Museum garden

Discover the various partial gardens that are separated from each other by central sight lines and are interrupted by hedges, the plane tree arbour, the glorietta and the berceau with espalier pears and a roof of wisteria. Everything with its own scent, its own green architecture and water sounds from fountains and streams.

A special element of the garden is the green theatre, which was built on the museum moat with a view of the outdoor stage of the Museum Pavilion. The audience sits, as it were, on benches of fresh green lonicera.

Various works of art can be admired in the Museum Garden. Sculptures, including those by Hans Bayens, Fons Bemelmans, Lotta Blokker, Guus Hellegers, Eja Siepman van den Berg, Jan Steen and Charlotte van Pallandt are displayed in various places. You will also find spoken art here.

The Museum has a historical apple orchard with 21 apple varieties. Based on an old tax return, it has been established that an apple orchard was already located here in 1640. This apple orchard was probably at least six times as large. The first description of the orchard dates from 1776 and was from Johan Ludolf Nijsingh (1684-1720), then owner of the Nijsinghhuis and the surrounding orchard. In his notebook, he gives a precise description of the various apple varieties and their properties. Based on this list of varieties, pomologist Coen Ballintijn has created a historic apple orchard in the Museum Garden with old apple varieties that he grafted.

The historic apple orchard is located on the north side of the garden and is separated from the ‘outside world’ by a classic winding wall, such as those that were fashionable in Dutch country estates in the 17th and 18th centuries. Grapes and roses grow in the warm hollows of the wall on the south side. The wall is bordered by richly flowering flower borders with special plants, such as the cardoon.

 Delicious treats and healthy dishes are prepared in the Museum Café with the various apples from the apple orchard.

The garden at Museum De Buitenplaats and the 17th century Nijsinghhuis is a gesamtkunstwerk by landscape architect Jørn Copijn and garden architect Charlotte Korthals Altes. They designed the garden in consultation with Janneke van Groeningen (1943-2007), co-founder of the museum and passionate garden lover. When designing the garden, they were inspired by various garden styles, such as classicism, baroque, cottage and natural style, but also by the gardens of Bomarzo. The Museum Garden was designed and realised between 1996 and 2000.

In 2006, an Orangery was added to the Museum Garden. The Orangery was designed in the style of the seventeenth-century Nijsingh House. In the seventeenth century, palaces and country houses often had an orangery. In these gardens, the ‘oranjeries’, the oranges, were a must. These and other exotic plants were placed in tubs in gardens and stored in greenhouses during the winter. Over time, these greenhouses became increasingly beautiful and were given the name ‘oranjery’. It is not certain whether the Nijsingh family ever had an orangery. Given the size and appearance of the apple orchard, this would have been quite possible and certainly appropriate. The Orangery of Museum De Buitenplaats is used for weddings and parties.