May 11- 22, 2008
Hort 496

By Ann Marie VanDerZanden

If you are interested in horticulture, in particular the production aspect of our industry, then a trip to the Netherlands is a must. This spring myself, Cindy Haynes and Richard Gladon took 21 students in the HORT 496 International Travel Course on an 11 day trip through the Netherland. While there we learned about numerous horticulture enterprises, and of course took in the culture, food and local tourist sites.

We spent 3 days in Amsterdam where we completed a boat tour of the canals, viewed the amazing works of the Dutch Masters at the Rijksmuseum and the VanGogh Museum, had a guided tour of one of the oldest botanical gardens in the world, and experienced the general flavor of the bustling international city. On the outskirts of Amsterdam is Aalsmeer and the world famous Flora Holland floral auction. It was the highlight of the trip for me. The auction facility is huge- equal to 20 football fields. And this is matched in the sheer volume of plants, 20 million flowers and 2 million plants, traded during the auction each day. It is mind boggling. We also fit in a trip to the Keukenhof Gardens. Although we were about a week past the peak bloom time, the garden and the tulip displays were still breathtaking.

From there we were off to Rotterdam to see first hand how large the Rotterdam harbor is, and what an extensive protection system the Dutch have built to keep the North Sea at bay and minimize flooding during major storms. Along the way we also visited the largest breeder of anthuriums in the world as well as the world leaders in rose, gerbera, chrysanthemum, tomato, pepper and cucumber breeding. The automation at these facilities was on a scale far beyond what I have seen before.

After stopping on the west coast to experience the North Sea, we headed east to Arnhem. We stopped at the Trompenburg Arboretum and enjoyed their stunning collection of rhododendrons which were in full bloom. Since we were close to Germany we took an unplanned trip across the border and enjoyed a lovely dinner there one evening. While in the Arnhem area we visited the Palace Het Loo which was originally the summer estate of the monarchy. We also rode bikes through the Kroller Mueller national park enroute to the museum. It was a fun way to get through the park and enjoy an important mode of transportation for the Dutch. We finished our time there with dinner and a ride on a pancake boat. Most of the Dutch I met were crazy about their pancakes.

On our return trip back west and to Leiden, we visited a large fruit processing facility, and tissue culture company. We spent our last 2 days in Leiden and Delft, again enjoying more of the Dutch culture, history and countryside. Here we also had the opportunity to tour and climb to the top of a functioning windmill.

It was a great trip. The students were interested in the sites we visited and impressed with the variety and scale of horticulture production we saw. We all learned a lot and had fun along the way.