4th INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
LOENEN, THE NETHERLANDS
MAY Friday 4th – Sunday 6th 2012

After all the attention the alpine garden needs in March and April, what could be better than a long weekend in May looking at other people’s hard work and talking about Saxifrages!
As you all should know by now the 2012 Seminar will be held from the 4th to the 6th May 2012 at the LandHotel Bosoord in the Netherlands, and will include a day trip to Utrecht Botanic Garden.

You can see the provisional Seminar programme here, and see a printable Booking form here.

The trip coincides with the plant sale of the Nederlandse Rotsplanten Vereniging (Dutch Alpine GardenSociety) involves both nurseries and many members selling their plants. It's a big event and usually not only attracts alpine enthusiasts from the Netherlands, but also from Belgium, Germany and Denmark. Nurseries that are attending are, among others:

• Ger van den Beuken;
• Alpigena Saxifraga Nursery (Bart Moerland);
• Herman Geers (dwarf shrubs and conifers);
• Philip van Hilst;
• De Reuvenkamp (Martijn Jansen).

Some of the best plants can usually be obtained from members of the Dutch Alpine Garden Society like Luuk Vermeer, Jan Lubbers (owner of a well known alpine garden) and Gert Hoek.
The alpine garden at Utrecht, where the plant sale is held, is something special. Immediately on entering the garden, the visitor sees the alpine garden: it is ten metres high with a babbling waterfall and mountain streams.

Created at the 19th century fortress, Fort Hoofddijk, the rock garden is one of the largest of its kind in Europe. Visitors can find over 1,600 species of (mountain) plants that were able to adapt ingeniously to the harsh climate of their natural surroundings. The Rock garden is at its most spectacular at the end of April and beginning of May, so most of the plants will be in bloom during our visit to the plant sale! One of the most unique aspects of Utrecht botanic gardens are the many different ways in which concrete slabs, roof tiles etc. are recycled in raised beds and other striking constructions to grow alpine plants to perfection.

For those travelling from the U.K. who do not want to take their cars to the Netherlands, we will provide transport from the ferry ports to the hotel. We anticipate that the overnight ferry will be a great opportunity to meet and chat prior to the seminar proper. The transport must be booked soon so please let me know as soon as you can if you plan to take advantage of this service. Although ferry booking will not be made by the Society, I plan to make a personal block booking for the Hull ferry in by the end of August; please let me know as soon as possible if you want to be included. Cost will be in the region of £200 for two foot passengers with a twin cabin from both Harwich and Hull but please check the ferry web sites for more detail, together with car parking arrangements.

Don’t worry about carrying purchased plants on the coach, we anticipate lots of room and with a little forethought it should not be a problem. (I personally brought over fifty plants back on the plane from The Czech Republic seminar in 2004.)

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