Saturday, April 19, 2008

The Heem Garden

Earlier this month I went with my friend Aimee to the heemtuin of Rucphen. Before we go any further let me explain what a heemtuin or garden is. A heemtuin is a garden where, mostly for educational purposes, indigenous flora is grown the way you would find it in a certain area in the wild. And of course where there is indigenous flora there's indigenous fauna to be found as well. I love wild flowers and so does my friend Aimee so this heem garden was right up our street.
In the first 2 pics you see something that is very Dutch; pollarded willow trees next to a stream. Any idea what those yellow flowers are? Here's a close up.
Wild daffodils with a few Fritillaria meleagris.
O, to be in the Netherlands in April

There was a whole field full of them; a glorious sight!
Fritillarias are one of my favourite spring flowers, the purple ones in particular. But there was more to see than just daffodils and fritillarias.
Gorgeous wild primroses ( Primula vulgaris), this is my favourite spring flower, and has been for a long time. I've sown some seeds in a pot earlier this year and am waiting with baited breath for them to come up. So far no luck.
Primula vulgaris and fritillarias
Another beautiful wild primrose is the cowslip or Primula veris. Here to be found in a field full of wild daffodils.
Here Primula veris is growing together with wood anemones and Lamium purpureum.
There were lots of lamiums in flower, whole clumps of them. Here you see the pink Lamium maculatum together with the purple Lamium purpureum, such a wonderful sight.
In the wild flower meadow Veronica filiformis ( slender speedwell) was found too, this is another of my favourite plants. I just love those sweet little blue flowers.
The heem garden of Rucphen is still a young garden but it is already very beautiful. In flower is the Amelanchier. The brownish shrubs you see are sweet gale (Myrica gale).
Underneath some trees and shrubs we found big clumps of wood anemones (Anemone nemorosa) and hidden in the meadow among other plants like geraniums we found this
Corydalis solida, this plant has such elegant flowers.
Walking around this heem garden you sometimes forget to look up as there is so much growing down at your feet. But fortunately we did look up from time to time and spotted this:
Hey stop that, no kissing the blogger!
Mistletoe growing in its natural habitat.
Alongside a babbling brook grew many Marsh Marigolds (Caltha palustris), such wonderful plants that grow
very well at the edge of a pond too.

I leave you with this pic of an old crumbling wall where wall snapdragons and sedums grow in the crevices.
Very pretty, don't you think?

Have a great weekend!

copyright 2008 Y.E.W. Heuzen

Gardening is about change. No two days in the garden are ever the same.
Ken Thompson, An Ear to the Ground, 2003

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ook al is deze heemtuin nog jong, je kan er al heel veel zien.
Leuk om met je mee te wandelen, ik heb genoten!

A wildlife gardener said...

Good morning, Yolanda...Have we gone to heaven?... for this is how I imagine the Garden of Paradise to be :)

The carpet of primulas... or the carpet of wood anemones? Decisions, decisions...I love 'em all :)

Fancy a Hokey Cokey? You Do? Bring your wiggly tail... :)

Sue Swift said...

Lamium must be just about my favourite wildflower. if i had a garden, I'd grow it ...

I have a crazy idea for a European garden blogger's get together - a bit like the one that was organised in Austin. And i thought the focus might be a tour of the Dutch bulb fields next spring. i'm happy to do any organising that doesn't involve being on the spot - but it needs someone who is. Would you be interested? If so can you send me a comment on my blog with your email address. I moderate everything and won't publish it.

Hope you're interested.
Sue

Jane O' said...

Thank you for the nature walk this morning. It was very enjoyable and I learned a lot of new things.

garden girl said...

Beautiful garden Yolanda! Thank you for sharing the pictures. I especially love those pale yellow primroses, but everything is lovely.

Lisa at Greenbow said...

Oh Yolanda this garden is beyond pretty. It is gorgeous. How lucky you are to have such a garden that you can visit.

Annie in Austin said...

Lovely walk, Yolanda Elizabet - thank you for taking us with you to see all these lovely flowers.

It's fun to be reminded that what's a wildflower happy to spread out in large patches in a European garden might be a hovered-over cultivated plant when grown over here - and they might not grow at all!

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

Garden Cats + Crafts said...

Das sind ja wahre Blütenträume und -wolken in diesem Traumgarten. Genau das ist es was im Moment so sehr fehlt. Garten, Blumen, Frühling. Danke für die schönen Fotos, Yolanda.

Einen schönen Sonntag wünsche ich Dir und liebe Grüße, Birgit

em said...

wow, very beautiful!

Karin said...

What a beautiful place! It doesn't look young at all. :) I love the time right now with all the spring bulbs. Is the weather beautiful in Netherlands too? Take care and I wish you a lovely weekend!

Kram Karin

Barbee' said...

Oh, what beauty! Your photos have given me several ideas to try. Thank you.

Chookie said...

Wow, now I know what a cowslip looks like! And that the speedwell and corydalis are those annoying weeds in my vegetable patch!

What a wonderful term is Heemtuin. I don't believe there is any equivalent English word, though of course the concept is practised. We Aussies talk about "bush regeneration", where degraded land is weeded and indigenous plants are planted in an effort to return the area to something like its natural state, but this does not produce a Garden. How similar is bush regeneration to Heemtuin?

TuijaH. said...

Hei. Thank you to visiting in my blog.
It´s lovely to foud out same flowers all over the world.
There is Corydalis solida in my garden too and its blooming right now.

TuijaH. said...

okey, okey... i cannot english.

...it´s lovely to find same flovers..... :/

Cheryl said...

What a beautiful post Yolanda, it was a joy to look at the flowers. I to love wild flowers and will be uploading some this week.
My mason bees have started to leave their units. Please drop by if you are interested. They will pollenate all my fruit trees.

Lovely lovely post Yolanda, thank you.

Anonymous said...

Een paradijsje...en dat in Rucphen..;-)) Ik vind dit veel mooier dat 'T Loo....:-)

Ruth Welter said...

Hi Yolanda, thanks for sharing the photos of your visit to this beautiful nature garden...just so lovely.

Anonymous said...

Love the beautiful contrast of violet-colored plants like the fritillarias among the yellow daffodils!

Hannele på Hisingen said...

wow, wonderful

Gail said...

Walking around a corner and spotting favorite wildflowers is a favorite with me. Such a lovely adventure. So many lovely flowers...that are non-native exotics here!

Gail

Anonymous said...

Indeed very lovely. I love the fritillarias be and the wild primroses. I've never seen either in real life, only in photos.

I'm also fond of the crumbling wall. I can think of few things more poetic.

Unknown said...

So nice to go on a trip with you again, Yolanda! I especially loved the host of daffs and frits growing wild and happy. Spring is thinking about staying with us now too, must be all the good thoughts from friends like you.

Kylee Baumle said...

This is a great post for me right now. I'm very much immersed in the spring wildflowers here. I've enjoyed those that you have there, of which many are the same. I just spotted a marsh marigold blooming in my garden this morning. It was there last year for the first time. I've no idea where it came from, but it's more than welcome to stay!
Thank you very much for the garden tour!

Frances, said...

Hi YE, such a delight to see those wildflowers in a natural habitat. I grew those fritts for the first time this year and was wondering what companions they liked. Now I know. BTW, I linked to your post about the radish sandwich in my story today, hope that is okay. Happy Earth Day.
Frances at Faire Garden

Entangled said...

What an interesting idea, the heem garden. The wildflower gardens I know here in the US always look more cultivated than wild. This seems much more skillfully done. Thanks for the tour!

Cheryl said...

Happy earth day Yolanda. I shall celebrate tomorrow with my little granddaughter. We will plant a tree together and scatter wild flower seeds.

Rusty in Miami said...

My kind of a park, where Mother Nature is the gardener

Ki said...

A checker board Fritillaria! Pretty neat. I love your corydalis. I just planted some seed of C. solida so wish me luck.

Ewa said...

what a lovely place. it looks very soothing. It is a great idea for the park - to see Nature gardening.
Greetings,
Ewa

LadyLuz said...

Oh, Yolanda, you take us to the nicest places.

Seeing everything in the wild again always makes me nostalgic for an English Spring. You have a marvellous variety in Holland.

Sandpiper (Lin) said...

So many beautiful spring pictures. Lovely!

Anonymous said...

Heel mooi en als ik het zo zie heb ik ook aardig wat "heem" in mijn borders! ;-)