Garden Travel- Hortus Botanicus Leiden August 15th, 2016

Hortus Botanicus Leiden

Leiden Botanical Garden  is oldest botanical garden of the Netherlands- recently celebrated 425 year anniversary celebration. This is a university affiliated garden and had a long history of plant collectors and collections. Supposedly they brought the first extensive set of tulips to the Netherlands. (although I saw very few tulips within the garden)

Dr Phillip von Siebold traveled the world in the early 19^th century bringing back more than 700 new plant species to the Netherlands and Europe. 10 of the original plants Dr Siebold brought back still exist in the garden. More than 65% of all shrubs planted in the Netherlands originate from these plants brought in from asia.

 

This was also my first introduction to the Systemic Gardens where the beds are organized by plants of the same family to illustrate the genetic similarities- Unfortunately they were in refurbishment so they did not photograph well but they were very enlightening. I found these in several other botanical gardens in Europe.

More of a park-like setting had several lawn areas where students were lounging and studying- especially along the canal. After Keukenhof visit the garden seem very subdued, but I could have seen myself lounging along the river – found the garden very relaxing.