Post by Zofia (Zosia) Gagoś

🌳 🌿 🐝 I was wondering could Trompenburg Tuinen & Arboretum deserve the name of the lowest arboretum in the world? Last weekend I went to Trompenburg Arboretum in Rotterdam, a beautiful arboretum with a 200-year history, 8ha of heaven for anyone who likes trees, especially oaks! The arboretum was planted by a family of Rotterdam shipowners, the Van Hoey Smiths, who turned their weekend house and garden into one of the Dutch most important tree collections. Cool, right? Funny enough, Dick van Hoey Smith, who has significantly developed it, was also a president of the International Dendrology Society which I became a member recently. Trompenburg holds the Dutch national oak collection and has been a place where many new cultivars were actually born. I must say I've never seen so many different oaks in one place. Also, a lot of different hollies (Ilex) and yews (Taxus)! It's a place totally opposite to Białowieża Forest. A place fully made by human hands, from spatial design, through planting every single tree, to the trees themselves, which were also... created by human. Nevertheless, a place of beauty of nature, peace, diversity and a habitat for many other species, all squeezed in the middle of a city. A place created by people driven by passion and love for trees, wanting to spread and share that with others. So am I sharing it further :)