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Piet Oudolf & Dutch Naturalistic Gardens

• August 2 – 10, 2022
• $4,475 USD per person
• Visit Piet Oudolf’s masterly designs at the Singer Laren Museum & Vlinderhof, spend a day at Floriade, explore private naturalistic gardens & nurseries + stroll the impressive sculpture garden in the forest at the Kröller-Müller Museum.

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TOUR AT-A-GLANCE

PRICE
$4,475 USD per person, double occupancy
+$1,200 USD per person, single occupancy

DATES
August 2 – 10, 2022

INCLUDED

• All 4-star hotel accommodations.
• All breakfasts and dinners.
• Admission to all gardens including tips.
• Comfortable coach transport.
• Ground transportation between hotel and airport on departure day.
• Friendly and knowledgeable professional tour coordinator.
• Design and botanical expertise of your CarexTours leader.

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  Carolyn Mullet

Carex: Garden Design by Carolyn Mullet
camullet@gmail.com • 240 429 0889
https://www.instagram.com/ccamullet/
www.facebook.com/gdbycm

 

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Piet Oudolf & Dutch Naturalistic Gardens

August 2 – 10, 2022[/vc_column_text][vc_tabs interval=”0″ el_class=”mm-tabs”][vc_tab title=”ITINERARY” tab_id=”1421971005461-9″][vc_column_text el_class=”tour-intro”]Our tour to the Netherlands celebrates the beauty of naturalistic plantings with a special emphasis on the work of Dutch design master Piet Oudolf (pronounced Peet Ow-dolf). As a planting style, naturalism can be traced back to German plantsman Karl Foerster. He embraced perennials and grasses seen in the wild as garden-worthy plants in the late 19th-century. One hundred years later, a group of young garden designers in the Netherlands adopted Foerster’s point of view, developing it further by creating plantings that mimicked nature in artful ways. They were dubbed the Dutch Wave. Oudolf was part of that group and continues today to inspire and influence the international gardening community through his painterly plantings.

We’ll delve into the tenets of this style on our tour, exploring both Oudolf’s gardens and those of other garden-makers who use naturalistic planting in expressive ways. Come with us for an immersive travel experience into some of the most beautiful plantings in the world.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”custom” border_width=”3″ accent_color=”#fcb134″][vc_column_text]

AT-A-GLANCE ITINERARY

August 2, Tuesday – Arrive at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
August 3, Wednesday – Singer Laren, Future Plants
August 4, Thursday – Floriade
August 5, Friday – Dr. J.P. Thijssepark, Vlinderhof
August 6, Saturday – Plantwerk, Tuin ‘de Villa’
August 7, Sunday – Mien Ruys Tuinen, Kröller-Müller Museum
August 8, Monday – Duo Roof Garden, DeWit Garden Tools, Free Time in Groningen
August 9, Tuesday – Lianne’s Siergrassen, De Terptuin, Amsterdam Canal Dinner Cruise
August 10, Wednesday – Depart or continue travels on your own

CarexTours strives to operate according to our published itinerary. However, in the event of unforeseen circumstances beyond our control or opportunities that would enhance the itinerary, adjustments may be necessary.

FULL ITINERARY

Day 1, Tuesday, August 2 — ARRIVE IN THE NETHERLANDS

• Tour members independently arrange travel to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, walk to the Sheraton Amsterdam Hotel and Conference Center just outside the terminal, and check into the room that will have been booked for each of you (included in the price of the tour). We’ll gather in the hotel restaurant at 6:30 PM for a Welcome Dinner (included).

Day 2, Wednesday, August 3 — SINGER LAREN, FUTURE PLANTS

• Our tour starts in Laren, a village not far from Schiphol, with a visit to one of Piet Oudolf’s more recent Dutch projects, the Sculpture Garden at the Singer Laren Museum. In 2018, the museum awarded Oudolf the Singer Prize noting, “We consider Piet Oudolf as an artist…who is using the earth as a canvas and coloring his compositions with flowering perennials, shrubs, and trees.” Oudolf had earlier designed the museum’s forecourt and roof garden, so there will be three captivating mature gardens to explore. We’ll have lunch in the museum’s cafe before traveling to our afternoon garden.
• Next, we’ll visit Future Plants, a collective established to introduce new perennial varieties, after years of testing, into the horticulture marketplace. Here we’ll see plants discovered by Piet Oudolf and others, which are not yet available anywhere. Walking through the test beds, we’ll try to select the next star plant.
• For the night, we’ll check into the Hotel Mitland in Utrecht for four nights and then have dinner together in the hotel dining room (included).

Day 3, Thursday, August 4 — FLORIADE

• Today we visit Floriade, the once-in-a-decade Dutch exhibition showcasing innovations in horticulture from around the world. On show will be many ideas for greener living aligned with this year’s theme, ‘Growing Green Cities.’ In addition, there will be horticultural displays of the best perennials and grasses, new developments in shrubs and trees, and exotic fruit and vegetables. At 148 acres, this is the Netherlands’ largest gardening show attracting visitors worldwide. Lunch will be at a Floriade restaurant or cafe of your choice (not included).
• We’ll return to our hotel for the night and gather for dinner in the hotel restaurant (included).

Day 4, Friday, August 5 — DR. Jac .P. THIJSSEPARK, VLINDERHOF

• Our first venue this morning is tranquil Dr. Jac.P. Thijssepark, a long, narrow city park with a central water course in the Amsterdam suburb of Amstelveen with a planting design described as “intensified nature.” It is named for Jacobus Pieter Thijsse (1865 – 1945) a Dutch biologist and conservationist who was an ardent devotee of native plants and birds. Designed by the late Christian P. Broerse in the mid-20th century, the natural-looking park is home to nearly every Dutch habitat of wild and semi-wild plantings. One of the park’s gardeners will guide us through the park, introducing us not only to the plants but also to what it takes to keep the park looking so uncultivated.  We’ll have lunch in a cafe on our way to our afternoon garden (not included).
• Our last stop of the day is Vlinderhof (the Butterfly Garden), an Oudolf design inside Utrecht’s Maximapark. In 2013, residents of the area asked Oudolf to design a garden within the city park that would be planted and maintained by volunteers. Now, nine years after the installation, more than 15,000 plants of 97 different varieties attract not only butterflies but also bees and other beneficial insects. Considered by many to be one of the most beautiful public gardens in Europe, you may have a hard time taking it all in. Make sure to bring your camera so that when you climb the berm at one end, you’ll have  jaw-dropping shots over the whole garden to take home with you.
• We return again for the night to our hotel and come together for dinner at the hotel restaurant.

Day 5, Saturday, August 6 — PLANTWERK, TUIN ‘DE VILLA’

• This morning we’ll explore Plantwerk, a 1.5-acre perennial and grass display garden and nursery. The owners, Caroline van Heeswijk, who manages the nursery, and garden designer Frank Heijligers, started the garden in 2013 in order to try out plants and combinations that could be used in Frank’s projects. We’ll benefit from their extensive horticultural knowledge and be able to ask questions, surrounded by the beauty of this naturalistic testing site. Lunch will be at a cafe on our way to our afternoon garden (not included).
• This afternoon we visit Tuin ‘de Villa’, a private garden. Started in 2004, the garden is located between meadows and cornfields on a polder — land reclaimed from a river. Here, Fried and Lily Frederix have made a contemporary garden with a crisp, diagonal design behind the house that directs our attention to the naturalistic planting far in the rear, beyond a horse pasture into a meadow abuzz with pollinators. Grasses move in the breeze, and flowering shrubs and perennials form a rich tapestry of texture and color. The couple will give us an introduction and be available for questions as we wander through the garden.

Day 6, Sunday, August 7 — TUINEN MIEN RUYS, KRÖLLER-MÜLLER MUSEUM

• This morning we visit the important Tuinen Mien Ruys in Dedemsvaart. Here we’ll pay homage to landscape architect Mien Ruys (1904-1999), the woman considered the “Mother of Modernism” in Dutch garden design. She made these gardens over a period of 70 years, and they are a testament to her creativity. Her approach is distinctly architectural, but the plantings are loose and naturalistic. There are 28 gardens in all, incorporating many styles while using unusual materials for her time and perennial introductions from her father’s internationally renowned nursery. Above all, Ruys was experimental. Never afraid to try new things, her garden was an inspiration to Piet Oudolf, and continues to be to gardeners from all over the world. We’ll stop for lunch at a cafe on our way to our afternoon venue.
• We now visit the Kröller-Müller Museum, a modern art museum and sculpture garden set in Hoge Veluwe National Park. The museum has the second-largest collection of paintings by Vincent Van Gogh (after the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam) and works by Picasso, Gauguin, & Mondrian, among many other artists. There is also an extensive sculpture garden set in the 75-acre forest that surrounds the building, which has an equally renowned collection of sculptures, including works by Auguste Rodin, Henry Moore, Jean Dubuffet, & Claes Oldenburg, to name only a few.
• We’ll travel north to the Dutch city of Groningen, sometimes called “the Amsterdam of the North,” and check into the Hotel Prinsenhof for two nights. For dinner this evening, we’ll dine together in the hotel.

Day 7, Monday, August 8 — DUO ROOF GARDEN, DEWITT GARDEN TOOLS, FREE TIME IN GRONINGEN

• We start our day at a surprising city garden made on the roof of a parking garage for the  Stadstuin Kempkensberg. At the base of the 300-foot tall office building, the landscape architecture firm Lodewijk Baljon installed a wonderful prairie planting, created as a “comfortable, inviting and expressive green environment . . . for office workers and urban dwellers.”  Completed in 2013, this pollinator-attracting garden also includes water management ponds, specially designed windbreaks, and a pavilion with a popular cafe.
• We’ll have lunch in a restaurant on our way to our next stop, DeWit Garden Tools. The Dutch are known for making some of the finest garden tools in the world, so we’re very fortunate that DeWit has invited us to visit their factory to learn about modern processes in tool making. Willem de Wit started the company in 1898, and today, the fourth generation of the family manages the forging operation. Members of the family will lead us through the factory and demonstrate some of their new designs with plenty of time left for browsing or shopping in their showroom.
• We return to the Hotel Prinsenhof for the night but spend our afternoon exploring Groningen. Within easy walking distance is the market square and city center where you can shop, visit a museum, climb Martini Tower to see the views, or wander about soaking up the atmosphere of this ancient university city. Dinner this evening is again in the hotel’s restaurant (included).

Day 8, Tuesday, August 9 — LIANNE’S SIERGRASSEN, DE TERPTUIN, AMSTERDAM CANAL DINNER

• We spend our morning at Lianne’s Siergrassen, a garden that specializes in ornamental grasses. The owner, Lianne Pot indulged her passion for grasses by creating a demonstration prairie-style garden, arranged in curving beds with over 12,000 dynamic plants. Make sure to allow time to stand on the mound in the middle to get a panoramic view of this remarkably stunning garden. Pot will be available to walk the garden with you, and there is no better person with whom to discuss this distinctly European style.
• The last garden of our tour is De Terptuin, designer Nico Kloppenborg’s small private garden in the historic village of Mantgum. In the front garden are stylish clipped beech columns, structural sentries overlooking an exuberant display of swaying grasses and vibrant perennials. The back opens onto a gravel terrace which abruptly drops down a steep slope. Here Kloppenborg has designed a clever zig-zag path enclosed by hedges with sloping tops leaning in an opposite direction than one would expect, making the trip to the bottom a mini-journey in a maze. The destination below is a peaceful place to sit. This garden proves that small gardens can embody big ideas. Kloppenborg will take us through the garden. We’ll next drive south to Amsterdam, stopping for lunch along the way.
• In Amsterdam, we’ll check into the Doubletree by Hilton Amsterdam Centraal Station hotel for the last night of the tour. In the early evening, we’ll gather for a special Farewell Dinner (included). After boarding a canal boat, dinner will be served while we float through the city’s waterways. We’ll see the sun set and the lights of the city come on making all of Amsterdam look magical, a fitting end to our time together.

Day 9, Wednesday, August 10 — DEPARTURE 

• Our time together comes to an end, but garden lovers are likely to find inspiration wherever they are. Tour members can choose to return home or carry on the adventure. We’ll provide coach transfer to Schiphol Airport at 7:30 AM for those with flights leaving at 11:00 AM or later. Alternatively, you can take a taxi or a train at a time of your choosing to the airport.

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PRICING

Tour price:

$4,475 USD per person, double occupancy
+$1,200 USD per person, single occupancy

Tour price includes:

• All 4-star hotel accommodations.
• All breakfasts and dinners.
• Admission to all gardens including tips.
• Comfortable coach transportation.
• Ground transportation between hotel and airport on departure day.
• Friendly and knowledgeable professional tour coordinator.
• Design and botanical expertise of your CarexTours leader.

Tour price excludes:

• Airfare.
• Travel Insurance.
• All lunches, drinks including water, and snacks.
• Lunch on arrival and departure days.
• Tips for driver & tour coordinator.

Payment schedule:

• A $1,000.00 (USD) deposit is due when you book your tour.
• Final payment, in full, is due on June 1, 2022.

NOTE: CarexTours offers thoughtfully arranged garden tours. Each tour is guaranteed to proceed as soon as the minimum of 10 reservations has been met. In the event that our reservation minimum is not met, CarexTours reserves the right to cancel the tour. Deposits/payments will be refunded in full if the tour is canceled.

Please DO NOT make your airline reservations until CarexTours has guaranteed (by email) that the tour will proceed.[/vc_column_text][/vc_tab][vc_tab title=”ACCOMMODATIONS” tab_id=”1421971005713-7″][vc_column_text]

4 STAR RELAXATION & COMFORTABLE COACH TRAVEL

Hotel Accommodations

After a day filled with garden inspiration and botanical discoveries, we will retire to the comfort of 4-star accommodations. Rooms are double occupancy with the option for a single room for an additional fee.

August 2: Sheraton Amsterdam Hotel and Conference Center at Schiphol Airport
August 3 – 6: Hotel Mitland, Utrecht
August 7 – 8: Hotel Prinsenhof in Groningen
August 9: Doubletree by Hilton Amsterdam Centraal Station in Amsterdam

Coach Travel

Daily transportation will be provided by a modern, comfortable coach operated by an experienced driver.[/vc_column_text][/vc_tab][vc_tab title=”TERMS & CONDITIONS” tab_id=”1421971378574-3-4″][vc_column_text]

TERMS & CONDITIONS

Responsibilities:

CarexTours, LLC is a limited liability company organized under the laws of the state of Maryland in the United States. CarexTours hosts garden tours operated by Garden Tours. As the hosting organization, CarexTours provides reservation services and has chosen Garden Tours, a professional tour operator, as its designated tour operator. As the designated tour operator, Garden Tours arranges for the actual tour of the garden sites. Garden Tours also acts as an agent for services connected with specific tours hosted by CarexTours, such as ground transportation, lodging accommodations, and meals. Each service provider is solely responsible to the participant for providing their respective services.

By making a reservation for a tour hosted by CarexTours, the participant certifies that she/he does not have any mental, physical, or other condition or disability that would create a hazard for him/herself or other participants. CarexTours and Garden Tours reserve the right in their sole discretion to accept, decline to accept, or remove any participant on a tour hosted by CarexTours.

Price:

The tour prices in this agreement are based upon current exchange rates, tariffs, and taxes. Fluctuations in these rates could result in a price adjustment without prior notice until the tour is paid in full. Once the price for the tour is paid in full, the fee will not be adjusted due to any later change in exchange rates, tariffs or taxes.

Liabilities & booking conditions:

Garden Tours is established in the Netherlands, and rights and responsibilities for all tours operated by Garden Tours will be governed by Dutch and EU laws only. CarexTours and Garden Tours will have responsibility only for the proven negligent acts and omissions of its employees or agents and suppliers, subcontractors, servants, and/or agents of the same while acting within the scope of or in the course of their employment in respect of claims arising as a result of death, bodily injury, or illness caused to the signatory to the contract and/or any other named persons on the booking form.

Smoking:

All participants in tours hosted by CarexTours agree to comply with a non-smoking policy on all coaches, in restaurants, and in all lodging places.

Liability:

CarexTours and Garden Tours have no responsibility or liability to any person for loss of baggage, money, or other property whatsoever. CarexTours and Garden Tours have no responsibility or liability for any loss or additional expenses caused by delay or interruption to travel services through weather conditions (such as rain, wind, or fog), civil disturbance, riot, illegal acts of third parties, strikes, wars, floods, sickness or any circumstances amounting to Force Majeure.

Complaints:

In the unlikely event that you have a complaint, you must promptly notify the CarexTours host or the Garden Tours tour coordinator directly, so he/she can take remedial action on the spot. If the matter cannot be solved directly, any complaints must be submitted in writing to CarexTours within 20 days after the date of your return.

Your tour canceled by us:

CarexTours aims to provide your tour as booked. We reserve the right to cancel your tour under any circumstances, but if we cancel your tour, except where this is because you have not paid, you will receive a full refund.

Changes in itinerary details:

CarexTours and Garden Tours strive to operate according to the published itinerary. However, in the event of unforeseen circumstances beyond our control or opportunities that would enhance the itinerary, adjustments may be necessary or appropriate. CarexTours and Garden Tours reserve the right, without penalty, to make changes in the agreed-upon itinerary whenever, in their judgment, conditions warrant or if they deem it necessary for the comfort, convenience, or safety of participants. CarexTours will let you know about any significant changes as soon as possible if there is time before your departure. Otherwise, we will announce changes on the tour.

Cancellations:

If you should need to withdraw from the tour for whatever reason, you must notify CarexTours in writing. Cancellation becomes effective when written notice is received. There will be no refunds from CarexTours on or after June 1, 2022.

Insurance:

Travel insurance is required in case you need to cancel your trip after June 1, 2022, you have health emergencies while on the tour, or other unforeseen issues arise. Two travel insurance search sites are Squaremouth and Insure My Trip. If you are under 70 years old, World Nomads is usually an economical travel insurance choice. You will be required to provide evidence to CarexTours that you have obtained travel insurance by June 1, 2022.

COVID-19:

CarexTours follows COVID-19 safety updates from the CDC and our destination countries. Although we can’t know what the requirements will be in the future, each of our travelers must be fully vaccinated with booster shots no less than two weeks before departure & have vaccination verification such as a CDC COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card.[/vc_column_text][/vc_tab][vc_tab title=”BOOK THIS TOUR” tab_id=”1421971353766-2-0″][vc_column_text]To book this tour, contact Carolyn Mullet at camullet@gmail.com or 240 429 0889.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1656371265648{margin-top: 20px !important;}” el_class=”book-tour”]Your reservation will be secured after a deposit/full payment is received.

Deposit amount: $1,000 USD
Full payment: $4,475 USD per person (double occupancy)
Single occupancy: +$1,200 USD

Additional information about the CarexTours costs, including details about inclusions and exclusions, can be viewed on our pricing page.

PLEASE NOTE: CarexTours reserves the right to cancel the tour. Deposits/payments will be refunded in full if the tour is canceled.[/vc_column_text][/vc_tab][/vc_tabs][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

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