Every spring the Snowdrop Festival marks the official arrival of the growing season at De Boschhoeve in Wolfheze, Holland. Surrounded by woodland and old farmland, plantswoman Dineke Logtenberg's nursery throws open its gates to visitors six months of the year—from the first snowdrops through the end of the dahlia season. Let's join the crowd flocking there to see the spring bulbs in bloom:
Photographs via De Boschhoeve except where noted.
Above: Snowdrops for sale; local growers bring their prize bulbs to sell at De Boschhoeve each year.
Above: Dineke Logtenberg is assisted by head gardener Anke Pols, two employees and more than 70 volunteers (including Carian van Boxtel, who sent us this report and who calls the nursery "a very special place.") Photograph by Mart 61.
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Above: A view of the potager (L); photograph via w-Rusch.
"De Boschhoeve is still relatively unknown," says Ms. van Boxtel. "But a couple of years ago, as a surprise for Dineke, we invited British gardener Sarah Raven to visit and that was the beginning of her love affair with the garden."
For more about Sarah Raven's passion for flowers, see DIY: An Easter Bouquet With Sarah Raven.
Above: Nursery owner Dineke Logtenberg (L); photograph via Develuwe. The red tile roof at De Boschhoeve (R); photograph via De Tante Van Tjorven.
Above: Snowdrops and primulas for sale at the Snowdrop Festival. De Boschhoeve's garden shop offers home grown plants (mostly hardy perennials, annuals, edible plants but also a very special collection of bulbs—summer and spring flowering, especially dahlias 'in the green' as well as bulbs—and shrubs.
Above: "In the gardens, in which Dineke plays with colour and structure you are able to enjoy Dineke's plants and bulbs at heir very best," says Ms. Van Boxtel.
Above: A garden path lined with perennials leads to a quiet bench beneath a clipped hedge. Photograph by Mart 61.
For another Dutch garden in full bloom, see Easter at Villa Augustus in the Netherlands.