We all know Amsterdam as a city arranged along tree-lined canals. Some are fronted with fine houses, others modest ones, but all share similar characteristics – lofty edifices, punctuated by vast windows and topped by fanciful gables. Less well known are the gardens, which linger in the long shadows of the buildings to which they belong. On one weekend each year, twenty nine of these hidden gardens, many of which belong to private individuals, fling open their heavy doors to the public. Whilst the gardens may be secret, the open days certainly are not. Visitors clutching their bright green passepartouts throng the quays of the three main canals where most of the gardens are to be found.

In the 17th century, Amsterdam’s gardens were productive ones, devoted to the cultivation of vegetables and fruit trees. Enlightened legislation ensured that only a certain proportion of each new canal-side plot could be built on. As the city’s elite grew in wealth they acquired country estates which were better suited to providing food for their household. Town houses were principally occupied during the winter months and their gardens became ornamental; structured spaces to be appreciated from the comfort of indoors. Originality was not considered a virtue at the time and city plans of 17th century Amsterdam show remarkably similar layouts repeated from property to property.

By the mid 18th century, early formal styles had given way to the English fashion for ‘landscape’ gardens, characterised by serpentine paths, lawns and majestic trees. Grander households constructed fine summerhouses, guest lodges and stables at the end of their plots, often giving them the appearance of much grander buildings. The best example of this can be seen at the Museum Van Loon, a double-fronted townhouse, still partly occupied the Van Loon family, where the coach house and stables were disguised as an ornate villa. The gardens here, having been much simpler at the turn of the 19th century, have been returned to 17th century formality. The roses in the radiating beds are Rosa ‘Gruss an Aachen’.

Nearby, another of Amsterdam’s most distinguished and cultured couples, the Wilett-Holthuysens, created a typically baroque garden bounded by pleached limes. All the gardens of this period were designed to be appreciated from the first floor (or bel étage) where the family had their most elegant reception rooms. The result is impressive at a glance but not especially engaging to stroll around. Control, rather than exuberance, was the order of the day.

At the Museum Geelvinck on Herengracht the garden has two very different moods. The plot immediately to the rear of the glamorous mansion has been returned to elegant formality, sporting a long pool and fountain designed in 1991 by Robert Broekema. The area to the rear of the coach house, which fronts Keizersgracht, has a very different feel; a shady refuge composed of diamond-shaped box-edged beds filled with hostas, geraniums and more roses.

The garden specialises in roses and has a fine collection of hybrids old and new. I was especially taken with a climber named Rosa ‘Citronella’, which has sweetly scented flowers not the least reminiscent of citrus. A good selection of heritage roses was offered by Belle Époque Roses of Aalsmeer.

Ships registered in Amsterdam sailed around the world bringing back goods from the Dutch colonies. As in England, the city’s gardens soon brimmed with exotica from the furthest corners of the globe. Quite what happened to Amsterdammers’ enthusiasm for the rare and unusual I am not sure. Today’s town gardens for the most part adhere to the same palette of hydrangeas, hostas, philadelphus, ivies, camellias and box, with the odd plume of aruncus or shower of blue campanulas to brighten the composition. Some of this is born out of necessity. Gardeners have had to seek out plants that will tolerate the dry shade created by vast trees that their predecessors planted in pursuit of the landscape idyll. It’s an issue experienced across the city as copper beeches, horse chestnuts, oaks and elms reach maturity. From above, Amsterdam’s gardens appear almost wooded, a far cry from their tightly corseted origins. Despite the constraints of shade, with which I sympathise, I was surprised at the lack of variety and experimentation with plants, which is in stark contrast to English gardens. Perhaps something of the 17th century resistance to uniqueness lingers on in 21st century Dutch gardeners.

Several of the gardens on the tour have been laid out within the last decade. They tend to make better use of hard landscaping to form seating areas, especially in areas of the garden that catch the sun. This would have been a horrifying concept for the residents of old Amsterdam, who looked for every opportunity to protect their noble skin from the sun. Brick paviours are most commonly used, a narrow profile allowing for refined curves and patterns to be created. This gave me a few ideas for our garden in London where this treatment would be perfect.


The garden at Amstel 216 appears modern, but struck me as a contemporary take on traditional Dutch style, incorporating many features that would have been familiar to earlier inhabitants. A guest lodge-cum-office simply breathes new life into the idea of an ornamental building to admire from the main house. An armillary sphere sundial, de rigeur in the 17th century, occupies an open part of the garden and acts as a focal point. It’s mirrored on the other side by a fine sculpture of a horse. Not visible in the picture below are two juvenile trees, a copper beech and a tulip tree, continuing the English landscape garden tradition of planting trees which will ultimately outgrow their welcome. The use of dog woods was the only deviation from the tried and tested palette of hydrangeas, hostas, box and geraniums. Curiously for such a watery city, pools and water features are a relatively new development in Amsterdam and would not have appeared in early garden designs. The Netherlands have a complex relationship with water, it having enabled immense power and encouraged the rats which transmitted the dreaded plague. Hence stagnant water was rarely welcome in the city of old. Other new features in this carefully composed garden are the bicycle shelters, secreted behind blocks of yew hedging so that they cannot be seen from the house.

Amsterdam’s open garden weekend is a unique opportunity, not only to visit some very special gardens, but also to delve into the city’s fascinating history. For small gardeners a glimpse of these shady, often overlooked gardens reveals a host of clever ideas for maximising the appeal of a small space. I for one came away inspired by the owners’ ingenuity and encouraged to keep experimenting with our own shady, awkward city garden. Practicalities Most of the open gardens are situated on Amsterdam’s three encircling canals, the Herengracht, Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht. Walking between them is easy, although bicycles are always an option in Amsterdam. A passepartout which gives access to all the gardens can be be purchased for €15 from four key gardens, including Museum Van Loon and Amnesty International. Be mindful that some of the gardens are accessed via low doorways and worn stairs and mind your step. To see all the gardens in one day requires something of a route march, so I’d recommend spreading them over two or three days, noting that one or two do not open on all three days. We found Sunday to be the quietest day, and Saturday by far the busiest. Many gardens offer refreshments, ranging a glass of wine to sandwiches and homemade apple cake. Also worth a look, but not part of the open weekend, is the Hortus, Amsterdam’s historic botanical garden. The 2015 garden open days will be June 19, 20 and 21. Click here for more details For a more in depth history of Amsterdam’s fascinating canal house gardens, track down ‘Canal House Gardens of Amsterdam, The Hidden Green of the City’ by Saskia Albrecht and Tonko Grever.
Categories: Flowers, Foliage, Garden Design, Landscape Design, Plants, Small Gardens, Travel, Trees and Shrubs
Good Morning FG – I was getting worried no posts for several days… but it was all worth the worry when I read this. Some glorious gardens and so formal and structured, such a huge contrast to the general informality of our gardens in Australia which are pretty much a hotch potch with a lot of outdoor entertaining areas. Can’t believe the size of some of those hostas. I have been doing some research here on these stunning plants and there is only one nursery in Tasmania that specializes in these. They are definitely not for the average Aussie garden. I did ponder mixing them in with my hellebores but I doubt I would get the luxurious foliage and the beds would end up looking very scrappy so I will need to find another solution. Back to google for me.
Thank you for such an interesting and very informative post along with some lovely pics. I truly feel I am reading a travelogue everytime you write of an overseas garden. Thank you so much. Have a lovely weekend.
I know, I think 3 days is the longest I have been off air in a long time Helen. Mix of being away, trying to get our new veggie beds completed (almost there) and the boiler breaking. I promise not to make a habit of it! I will not miss June, it has been far too busy. I glad you enjoyed the post, I did do a lot of research and tried to make it as informative as possible. The history of these gardens is fascinating and they face all the same issues as we do in London – access through the house, dry shade, exhausted soil, lots of old foundations in the ground and so on. So, on the whole, more relevant to us than many gardens we go and look at. You have a lovely weekend too Helen
This is an interesting insight, looks like a very enjoyable weekend. And what a really beautiful rose ‘citronella’ is too.
Thank you. I do like the smaller, simpler roses and the flowers are perfect for bees too. It was a great weekend and a lovely way to get a better appreciation of Amsterdam.
Wow! Thanks for posting these photos, I loved them. It’s amazing what you can do with a small space. I’m also adding ‘Citronella’ to my plant wish list.
I believe it’s a relatively new rose, introduced in 2007. I can only find nurseries in The Netherlands that sell it so far, but will keep you posted if I find a UK source.
Oh no, have I added another impossible to find plant? I’m tearing my hair out this year trying to Iris ‘Magic Bubbles’ with no luck, I’m going to have to fork out (no pun intended) to get it imported I think. I’ll keep looking for that and ‘Citronella’ as well now! 🙂
A great post and a fascinating glimpse into these Dutch gardens.
Hi Dan, Thanks for a great post and a lovely insight in to Dutch gardens. This was a subject that I knew very little about and you have enlightened and educated me. I wonder if the current owners of these gardens would ever consider chopping down the huge trees in their gardens. I always find it curious that we are all so reluctant to get rid of large trees planted by our predecessors, no matter how inappropriate they are, and yet we are only to happy to knock down walls and completely renovate our homes! Helen
Hi Helen. Apparently they are all protected by law and so can’t even be pruned or shaped without permission. I find it curious as many are perilously close to the historic buildings and might do untold damage if they blew down. That said, Museum Geelvinck had an elm which had recently toppled and have replaced it immediately with a massive new tree (25ft+). I thought it looked much better without personally and would have been viewed as a blessing. On a practical level none of these gardens has any access other than through the house, so removing a 150 year old beech would be a fairly lengthy and messy procedure! Have a lovely weekend 🙂
Really interesting! My only serious garden memory of Amsterdam is coming across two boyz hard at it in the Vondelpark on a sunny summer Sunday. And then an overall impression of the (more rural) front gardens, only a few feet deep and wide, which almost all contained (a) a corkscrew willow (b) a weeping blue spruce and (c) a fastigiate oak. It was paint by numbers ugliness. And yet when I travelled along the canals of a nursery community (Veen-something, Something-veen?) it was beauty of the first order. And Mien Ruys is, I believe, the single most influential garden designer of the 20th century. A nation of gardening contradictions.
Hi, I have been in Amsterdam for open gardens last year and you reminded me that in some of them I thought “well, why did they include this garden in the show??” – because there was nothing but a couple of large trees, a piece of sad lawn and about five annuals randomly scattered in otherwise barren bed (it looked like they planted them right before the show and will dig them out and return to shop right after it :)… but, of course, some gardens were magical… Also, we were lucky as there was a free “bus-boat” that was cruising around gardens and you could hop on and off it. Lovely memory, I highly recommend it as a weekend idea!
I missed the boat (nothing new there) and agree with your assessment of some of the gardens, but I take the view that these people have opened their garden to the hoi polloi to raise money for good causes, so deserve a little leniency. I spotted a number of unceremoniously plonked hydrangeas that were straight from the garden centre, but without them some gardens would have been pretty gloomy. As our garden is opening in just a few weeks I am sitting in my glasshouse being very careful not to play with the stones!