From Kitchen Garden to Flower Park
The name Keukenhof, Dutch for "kitchen garden", points to the site's original purpose long before it became known for flowers. In the 15th century the land formed the kitchen garden of a nearby estate, supplying game, fruit and vegetables for its household. Its best-known early occupant was Jacoba van Beieren, Countess of Holland, Zeeland and Hainaut, who lived from 1401 to 1436 and is remembered as the garden's principal beneficiary during this period.
The park as it exists today has little to do with this earlier kitchen garden beyond the name and the site itself. It was established in 1949 by a consortium of bulb growers and flower exporters who wanted a permanent showcase for their products and a platform to support the export trade at a time when the industry needed a way to demonstrate its range to buyers and the public at once. The park opened to the public for the first time in 1950 and drew more than 300,000 visitors in that first year, a strong debut that set the pattern for the seasonal event it has remained ever since.
A Designed Landscape
Keukenhof covers around 32 hectares, laid out each year by the park's gardeners as a fresh design rather than a fixed, unchanging garden. Around seven million flower bulbs are planted annually, tulips prominent among them alongside daffodils, hyacinths and other spring bulbs, arranged along winding paths and more formal beds that change in appearance from one season to the next. Water is part of the design as well as the planting, with canals and ponds running through the grounds.
A Short Season by Design
Keukenhof's defining feature is how briefly it is open. The park operates for roughly eight weeks each year, from mid-March to mid-May, timed to the flowering period of its bulbs. Outside this window the grounds are closed to the public while the next year's planting is prepared, a rhythm that has remained unchanged since the park's founding and that gives each visit a strictly limited window rather than a year-round attraction.
Keukenhof Today
During its open weeks, Keukenhof remains one of the most visited attractions in the Netherlands, drawing large numbers of visitors from the Netherlands and abroad to walk its paths, view its indoor floral displays and photograph the seasonal planting. It continues to serve its original purpose as a shop window for the Dutch bulb industry as much as it does a public garden, with the growers' cooperative structure behind it largely unchanged since 1949. The close of each season marks the start of preparations for the next, as bulbs are lifted, beds reworked and new planting plans drawn up for the following spring.