{"id":6315,"date":"2015-05-05T06:06:11","date_gmt":"2015-05-05T06:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=6315"},"modified":"2015-05-13T09:14:01","modified_gmt":"2015-05-13T09:14:01","slug":"nearly-the-oldest-botanic-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2015\/05\/05\/nearly-the-oldest-botanic-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Nearly the Oldest Botanic Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Taking time off from the election, we went to Leiden, to visit \"the oldest botanic <a href=\"www.hortusleiden.nl\">garden<\/a> in western Europe\" \u2013 if you conveniently ignore a couple in Italy. \u00a0I fancy we saw it at its very best; there was certainly lots of vernal wood from which to get impulses about good and\u00a0evil. \u00a0The <em>Hortus Botanics Leiden<\/em>, to give it its Dutch name, is celebrating its 450th anniversary this year. \u00a0The form of the original garden can still be seen with its numerous small rectangular beds, but the site\u00a0is now much more extensive. \u00a0It was good to see a garden celebrating wildness and disorder. \u00a0The display (not really the right word) of spring flowers beside and beneath the trees was both visually stunning and wonderful\u00a0to behold with even dandelions having their place. \u00a0There were, of course, also tulips galore. \u00a0I particularly appreciated a huge weeping beech and a\u00a0Japanese elm (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cirrusimage.com\/tree_Japanese_zelkova.htm\">Zelkova serrata<\/a>) one of which we once had in our own garden. \u00a0Such a sad loss when it died. \u00a0The research at the\u00a0<em>Hortus Botanics<\/em>\u00a0that was most accessible to the casual visitor was the DNA-based reclassification of plants, with\u00a0informative displays around the garden.<\/p>\n<p>We also went to the Garden of <a href=\"www.appeltetn.nl\">Appeltern<\/a>\u00a0in the east of the Netherlands, which was very different. \u00a0The research here was about garden design, though any theory in use was not apparent. \u00a0No matter, in part it was a cross between <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rhs.org.uk\/shows-events\/rhs-chelsea-flower-show\">Chelsea<\/a> at its most wacky with a good, but still utilitarian, garden centre. \u00a0Like all good gardens, it had nooks, crannies, and hideaways, all with seats. \u00a0It was the place to take a Dutch <em>picknick<\/em>, a sun hat, wine, time, and good company.<\/p>\n<p>So, a week sans newspapers, sans TV, sans radio, sans internet, sans email, sans post, sans telephone, sans election. \u00a0Rather a joy. \u00a0Back now; recalled to life.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Taking time off from the election, we went to Leiden, to visit \"the oldest botanic garden in western Europe\" \u2013 if you conveniently ignore a couple in Italy. \u00a0I fancy we saw it at its very best; there was certainly...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6315\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}