring and early summer months. The flowering starts in February and reaches its peak in May.

3 Things to DO when You Visit Trompenburg Arboretum in Rotterdam

+ Take some pictures on the little white bridges. Trompenburg is peppered with small bridges that cross the canals. The lush green background makes perfect picture spots easy to find.

+ Find the waterfall. Behind the wildflower meadow, all the way in the back of the garden, you can sit and rest or read a book by an enchanting waterfall. It’s not an easy-to-find spot, but once you’ve discovered it, you won’t want to leave.

+ Have cake and tea. I don’t know about you, but my world is powered by cake and tea (with some forays into pour-over coffee, for good measure). So it’s no wonder I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to satisfy my sweet-tooth cravings. And I bought some tea for home, too!

And if you’re still not convinced that Trompenburg is definitely worth a visit, that’s what the pictures are for.

More botanical garden guides this way:

Visit Phipps Botanical Garden in Pittsburgh, USA

Visit Leiden Botanical Garden, the Netherlands

Visit Keukenhof Tulip Garden, the Netherlands

Visit Bonn Botanical Garden, Germany

Visit Cologne Botanical Garden, Germany

Visit Delft Botanical Garden, Netherlands

There are many ways in which the historic city of Delft will tempt you, should you find yourself sojourning through the lowlands. You can create your own pottery in an authentic Delft Blue porcelain factory (or have some shipped straight to your home from local vendors); you can stroll through the same streets as painter Johannes Vermeer did in the seventeenth century, during the highly influential Dutch Golden Age; you will definitely gape at the leaning tower of the fourteenth century Old Church and the Renaissance-style City Hall.

But if you’ve seen all of these attractions and still have time to spare (or if you’re looking for a patch of green amid all the cobblestone streets), let your feet guide you to the Delft Botanical Garden (Delft Hortus Botanicus).

Here are nine things you should know to make the most of your visit to Delft Botanical Garden.

3 Things you should KNOW before you visit Delft Botanical Garden

+ The TU Delft botanical garden is a research garden. Due to its affiliation with the university, the garden is less focused on the esthetic aspect of plants and more focused on their technical uses. That’s why you’ll see expos about the way humans have cultivated and used different spices throughout history, or read about the latest research in water filtration with plants. Occasionally, you will stroll by an ongoing experiment.

At 2.5 hectares, the garden is the largest single green area adjoining the city center of Delft.

+ Just like the botanical gardens in Bonn and Cologne, this one is also free to visit (if you have a Museumkaart, a Delft card, a Rotterdam card or if you are a TU Delft student or staff), or otherwise very affordable. At the time of publication, the general admission is 6 euros for adults and 3 euros for children and seniors.

Depending on your pace and the season, your visit will take between one and two hours, which makes the ticket a very good value-for-money choice. Keep in mind that there are some events that you can attend, such as band concerts, temporary exhibitions and food or ethnic fairs that are included in the price of the ticket. There is always an interesting exhibition every time I visit.

+ It’s very close to the city center. You can walk to the Delft Botanical Garden via several different routes. I recommend choosing the picturesque route that takes you through the old city gate – Oostpoort (Eastern Gate). Yes, you’re literally walking through the former gate of the city and along a pedestrian drawbridge. Oostpoort, a fine example of example of Brick Gothic northern European architecture, was first erected in the 1400s, and it’s the only remaining piece of architecture of what used to be the city walls.

3 Things to SEE when you visit Delft Botanical Garden

+ The greenhouses. No visit to the Delft Botanical Garden would be complete without a tour of the greenhouses. The greenhouse rooms have their own sub-climates: tropical, subtropical, Mediterranean, desert. For succulent and cacti lovers, this last room will offer a generous mix of species.

Since the 2004 tsunami, the research focus inside the greenhouses has been on the role that mangrove forests can play in protecting coasts in vulnerable areas.

Bonus points if you find the skittish pet spider. Worry not, he’s in a locked tank.

+ The living tree pavilion. This structure was designed by the Faculty of Civil Engineering at TU Delft to showcase one of the oldest building materials on Earth … trees. Because of their unique built-in optimization process, trees are able to repair weaknesses in their structure and can adapt to changing loads by producing extra wood.

The structure of the living tree pavilion consists of lime trees planted in a circle and fused together by living and growing joints. The visitor platform, which looms four meters above the garden, is currently supported by a man-made structure.

The trees surrounding it are growing around the observation deck and will eventually support it without the need for outside intervention.

+ Endangered plants area. This mesh-enclosed display garden showcases a variety of plants threatened with extinction due to land drainage, intensive farming, and warming temperatures – from alpine mosses to moor grasses. This collection was started in 2008 and it’s still a work-in-progress that aims to store the seeds of these endangered Dutch wild plants under controlled climatic conditions in seed banks.

Bonus! There are different themed ceramics exhibitions throughout the year.

3 Things to DO when you visit Delft Botanical Garden

+ Walk on the barefoot path. A sensory experience for kids and adults alike, the barefoot path is outdoors and available in all types of weather, though it might get a bit too muddy after heavy rain. If you’ve been strolling through the cobblestone streets of Delft all day, this is a great way to let your feet relax for a few minutes.

+ Read a book by the pond. This is by far one of our favorite ways to unwind in the city of Delft. The fish pond meanders through the garden, but the best place for a meditative rest is on the benches facing the Orangery. For a proper siesta, retreat on the benches surrounded by lavender bushes and enjoy a bit of silence and a cold drink from the concessions pavilion.

+ See the bee hives. If you’re not fazed by the buzz of hard-working humming bees, have a look at the bee house in the arboretum (as you enter the garden, take the path on the left). There are also a few displays for kids to learn more about the importance of bees for the ecosystem.

Just like the city of Delft itself, the garden is small but packs a lot of treasures. It’s a delight to explore and uncover them.

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means that if you make a purchase through one of the affiliate links, I will get a very small commission or referral fee at no additional cost to you. You can read more on my affiliate policy page. 

If you want to read more about houseplants and gardening, hop on my once-a-month newsletter list. There’s no endless email sequence here. Just a monthly email to keep in touch and chat about plants.

More botanical garden guides this way:

Visit Phipps Botanical Garden in Pittsburgh, USA

Visit Leiden Botanical Garden, the Netherlands

Visit Keukenhof Tulip Garden, the Netherlands

Visit Bonn Botanical Garden, Germany

Visit Cologne Botanical Garden, Germany

For the fans who live and breathe sports, Pittsburgh is Steelers City.

For Harry Potter lovers and Hogwarts-heads, Pittsburgh is all about the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh, a place where Harry himself could have strolled through … had he ever bothered to travel to Pennsylvania.

If your last name is Carnegie, Pittsburgh is the city upon which your loaded ancestors bestowed a part of their fortune.

Since I don’t fall in either of these three categories, for me Pittsburgh will always be the home of the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden, the place that helped me shield my sanity from “change fatigue” when I first moved to this city.

Phipps Conservatory is not just a majestic Victorian glasshouse and botanical grounds, but also a center for cutting-edge research focused on sustainable innovation.

Phipps is the perfect example of how an institution that opened its doors for the first time in the 1890s can not only keep up with the times, but also refashion itself as a trailblazing leader in their field.

Here are nine things you should know to make the most of your visit to Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden.

3 Things to KNOW before you visit Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden

+ Free outdoor gardens. Even before you step foot inside the impressive glasshouses, you can stroll around and enjoy a good portion of the Phipps charm for free. If you head to the northwest of the main building, as you come from the UPitt campus, you’ll find an enchanted garden that will pull you right into its midst. As you step inside, you’ll find several smaller pockets of plant collections, including an herb garden, a medicinal garden, a dahlia patch, perennials, ferns and a pond.

On the opposite side of the Phipps main entrance, as you come from Schenley Park and Panther Hollow Bridge, you’ll find the aquatic garden in the form of expansive ponds filled with a variety of water lily specimens, all guarded by the statue of Neptune, the Roman god of the sea.

+ Rotating exhibitions. Before you visit Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, have a look on their website to see what’s on display. In addition to the permanent displays, there are temporary shows celebrating every season. (And just in case you’re thinking that visiting in winter doesn’t make any sense, that’s when the light show turns the entire landscape into a fairyland worthy of Stars Hollow.)

From shows that blend impressionist art with floral displays, to arrangements that immerse you in a multi-level sensory experience, to shaking hands with gentle giants covered in moss, the curators at Phipps are masters of variety and keeping it interesting.

+ A focus on sustainability. Phipps is one of the most sustainably-built botanical gardens in the world. It is home to the first and only greenhouse production facility to receive a Platinum LEED certification.

The entrance pavilion is also LEED certified, as is the Center for Sustainable Landscapes (CSL) which is self-sufficient in terms of energy production.

Currently, Phipps diverts over ninety percent of the waste it produces away from the landfill. Eighty percent the waste that leaves the gardens is turned into compost and used to help build healthy soils.

3 Things to SEE when you visit Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden

+ The desert room. If you go gaga for agave, this room is for you. If you’re a sucker for succulents, this room is definitely for you. And if you’re a cacti collector, this is your crib. I think all these alliterations have made my point, but just in case you’re a serious Susan, go check out the plant displays in this part of the Conservatory.

What’s there to see? A Joshua tree, fire barrels, a sunrise tequila agave, and a tortoise shell plant, to name a few. And you’ll be hard-pressed to find all of these beauties in the same room anywhere else on the East Coast.

+ Tropical forest conservatory. There’s so much natural beauty at Phipps that picking a room to recommend seems like an impossible feat. But if you want an indoor waterfall, winding pathways and bridges, a fish pond, and lush palm trees in one place, head for the tropical room.

This area features a different region every three years, with interactive learning stations that inform and entertain. As part of the state-of-the-art eco-building, there are computer-controlled shades that control the amount of sunlight that enters the building.

+ Center for Sustainable Landscapes. The newest addition to Phipps Conservatory generates all of its own energy and treats all water captured on site. Close to this LEED Platinum-certified building, you’ll find the Nature Lab, one of the first sustainable, modular classroom spaces in the United States, built with non-toxic materials to serve as a model for how a classroom can maximize student wellness and potential.

3 Things to DO when you visit Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden

+ Have lunch at the sustainable cafe. We’re partial to soups and salads around here, and the Phipps cafe never disappoints. What’s even more impressive, is that the food is either sourced on location from Phipps’ own rooftop vegetable garden (oh yeah, look for it when you visit!) or from local farms.

Due to its commitment to promoting healthy eating habits, the cafe doesn’t sell any type of junk food or beverages with high sugar content. And you’ll definitely find no bottled water for sale. Instead, locally-filtered water is available. A lot of the ingredients are organic and produced in the United States and Canada, with a lot of the food being sourced from farms no more than 150 miles away.

+ Look for the art pieces. As you step into the Welcome Center to get your tickets and start your tour, I guarantee you’ll notice the undulating hand-blown glass chandelier. The yellow serpentine piece is one of the glass sculptures created by artist Dale Chihuly for Phipps’ permanent collection. The total Chihuly collection residing at Phipps is valued at a whooping $1.2 million.

There are several other opportunities to stop and admire the art when you visit Phipps Conservatory. From Grecian urns and Japanese limestone pagodas to the whimsical glass art of Hans Godo Frabel and the joyous sculptures by Geneva Mercer, there is truly art in every single room of this botanical garden.

+ Help kids learn about healthy food. There are many ways to keep kids entertained at Phipps, but the faux farmer’s market is fun even for adults. It’s a whole room turned into a farmer’s market setup complete with play stands, faux produce and supermarket staples. I mean, who wouldn’t like to push around mini-shopping carts and bargain for eggs with the toddler vendor behind the counter.

There are numerous other attractions that will make your time at Phipps unforgettable. So take this list more as a starting point rather than an all-encompassing guide.

Go, explore, inquire! You’ll have fun at Phipps.

All photos by Mickey Gast for Green with Purpose. Please link back to this post if you use any of these photos.

More botanical garden guides this way:

Visit Leiden Botanical Garden, the Netherlands

Visit Keukenhof Tulip Garden, the Netherlands

Visit Bonn Botanical Garden, Germany

Visit Cologne Botanical Garden, Germany

Visit Trompenburg Arboretum in Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Visit Delft Botanical Garden in the Netherlands

If you want to read more about houseplants and gardening, hop on my once-a-month newsletter list. There’s no endless email sequence here. Just a monthly email to keep in touch and chat about plants.

No matter what part of the city you enter Cologne from, you’ll soon be drowned in a sea of people – locals and tourists alike – going about their day.

Visiting Cologne is like visiting with your extended family at Christmas. It’s hectic, chaotic, and you’re bound to feel overwhelmed at some point. But you’ll be happy you did it, and you’ll want to hang out again when the next opportunity arises.

Cologne (or Koln/Koeln, if you prefer) has everything for everyone. That might sound like a cliche, but this bustling city really delivers in terms of culture, history, night life, fashion and culinary scene.

But around here, we’re interested in green spaces. And yes, Cologne delivers them aplenty.

Take the green stretch in the north of the city, for example, commonly known as The Flora and Botanical Garden. Ten thousand plant species from all over the world are on display for the million visitors that make their way to the Flora every year. And if you’re in Cologne, we think you should join that million.

Here are a few reasons why you should visit Cologne Botanical Garden.

3 things to KNOW when you visit Cologne Botanical Gardens

+ Once again, I present you with these magical words: free admission. Just like the Bonn Botanical Garden, this green oasis in Cologne is also free to visit. And here’s the basic tip that bears repeating: check the opening hours before you head this way.

+ The Flora, which has been recently renovated and refurbished as an events venue, was founded in 1863 as a private endeavor. It had a winter garden with a glass roof and restaurant, modeled after the London Crystal Palace, and quickly became the belle of the ball, a hotspot for weekend trips and dance balls. It united with the botanical garden adjacent to it in 1920 when the Flora was transferred to the local authorities.

+ You used to be able to take the cable car from Rheinpark, across the Rhine, and all the way to the gates of the Flora. While you were suspended above the Rhine, you could admire the Koln Dome puncturing the sky. It’s every bit as impressive from the sky as it it looking up at it from the main square. However, at the date of publication, the cable car system is under maintenance, so double check on their website when you plan your trip (English website this way.)

Another easy way to get to the gardens is via a hop-on hop-off tour bus. The garden is about a 30-minute leisurely walk from the old city center, which can make for a really pleasant discovery walk on a nice day.

3 things to DO when you visit Cologne Botanical Gardens

+ Find your favorite part. The Cologne botanical garden is an all-encompassing garden. Just like the city itself, the garden has a little bit of everything for everyone.

I’m not one for litanies. Long lists bore me to pieces. But please have a look at what this garden boasts and tell me it’s not worth a visit. In the Flora and botanical garden you’ll find an Alpinum, an arboretum, a Rhine farm garden, an iris garden, a lily garden, a sensory garden, a magnolia patch, a hemp garden, an old-growth green tunnel, a palm tree alley, an English landscape garden, an Italian Renaissance garden, and a French Baroque garden.

Pff, okay, you made it to the end.

Now pick your favorite and make it your mission to find it as you’re strolling through the expansive gardens.

And the best part: the transition between all of these is flawlessly executed, along wooden bridges, meandering paths, sprawling lawns and mountain trails. There’s something new to see as the scenery changes behind every corner.

+ Find the subtropical greenhouse. As we’re publishing this, the greenhouses are undergoing a renovation process, but there’s at least one greenhouse open for visitation.  You’ll be rewarded with the company of dazzling camellia bushes.

+ Meditate by the lily pond. A few mocking frogs might ruin your zen, but the place is still an oasis of tranquility.

3 things to SEE when you visit Cologne Botanical Gardens

+ You MUST see the dahlia patch. With over three hundred varieties of dahlias sprawled on several generous garden beds, you’re guaranteed to find something in bloom from early summer to late autumn. Dahlia love runs deep around here, and we’re well aware we’re dahlia fanatics. We also know that once you see the silhouette of a dahlia and its boisterous flamboyant colors bending in the wind, you’ll become a dahlia fanatic too. Here’s our promise: you go in a dahlia virgin, you come out a dahlia convert.

+ Revel in the French parterre, a stunning display of almost 30,000 summer flowers from all continents – from South African red geraniums to the Australia-native silver baskets. It’s not the French parterre at Versailles, but it will do.

+ You must see the alpine garden. Two thousand species of mountain-loving plants (a few of which are protected species) grow in this model habitat. And unless you frolic often in the Swiss Alps, this might be the first change you get to examine an edelweiss up close.

Have we convinced you to visit the botanical garden in Cologne? Oh, have we mentioned the dahlias?

More botanical garden guides this way:

Visit Leiden Botanical Garden, the Netherlands

Visit Keukenhof Tulip Garden, the Netherlands

Visit Bonn Botanical Garden, Germany

Bonn is beautiful!

And I’m not just saying that because you can buy cheap Haribos in bulk there.

Bonn is the birthplace of Beethoven and, yes, Haribos. But it’s also a relatively compact city with a good ratio of green spaces to concrete – at least for a German urban center.

And the most gorgeous green oasis you’ll find in the city is the botanical garden at the University of Bonn.

If you want a little bit of peace and tranquility away from the bustling humdrum of traffic, head towards the Poppelsdorf Palace and step into the baroque garden surrounding it. You’ll find yourself in the middle of a vast botanical kingdom encompassing over 11,000 species spread over 13 hectares and numerous glasshouses – a fern house, palm house, succulent house, orchid house, Mediterranean house and geophyte house, to name a few.

Since it’s associated with the University, this is mainly a teaching and research garden, and has been so since the founding of the University in 1818. The focus of the research at the moment is on epiphytes, carnivorous plants, ancient flowering plants, and the mapping of global patterns of biological diversity.

The focus of your visit, though, can be on how Instagramable the garden is. Or just on how you can relax and read a good book in the middle of a leafy arboretum.

Here are nine things you should know to make the most of your visit to Bonn Botanical Garden.

3 things you should KNOW about Bonn Botanical Garden

+  Behold the magic word when you visit any place of botanical worship: FREE. The Bonn botanical garden is free to visit during weekdays and very affordable during Sundays (like, three-euros-admission type of affordable). The garden is always closed on Saturdays, so plan accordingly. And if you’re one of those people who didn’t plan or check beforehand, please be so kind as to not leave a one-star review because you found the garden closed. It’s not nice.

+ The Botanic Gardens of the Rheinische Friedrich Wilhelms Universität – its formal name – developed from renaissance gardens that surrounded a medieval moated castle. The more recent baroque garden was built around 1720, and it is unchanged in its basic structure to this day.

+ Even though the First World War left it unscathed, the garden suffered significant damage during the Second World War. Its reconstruction took place between 1979 and 1984.

3 things you should SEE when you visit Bonn Botanical Garden

+ If there’s ever a Victorian glasshouse in a botanical garden, just assume we’re going to recommend you see it. And this particular Victorian greenhouse is where the Nymphaea gigantea, an Australia-native, will awe you with its spectacular leaves and even more spectacular blooms. There’s also a giant water lily (Victoria cruziana) that blooms at night. And get this: at first, the flower is white and it closes during the day, but the following night it opens up to reveal striking dark pink petals. And just in case you’ve had enough of large water lilies, you can also admire the smallest European water lily (Nymphaea tetragona). It’s super cute!

+ The succulent glasshouse. Succulents and cacti, say no more. If you’re into “living stones” (Lithops), there’s plenty of them in this room. While their photogenic nature is turning lithops into the Instagram plant du jour, these hardy succulents are being studied at the Bonn botanical garden due to their ability to adapt to their environment. Their leaves may shrink and even disappear below ground level during drought.

+ The arboretum is an amazing place to stroll through in every season. Because the gardens are so old, the trees that comprise the arboretum are tall and majestic. A few of the trees are “champion trees” or “record trees” – a designation awarded by the German Dendrological Society to promote awareness of the importance of protecting tree species.

3 things you should LOOK FOR when you visit Bonn Botanical Garden

+ Look for the Corpse plant (Titan Arum). This Indonesia-native blooms very rarely and its inflorescence can reach up to two meters in height. It was discovered in the nineteenth century by the Florentine botanist Odoardo Beccari in Sumatra, then sent to Kew Gardens and subsequently spread to botanical gardens around Europe and the United States.

Only about 125 such plants have flowered worldwide since the plant’s discovery. It is an impressive spectacle when the plant opens up. But after having witness such a display at the Phipps Botanical Garden in Pittsburgh, I can tell you that it really does smell foul.

+ Look for the lizard in the tropical greenhouse. Or better yet, he’ll be looking at you while you’re trying to figure out what’s that moving mount under the foliage. Spoiler alert: it’s the lizard.

+ Look for the terrace overlooking the gardens. You can enjoy a cold beer on a hot day or a hot cappuccino on a cold day. Or the other way around, we’re not judging.

Please tell me I’ve convinced you to visit the Botanical Garden in Bonn. If you’re not convinced, I might lose my botanical garden fanatic badge. (There’s no badge, but there should be one!)

More botanical garden guides this way:

Visit Leiden Botanical Garden

Visit Keukenhof Tulip Garden

Visit Cologne Botanical Garden

If you want to read more about houseplants and gardening, hop on my once-a-month newsletter list. There’s no endless email sequence here. Just a monthly email to keep in touch and chat about plants.

Move along, ping pong tables.

Take a hike, coffee cart in the lobby … but don’t roll too far away.

It’s time you went the way of the dodo, motivational poster misquoting Steve Jobs.

There’s a new trend taking over startup headquarters, and it’s one with many more benefits than back-breaking bean bag chairs (may they rest in physio heaven).

The living walls adorning the lobbies, conference rooms and cafeterias of these companies contribute to improving air quality, uplifting their mood, and generally creating a healthier and happier workplace. Here are eight companies that have adopted the green wall architectural feature and made it their own.

 1. Trustly (Stockholm HQ)

Who: Trustly – a fintech startup on a mission to make online payments a breeze.

Where: Stockholm, Sweden

Designed by: pS Arkitektur

Photo by Jason Strong via Office Snapshots

The swings are there. And so are the Japanese prints in the bathrooms. There are even sun loungers strewn about like colorful M&Ms on a long outdoors terrace.

But what better way to enjoy crisp greenery during long and dark Swedish winters than a lush vertical garden?

In a subtle palette of grey, black and wood tones – with a dash of copper – the plant wall packs just enough zing to stand out, but not to command all the attention.

2. Yoobi (Los Angeles HQ)

Who: Yoobi – a school supply company on a one-for-one mission. For every Yoobi item you buy, another one is donated to a school in need in the United States.

Where: Los Angeles, California

Designed by: Tucker Warner

Photo via Flora Felt

This custom vertical garden was created using a system made out of plastic water bottles recycled into felt.

The pleated felt is designed to keep moisture in the system while maintaining the front of the planting pockets dry and allowing the roots of the plants to grow into the moist felt. The reclaimed wood enclosure hides a storage tank that recirculates the water.

3. Codewise (Krakow HQ)

Who: Codewise – the second fastest-growing company in Europe, Codewise designs and maintains a battery of digital marketing tools.

Where: Krakow, Poland

Designed by: Make It Yours, Krakow

Photo by Piotr Mastalerz and Przemek Kuciński via Make It Yours

A fern wall in a colorful brainstorming room?

A ceiling-mounted projector rubbing shoulders with strips of moss?

Or a lush green addition to the humdrum of a cafeteria?

It’s hard to choose a preferred green design. But at Codewise you don’t really have to choose. They’ve added them all into their office design. Plus, extra houseplants scattered around for a more joyful and productive workplace for Europe’s second fastest-growing companies.

4. easyCredit (Nuremberg HQ)

Who: easyCredit – the leading consumer credit experts in Germany.

Where: Nuremberg, Germany

Designed by: Evolution Design

Photo via Evolution Design

Vertical surfaces are covered in low maintenance moss in the restaurant and barista cafe – bringing the “marketplace feeling” to a fintech environment. The moss wall adds a contemplative and calming vibe to the buzz of the cafe.

The public areas inside easyCredit’s headquarters are especially designed to resemble a city vibe, a perfect spot for collaboration and innovation to thrive.

5. Uniplaces (Lisbon HQ)

Who: Uniplaces – a large European player in the online marketplace for student accommodation.

Where: Lisbon, Portugal

Designed by: Paraelelo Zero Architecture

Photo via Paralelo Zero

The main draw of this green wall design is how it plays with perspective. Are you outside looking in or inside looking out?

The arched windows of Rossio, the emblematic railway station, emphasize the feeling of fluidity and dynamism. The headquarters play with the idea of a mix between work and leisure, and there’s nothing better to remind employees to disconnect and take a break than the (not so subtle) nod to nature.

6. Solar Mosaic (Oakland HQ)

Who: Solar Mosaic – the first US online marketplace connecting investors with high-quality solar projects.

Where: Oakland, California

Designed by: Forge Architecture

Photo by Patrik Argast via Forge Architecture

It’s only fitting for a renewable energy startup to turn to biophilic design. Solar Mosaic committed to not one or two living walls, but to twenty of them. The green walls bring fresh, lush and planned pops of color into the historic bank building that the startup converted for their expanding HQ.

7. Planning-inc (London HQ)

Who: Planning Inc – an award-winning agency delivering next-generation data marketing solutions.

Where: London, U.K.

Designed by: Action Workspace

Photo by Andy Heathcote via Office Snapshots

The space was tight in their East End headquarters, so data agency Planning-inc decided to move to a larger warehouse office space in the South Eastern district of the city.

Turning a cavernous warehouse into a flexible and stylish workplace for creative and dynamic workers is not the easiest brief to bring to fruition.

But with the use of natural light and greenery, it might just be possible. The moss living wall that divides a meeting and brainstorming place from the breakout kitchen is a perfect prop to make this transition smooth.

8. Wodify (Lisbon HQ)

Who: Wodify – an all-in-one gym management software

Where: Lisbon, Portugal

Designed by: MCA

Photo via MCA

The breathtaking nature of this living wall design is the way it plays with perspective. Seen from one side, it looks like it’s about to overgrow and take over the room. If you look at it straight on, it gives the illusion of a bird’s eye view of an enchanted forest.

The combination of moss, ferns and tropical plants in different shades of green makes this green wall the focal point of the expansive restaurant area.

Have more green startup headquarters that you want to share? You know where to find me.

For an extra dose of public space urban jungle, check out this Stockholm co-working space.