Muscari Hill at Grand Bigard

Across the wooden covered footbridge is Muscari Hill which while it still has Tulips and other flowers is covered with Muscari. Since I took photos of it last time (LINK) I will just show the areas around the edges where they mixed the Muscari with Tulips and Hyacinths as well as some other flowers that I have not identified yet. If you know what they are please let me know.

Muscari and Unidentified Yellow Flowering plant

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/
· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/
· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

Royal Greenhouses Laken: # 3 of 5 - 2014

After exiting the section of the Greenhouse complex next to the Palace of Laken you skirt the palace along the gravel area which is boardered by a stone balustrade the corners of which have stone planting urns.

Well perhaps they are concrete I'm not a hundred percent certain. To me they looked like carved stone but they could have been made from poured concrete moulds of some sort although some of the carvings looked rather intricate.

In any case from there, you can get an idea of just how enormous the Royal Greenhouse of Laken and its surrounding domain is. The grounds slope away down one area off to a large lake, then a screen of forest and in the distance parts of the city.

As I have said before Brussels is a very green city. Its Green Spaces ranging from huge tracts of forest like the Sonian Forest (Dutch: Zoniënwoud, French: Forêt de Soignes) to not so small gardens like those of the Abbey of La Cambre also known as Ter Kameren Abbey (French: Abbaye de La Cambre, Dutch: Abdij Ter Kameren) and Park / vegetable allotments tucked away in the centre of a residential block like Tillens Block (Carré de Tillen) in the Brussels Commune of Forest. Both of which I have covered in several past posts.

Leaving the vista of the lake / pond and distant city you make your way up the roped path past shrubbery and various plants. On your left hand side is the Greenhouse complex while on your right is a vast expanse of lawn sloping down to a small forest.

Further up along the path you get to see some statuary off to the right as well as the sight of a lone greenhouse dome separate from the main complex as well as a Japanese Tower hiding behind a copse of trees.

The Japanese Tower was built for the Brussels Expo of  1958 and afterwards it was taken down and rebuilt at Laken. Unfortunately it is not open to the public although as you get closer to the other entrance to the Greenhouse complex you get to see it across from a large pond.

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

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My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/
· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/
· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

More Grand Bigard # 1 of 10

 As you move away from the Old Keep (Tower/Donjon) towards the covered wooden footbridge across the moat you find on your right more Rhododendrons.

 Across the moat you can already see the masses of tulips, hyacinths and other flowers waiting for your arrival.

 Just as you get off the footbridge, on the other side of the moat you are greeted by a mixture of Grape Hyacinths (Muscari) and Tulips (Tulipa) .

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

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My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/
· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/
· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

More Grand Bigard: #1 of 10 - 2014

So after looking at the flowers near the Folly I went to look at the Orchid Display in the Chapel (which I will do a post eventually). From there I went towards the Tower and skirted along its edge which is full of more flowers mainly more tulips as well as different varieties of Rhododendrons.

In the background you can see the top of the Gatehouse and off to the right the Stone Footbridge

The Wooden Covered Footbridge behind the Tower that leads over the Moat to "Muscari Hill"

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

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My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/
· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/
· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

Royal Greenhouses Laken: # 2 of 5 - 2014

As you walk out of the greenhouse in the first segment of the tour for the Royal Greenhouses at Laken you will see the maze with the well trimmed hedges. Although as I have already indicated in the previous post it is more of a French Formal Garden than a real maze. Although as you can see part of it consists of tunnels of vegetation.

Unfortunately this part is roped off and not part of the tour and I could not get close enough to see what type of plant it was but It appears to be either some sort of shrub that is planted in rows then trained on trellises that form the box shaped tunnels. I think that maybe part of the reason why it is not part of the tour is twofold. First people would enjoy wandering around through the tunnels of leaves and two ... they want people moving in one direction to ensure that the line keeps moving.
Well that is my assessment.

So you get out of the first part of the greenhouses, taking a right where you will see the rest of the Palace of Laken which as you will see is actually connected to the Greenhouse complex.

The empty Greenhouse section out of which you come out off

View of the Main Rotunda. The urn in the centre is the one you see as you come out of the first greenhouse section. The hedges you see surrounding that are all hollow.

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/
· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/
· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

Daffodils on Tyndall Avenue in March

Some photos of  Daffodils on Tyndall Avenue. Sorry I have no idea how I got that weird effect where the leaves and background have a greyish tinge. I think it has something to do with the lighting at the time.

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/
· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/

· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

Fort Royal Gardens: # 6 - 2014

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/
· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/

· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/