Bloempark Appeltern
Bloempark Appeltern is almost an hour’s drive away, but once we read about it, we decided it was worth a visit, even if it was a few weeks past prime flower time. It’s strange when you read about a garden and they say they have over 200 gardens. We figured we had to check it out.
It does, indeed have 200 (ok, we didn’t see them all or count them to verify, but we saw enough not to doubt the claim) or so gardens aligned along a few major pathway corridors through the larger property.
Through long stretches on the left and right of the pathway you have what amount to small rooms, about the size of an urban Dutch backyard, each done up in very different styles. They are small, very intimate, and often have some form of water feature.
We took our time going through them and while it didn’t make for the best photography, it was a good way to practice image making. And, of course, we were able to enjoy each garden. Photographically, the inability to make grander landscape images also gave us a reason to focus on some of the details, which made many of the gardens very enjoyable.
A couple of the gardens had gates and were designed around walls, again, to recreate an urban garden.
Others were more open and gave you ideas for garden areas that are part of larger properties. And that’s what this place was really about, because these gardens are affiliated with a large garden store (read: farm) next door, so there were scan codes everywhere so people could identify (and later buy) a particular plant or piece of garden furniture they found to their liking.
I, of course, was more interested in trying to make interesting photographs.
I have to admit though, the variety of plants and trees they had there was very, very impressive.
As were the variety of types of gardens they had. Naturally they drew from many different cultures, but they also had plenty of traditional Dutch gardens like the ones we see on our walks.
In the end though, for me, it was the variety of plant life that I found most interesting. That, and the fact we could easily divert down another pathway and explore a different set of gardens if a crowd of people happened to be clustering around a particular area up ahead. It was a nice place where one could get lost once you left the main entrance way or didn’t wind up by one of the several coffee shops/snack areas nestled in the parks.
We could tell that we were a few weeks past prime, but that didn’t keep us from enjoying the riches all around. I guess that means we just need to make sure we swing by here next May or early June.