Keukenhof is situated near Liesse, and is the world’s largest flower garden. According to the official website for the Keukenhof Park, there are approximately 7,000,000 (seven million) flower bulbs planted annually at the park.
It is located in South holland between the towns of Hilegom and Lisse, south of Haarlem and southwest of Amsterdam. It is accessible by bus from the stations of Haarlem or Leiden. It is located in an area called the “Dune and Bulb Region.”
The flower garden was the idea in 1949 of the then-mayor of Lisse, a small town south of Amsterdam. The idea was to have a flower exhibit where growers from all over the Netherlands and Europe could show off their hybrids which will help the Netherlands as it is the world’s largest exporter of flowers.
Keukenhof is situated on the 15th-century hunting grounds of Slot Tevlingen; it was the castle’s kitchen garden , providing game, fruit and vegetables.
In 1638, the estate was purchased by Adrian Maertensz Bloc, captain and governor of the Dutch East India Company. In 1641 he had a large manor house constructed, which he named Keukenhof, now known as Castle Keukenhof.
In 1857, Baron and Baroness Van Pallandt, at the time owners of the estate, tasked landscape architect Jan David Zocher and his son Louis Paul Zocher to restructure the park and grounds around the castle. Those parks, designed in English style, remain the foundations for the gardens.
We visited the site in April 2006
Travels with us 