Floriade 2012
Backpacker with a green thumb, here is an event not to be missed: the Floriade, a universal horticultural exhibition which takes place every 10 years in the Netherlands. Do you want to know everything about new gardening trends? Admire the oldest potted plant in the world? From April to October, take a trip to Venlo, on the banks of the Meuse, to visit this spring event. The largest green exhibition in the world, the Floriade celebrated its 6th event in 2012. The opportunity to discover Holland from the garden side.

A Floriade every 10 years
In 1960, the Dutch Horticultural Council launched a large exhibition to bring together all horticultural circles and raise awareness of environmental issues among visitors. The first edition of the Floriade takes place in Rotterdam. With nearly 3 million visitors, it is a real success.

It takes a little more than 10 years for the organizers to inaugurate the 2nd Floriade which was held in Amsterdam in 1972. The exhibition places are in various places of the city. Amsterdam again hosts the Floriade of 1982, in what is today the Gaasperplas leisure park in the south-east of the city.

In 1992, the Floriade took place in the city of Zoetermeer in the south-west of the country, attracting more than 3 million visitors, including one million foreigners. The most recent took place in 2002 in the city of Haarlemmermeer in the north of the country.

La Floriade 2012
This year, the Floriade is held in the town of Venlo, a few kilometers from the German border. From April 5 to October 7, 2012, the Universal Horticultural Exhibition opens its 66 hectares of land. The site, located on the banks of the Meuse, was created in a natural clearing, where many trees are also beech trees, several hundred years old, just that! The 2012 Floriade is under the sign of sustainability and well-being.

To answer visitors’ questions, the site is organized into 5 thematic areas: well-being, sustainability, view of the future, quality of life and cultural encounter. Do not miss the huge greenhouse in CO2-neutral glass, the tropical gardens, the labyrinth to discover the tree that corresponds to your identity according to Celtic astrology and the largest cable car in the Netherlands.

A cultural program will be offered to visitors every day: music, dance and theatre. Children will be given pride of place with activities specially designed for them, educational tours and introductory workshops in dance and the performing arts.

Respect the environment
Respect for the environment is at the heart of the Floriade. The Venlo region applies the principles and objectives of the international Cradle to Cradle® certification (from cradle to cradle). This concept integrates the material in a production cycle in which, once used, it is not destroyed but converted into a new material.

La Floriade 2012 thus respects the Cradle to Cradle® since the environment is used in a sustainable way. The park is designed to accommodate all audiences, during and after the Universal Horticultural Exhibition.

Some gardens and flower markets in the Netherlands
Keukenhof

The Keukenhof is the most famous floral park in the world. Located between Amsterdam and The Hague, it attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year in just two months of opening. The first flower exhibition was organized in 1949 on the initiative of the mayor of Lisse. Today, the Keukenhof has an area of 30 hectares on which thousands of flower bulbs and tulips are planted by hand in the fall by exhibitors. The massifs are imagined according to the chosen theme and which for 2012 is “Poland – Heart of Europe”. From March 22 to May 20, 2012 from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Amsterdam flower market

The Amsterdam flower market is not a market like the others since it takes place on the Singel canal. Sales of flowers, from the traditional Holland tulip to indoor plants, have been done entirely on barges since 1862. The flower market on the water is open Monday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5.30 p.m.

The Hortus Botanicus in Leiden

The oldest botanical garden in the Netherlands is located in Leiden (40 minutes from Amsterdam). Over 10,000 plants from Asia, Southern Europe and South Africa, and dozens of birds can be seen in the various gardens of the park. The Hortus Botanicus, which has collected and studied plants for more than four centuries, contributes to scientific research. But the botanical garden allows visitors to come and relax and discover rare species emanating from distant lands.
Find out more about the Hortus Botanicus

The gardens and the Het Loo Palace in Arnhem

Imagined by William III of Orange and Marie II Stuart who ruled both Holland and England at the end of the 17th century, the Het Loo Palace houses the Grand Jardin and its embroidery beds which were destroyed and then restored to the end of the 1980s. The plants are identical to those which the king and queen could admire in the XVIIth century and constitute a real floral exhibition where each species is highlighted when the season of its flowering arrives. The gardens are located in Arnhem, in the east of the country, just over an hour’s drive from Amsterdam and are open Tuesday to Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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