Garden Travel- Utrecht Netherlands August 29th, 2016

Utrecht and Utrecht University Botanical Gardens- Botanische Tuinen Utrecht

Utrecht is a beautiful canal “city” It is surrounded by park lined canals and includes many pocket /courtyard gardens

We were there on a sunny warm weekend where all the local residents and students lounged on boats and barges while floating on the water. While the canals in the center of town were surrounded by cafes and bars the canals around the edges of town  were filled with trees, lawns and strolling paths.

Utrecht Canal

The University  gardens date back to 1693 but moved to the site of a  former military Fort Hoofddijk in the mid 1960’s

They are focused on education and research with more of a more recent focus on conservation and the public role of gardens in the community

The 22 plus acres of garden space is made up of 6 distinct gardens with particular themes and purposes. I only had a few hours so we could not see everything the way I would have liked.

The Discovery gardens – appeals to all the senses from taste  as well as historical knowledge. They had a garden of all prehistoric plants, then another part that had the garden split up but the medicinal uses as well as the part of the plant that was useful;

Even though most of the signage was in Dutch I still found most of the information displayed on the signs fascinating.

The systemic Garden  was much more developed in comparison to the one in Leiden. There were several beds groups all plants by family. To a plant nerd like myself it was interesting to see the relationships and the similarity and differences of the plants in the same family.

The “outer fort” was left somewhat natural  to encourage the native plant life to flourish which then develops the ecosystems for the local birds insects etc.

The rock garden was more like an Alpine garden where the plants were grown in the dry stack stone  focalpoint. These plants were ground very little soil and in most cases with very little water.

There was also a rose garden and 4-5 sets of greenhouses with unique collections that I did not get a chance to visit. I could total spend a day or two or more just studying here…Although it might make more sence if i brush up on my dutch 😉

For more information http://www.uu.nl/en/utrecht-botanic-gardens