New perennial collections (1995)

The New perennial collections garden was used from the middle of the nineties to show new sorts and varieties of perennials. This assortment changed regularly.

Design and planting

The New Perennial Collection garden is separated from the other gardens by an L- shaped beech hedge, an L-shaped pergola and a Thuja hedge. Part of the pergola is closed in by a wooden screen in a wooden frame. The narrow screen is made of roller screens which were used in the Boskoop market gardening business as sun blinds. By using this material a closed in garden effect is created but as it is possible to see through the screens there was also a connection to the other parts of the garden, like the Garden of Squares, the Standard perennial borders and the Roof terrace. The garden is made up of one large square and seven smaller ones. The largest contains ‘Deschampsia cespitosa ‘Goldschleier’.

At the moment the seven smaller beds have been planted with different kinds of plants from various  Dutch nursery gardeners demonstrating unusual combinations and different circumstances of growth.

Plants that would naturally grow together, preferring dry , normal or damp soil in combination with sunny, partial shade or shady circumstances, were chosen.

Before this, the beds were filled with favourite sorts of plants from seven different well known Dutch nursery gardeners, such as Brian Kabbes and Piet Oudolf.

There have been experiments with a Geranium collection, Irises, Anemones and Bergenias.  Sorts of plants that had already been tested in  our own Nursery corner and had proved their value in the plant collection  were planted here to be shown to the visitors. In 1994 ninety annual plants were planted here to celebrate  the 90th birthday of Mien Ruys.

History

Between 1985 and 1994 this was the vegetable garden. Keeping a vegetable garden entails a lot of work and so someone was employed to do this (This was Pien van der Stadt). For many years she experimented here with combinations of vegetables, herbs, fruit and flowers. The vegetable garden was approximately 12 by 12 metres and consisted of various beds so that crops could be changed.  The design was a classical one. There was a fence on three sides and on the fourth a woven screen of willow.

Even before 1985 experiments with different sorts of plants were carried out here. In the seventies there were experiments with meadow flower mixtures, lilies and annual and biannual plants.