What follows are Flemish Brabant’s brightest and best walking gems.
1. Gaasbeek Museum Garden - Unparalleled world-class gardeners
They ate sea kale, leafy goosefoot (a sister of spinach), and plucked ripe fruit with abandon. The castle’s garden was their treasure trove of culinary delights. And all tasted from that garden was untouched by toxic pesticides and caustic weed killers. In the 19th and early 20th century those poisons had yet to be invented. The lords and ladies of the castle thrived on the horticultural expertise and cultivation techniques of their gardeners, the master growers of their time.
Gardeners from all over the world flocked to the Green Belt to learn how to grow vegetables and berries from the very best. Even now, the gardeners of Gaasbeek Museum Garden preserve the heritage and wisdom of the past as good stewards of time-honoured Belgian tradition.
Hidden gems and tips: The Castles Walk.
Gaasbeek Museum Garden, Kasteelstraat 40, 1750 Gaasbeek - for more details see here.
2. The Coloma Rose Garden - A sea of roses
Where else could you go for 3,000 rose varieties from 25 different countries ornamenting 60,000 bushes? 200,000 roses make Coloma Rose Garden a singular floral experience. Enter a world of roses dating back to the Late Eocene, Early Oligocene, and China’s oldest Old Blush Group to newer hybrid tea roses, the product of cutting-edge cultivation techniques.
Coloma Rose Garden is the largest, most beautiful rose garden in Europe, an enchanting 15-hectare park ideal for a romantic stroll.
Hidden gems and tips: The Bosveld Walk.
The Coloma Rose Garden - Joseph Depauwstraat 25, 1600 Sint-Pieters-Leeuw - for more details see here.
3. Meise Botanic Garden - The biggest flower on the planet
Belgium may be home to 1,400 native wild plant species, but in Meise, you’ll discover 18,000 from the four corners of the world. Founded in 1796, Meise Botanic Garden pre-dates Belgium as a nation and is home to Europe’s largest, most enthralling network of greenhouses. In Meise, you get a taste of every landscape. One minute you’re in the desert wilderness; the next, you’re crossing the savannah flats. Don’t be surprised when a wave of hot humidity hits you in the tropical rainforest.
All told the garden covers an expanse of 92 hectares. But really, what are figures without magic? Meise Botanic Garden is an enchanting oasis that beckons you to explore extraordinary flowers and plants and marvel at the Earth’s natural splendour. Ready for another cool fact? The planet’s biggest flower blooms here – the titan arum.
Hidden gems and tips: d' Hoogvorst Walk.
Meise Botanic Garden, Nieuwelaan 38, 1860 Meise - for more details see here.
4. The Huizingen Rock Garden - Expo 58’s natural splendour unleashed
It’s a mistake easily made. Cheerfully gurgling, the stream fools you into thinking you’re in the Alps, when in fact you’re only a hop, skip, and a jump away from Brussels, in Huizingen. Huizingen Provincial Domain’s five-hectare rock garden was designed for Expo 58 by architect Paul Dewit, an unabashed fan of Le Nouveau Jardin Pittoresque landscape design.
150,000 plants, over 1,000 tonnes of rock and stone, along with a 330-metre-long stream, were planted and arranged with meticulous care to create a natural, living masterpiece for botanists and an oasis of peace for every soul out for a stroll.
Hidden gems and tips: The Dworp Walk.
The Huizingen Rock Garden, Henry Torleylaan 100, 1654 Beersel - for more details see here.
5. Tervuren’s Warande Park - Centuries of elegant history and heritage
Warande is another word for hunting grounds, which is precisely what Tervuren’s Warande Park once was in the 12th century, when the Dukes of Brabant rode their steeds through field and forest, sounding their hunting horns.
Remnants from Flemish Brabant’s noblesse hint at the glory of those bygone days from the ruins of the ducal palace, the baroque 1617 St Hubert Chapel, the grand Colonial Palace and the jaw-droppingly impressive AfricaMuseum to the ornate French and English gardens. Majestic – no other word will do for this sprawling 205-hectare patrician park.
Hidden gems and tips: Tervuren Warande Walk.
Tervuren’s Warande Park, Keizerinnedreef, 3080 Tervuren - for more details see here.
Discover even more inspiration for parks and gardens in Flemish Brabant and plan your next adventure at www.visitvlaamsbrabant.be.
