Tulip Garden at The Willet-Holthuysen House
The imposing Willet-Holthuysen House is situated in the center of Amsterdam. This double mansion on the Herengracht contains many period rooms. Its beautiful salons are in the style of Louis XIV, and the garden is symmetrically designed as a French formal garden. Once a year from April 1 to April 30, this garden is in beautiful bloom, including historic tulips. The garden is part of The Willet-Holthuysen House and therefore freely accessible with a valid entrance ticket.
Baroque symmetrical garden
The house takes its name from the married couple who lived there at the end of the 19th century, Abraham Willet and Louisa Holthuysen. They collected a large amount of art and objects, and also designed the period rooms. Upon their deaths, the couple left their collection and house behind with the intention that it would be turned into a museum.
The early eighteenth-century garden designs by the French architect Daniël Marot have served as a source of inspiration for the current House Willet-Holthuysen garden. The graceful symmetrical patterns and trimmed hedges and trees refer to the baroque gardens for canal houses and country estates. Today it is one of the few formal gardens in the center of Amsterdam.
Historical Tulips
The garden shows single, double and pinnate tulips, plain, flamed and striped tulips, single, double and spray narcissus, orange and crown imperials, grape hyacinths and hyacinths. The blooming period is from late March to mid-May.
This year, however, the focus is on historical tulips: tulipa 'Duc van Tol Red and Yellow' (from 1595), tulipa 'Rem's Favorite' (from 1637), tulipa 'Absalon” (from 1780), tulipa acuminata (from 1813 ) and tulipa alba regalis (from 1895). The last two tulips date from the time of the couple Willet-Holthuysen.