A So-So Dutch Floriade
May 2nd, 2012
I’m just back from leading a group of central-Pennsylvania gardeners to the Netherlands and its Floriade garden show, held only once every 10 years.
One of the disappointly sparse flower beds at Floriade 2012.
Floriade 2012 was worth a look, but to be honest, I didn’t think it was nearly as impressive as the last one in 2002.
This show had a distinctly more commercial flavor. Maybe I’m biased because I see through rose-colored lenses rather than dollar-bill-green ones, but in my mind, this Floriade doesn’t quite measure up with other world-class garden-tourism events such as the U.K.’s Chelsea Flower Show or our own Philadelphia International Flower Show.
Most of our hardy band of 37 travelers thought the same thing. Everyone’s jaws dropped when we visited the 79-acre Keukenhof bulb garden near Lisse, but I got mostly lukewarm feedback when I asked their opinions on Floriade.
Most of us were expecting to see more gardens, more plant variety and a lot less selling of Asian jewelry, wooden bowls and packs of Dutch clog-shaped slippers.
The previous 2002 Floriade, held near the Dutch Schiphol Airport, struck me as a sort of Olympics of gardening with countries around the world building gardens to give visitors a flavor of horticulture in their homelands.
Back then, the Dutch themselves folded numerous Keukenhof-caliber beds throughout the site, spelling out whole words in bulbs in one memorable football-field-sized display.
For this Floriade, taking place in the southeastern Venlo region near the German border, only a few of the participating countries built gardens. Other than China, Indonesia and Turkey, most set up what amounted to sales booths.
The U.S. didn’t take part at all.
Plant-wise, what struck me first was underplanted display gardens, too much bare soil, exposed soaker hoses and even some weeds.
Many of the plants — especially roses and deciduous trees — were barely leafed out. The bulb displays were just OK — a bit of a letdown to anyone visiting Floriade after seeing what’s possible at Keukenhof or even Longwood Gardens and Hershey Gardens, for that matter.
Floriade 2012 has relative few large bulb displays like this as compared to the last show.
Yeah, it’s challenging to have everything looking great from opening day April 5 straight on through to fall.
But given sufficient planning and investment, it’s not impossible.
Roses, for example, can be speeded along in a greenhouse before being hardened off and set out closer to show time. Row covers can be used if cold nights threaten. Or at the very least, early bulbs can be interplanted to fill the barren space until the roses develop.
More bulbs and cold-hardy annuals such as pansies, dusty miller and snapdragons would have helped add more color to the bare space between the perennials that will hit their prime in summer.
Just some tighter spacing alone would have helped. In the case of a show like this, plants need to be packed way closer than in a garden being planned for future growth. The Philadelphia Flower Show is a perfect example of how show gardens can look lush and finished right off the bat.
Hopefully, the show plans to add massive amounts of warm-weather annuals to beds that are now primarily bulbs or early-spring perennials.
People traveling halfway around the world to see a world-class garden event don’t want to be told, “Just wait until you see this garden next month!” or “You should have seen what the bulbs looked like last month before we yanked them.”
I recall hearing a lot of “oohs,” “aahs” and “wows” when I was walking around Floriade 2002. This time, I overheard visitors saying things like, “Well, I guess they have a right to make money by selling things,” and “There are just a bunch of pictures on the wall in there.”
It seemed to me there’s more of an effort to make Floriade 2012 profitable, both for the participants and the sponsors/organizers (the Netherlands Horticulture Council, the Venlo region and the Dutch bank Rabobank).
Past Floriades have been money-losers, even though they at least leave behind new parks. When this Floriade closes, for example, the Venlo region will have an earth-friendly 164-acre business park with at least two of the buildings easily convertible into office space.
For better or worse, this Floriade (www.floriade.com) felt very “theme-parkish” to me.
Curiously enough, attendance is heavier than expected so far with good reviews and visitor surveys giving Floriade 2012 an average rating of 9 out of 10.
The new approach is certainly more people-friendly. The layout is roomy, the walking paths are wide and well signed, and food and restrooms are plentiful.
The educational exhibits and pavilions are very well done, and the huge glasshouse called “Villa Flora” had excellent displays of cut flowers, potted tropicals and the latest in houseplants.
This plant-filled living room was one of the most fun displays.
There’s also plenty of entertainment in the form of international dance, music and acrobatics — another touch that makes theme parks so popular.
And play areas and hands-on activities are scattered throughout to make this show more kid- and family-friendly than before.
One of the things our group liked best was the food samples, including Dutch greenhouse-grown strawberries and — believe it or not — radishes dipped in melted chocolate.
One of my favorite parts was the “Willowman” display, which was a collection of willow-wood nests, tents and bird cages built into trees in a forest nook.
All in all, there was enough going on to make Floriade 2012 a worthy visit.
If you’re a “regular” person interested in a day at a plant-oriented theme park, I suspect you’ll like it a lot.
But if you’re a hard-core gardener looking to be blown away by floral displays, that’s more likely to happen at Keukenhof or Longwood than Floriade.
We have a trip to Floriade planned for May 13-15th. Do you think the flowers will be more prolific then, or should we just go to Keukenhof, and skip Floriade? We I went in 2002, were blown away by the beauty, and promised to go back in 2012, but it sounds like we’ll be disappointed. We’re not interested in theme park attractions, just flowers! would appreciate any feedback you can give me!
Thanks, Paulette
Paulette,
Definitely don’t miss Keukenhof. It’s not going to be at the peak in May as we saw it when the tulips were in prime, but I think there will still be enough going on to make it worth your while. Floriade’s plants should be farther along in May, but I was definitely disappointed in the gardens this time. I thought the same thing after seeing the 2002 Floriade — I really need to come back next time. The approach was different this time, and I was underwhelmed. I thought at first it was just me in comparing it to the last Floriade. But when most of the rest of my group said the same thing (none of them had ever seen it before), I figured it wasn’t just me. I’m not sure how the show is getting such apparent good reviews and high marks. It seems very theme-parkish and commercial to me this time. But maybe your average person prefers that to more and better plants like a gardener might prefer. I’d say Floriade 2012 is a good attraction, but after seeing it, it’s not something I’d plan a whole trip around.
George
We were at Floriade just after Easter. Huge disappointment. Few displays were ready sounds like you experienced a few more elaborate displays. We spent a 1/2 day there- played to spend 2-3. Keukenhoff was wonderful, the best part of our trip.
It seems it’s not just me, then. With 10 years to plan, I don’t understand why the show didn’t hit the ground running.
George
Thank you for an honest answer Haven’t found 1 news article about the Floriade. We’re going May 30-31, depending on if we like it. We’ve been twice before: 20 yrs. ago was to die for!! Tulips 3′ tall, everywhere, fields of solid colors, mixed colors and types…just like the Keukenhof, which was also a must see. We were there in April. They recreated all the areas ofHolland in this one space, even did a map showing the water levels (for kids to splash in); water displays (river lets? with wild life and flowers, one more interesting thing than another. I hated 2002. It was a miserable rainy day; the flowers were not blooming, the displays were not lush and there was no continuity. I guess we left early. Certainly didn’t learn anything. The website looks uninviting..only cartoon pictures of overhead cable cars. Parking sounds evil…I save my walking for the impt. things (at my age and condition). I’m gong to search the web some more,but than you for your excellent and honest review!!
I went to Floraide 2012 on May 3rd and was expecting a full bloom of flowers splashing my sight. But I was disaapointed to see the limited blooms although there are beds of tulips and roses lying pretty on some areas. The weather was kind on that day despite a little chilly. The thing that dampened me is the disappointment I get when I had travelled over 12000km from Asia.The organization of the event into Theme park style does nto goes well with the flower display. It seem to lose it focus on showing the flowers but highlight the value of various theme promoted (Zen, Green zone etc)
We’ve just returned from Floriade this weekend, and never having been before were extremely underwhelmed by it. Far too few flowers and far too many ‘expo’ type stands for our liking. A large number of the international exhibits were nothing to do with gardening at all - simply a touristy promotion of their country. Thankfully the weather was glorious and we could enjoy just being out in the sunshine but as for recommending folk to visit - certainly not unless you are in Holland anyway! Give me Chelsea any day.
You need to provide transportation for seniors who cannot walk too well. A tram that takes people around the park would help.
Hello George,
We are garden writers attending the ACS tour of Holland and Belgium and were considering visiting Floriade after our tour somewhere between Sept. 14-21. We are visiting the major gardens and private collector gardens, but being in the green industry, thought this show might be interesting. Any recent reviews of the show improving over the summer months since spring? Thank you for such a thoughtful write up about the show in general.
I haven’t heard anything about Floriade over the summer, so I don’t know if it’s looking better, worse or the same. I talked to a local gardener who went over in early summer, and she said she wasn’t impressed. She had about the same impression that my group and I had.
George
George,
On the 22nd of Sept, my husband and I attended Floriade 2012. We are novice gardeners and live in southern Germany. We were pretty excited about our first international garden exhibit trip. Imagine a budget of 90 million euro and 10 years in the planning, what anticipation!
What a disappointment, the Floriade 2012 was like walking thru a much larger version of my own garden and my town’s Gartenrei (garden shop). The same Holland/German indigenous plants were seen over and over again. But we did not see one Holland tulip or rose (hot house or otherwise) on the grounds. The international flora was also scarce within their respective exhibit on the Floriade grounds. Schade (Shame), in German and Dutch!
Renee,
So it doesn’t sound like the displays got any better as the season went on. That’s too bad because I was so impressed at the last Floriade 10 years ago. I guess that makes at least two of us who won’t be going back 10 years from now.
Danke fur die Ruckmeldung. Glucklich Gartenarbeit.
George