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Title devised from content by Library Staff.
The Hortus botanicus Leiden is the oldest botanical garden in The Netherlands. The oldest section of the Hortus, dating back to 1590, is the current Front Garden. It has been renovated with new plants and in 2000, a new glasshouse was added to form the Winter Garden. The Clusius Garden gives an impression of what the Hortus was like around 1600, when the bonds between the Netherlands and Asia were formed. The exchange of plants and knowledge between these cultures can be seen in the Japanese Garden. The Hortus’ pride, Victoria amazonica, can be admired in the Victoria Glasshouse. (source: https://hortusleiden.nl/en/the-hortus/)
Parts of the collections of several museums in Leiden originate in Asia, and these plants have been brought here as a result of the ties between the Netherlands and Indonesia. There was a regular exchange of people, objects and knowledge through the trading outpost Dejima near Nagasaki. Our Hortus botanicus played a part in this, and transported many plants that were unknown, many of which we have come to love. These plants travelled through our Hortus into the ornamental plant sector. Instrumental for these transactions was Dr. Philipp Franz von Siebold. The von Siebold memorial garden is a Japanese garden in his honour, constructed within the Hortus. The memorial garden has a statue of von Siebold which many of our Japanese guests visit to pay their respects. (source: https://www.hortusleiden.nl/en/the-hortus/gardens/japanese-and-von-siebo...)
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