Dutch Horticulture Tour: Successful and Far Reaching
By: Jim Sellmer, Associate Professor of Ornamental Horticulture
Continuing the tradition, started last spring with the England Garden Tour, 12 students ranging from sophomore to graduating senior (one Turfgrass; two Ag and Extension Education; three Landscape Contracting; and six Horticulture students with two representing Berks Campus and 10 representing University Park), and five faculty (Dennis Buffington, Ag and Bio Engineering; Rick Bates, Horticulture; Dave Sanford; Horticulture/Berks; Kathy Kelley; Horticulture; and Jim Sellmer, Horticulture) expanded their cultural and horticultural knowledge by first researching the trip sites during the spring semester followed by touring horticultural oriented businesses, gardens, and Wageningen University during a 10 day visit to the Netherlands.
For the students this trip was made financially affordable through assistance from Deanna Behring, Dir. of the College of Agricultural Sciences (CoAS) International Programs office; Dr. David Bender, Registrar and Dr. Carl Lovitt, Associate Dean at Penn State Berks Campus; Marcos Fernandez, Dean of Undergraduate Education (CoAS), and Warren Goll and the Penn State Southeastern Urban Agriculture Educators Group. In total the class visited 16 companies representing cut flowers, bulbs, pot plant , field tree nurseries, herbaceous perennials, vegetables, and tree fruit along with the Aalsmeer Flower Auction, Zurel Exporting Company, the Plantarium Nursery Sales Cooperative, Keukenhof Gardens and the Arboretum Trompenburg.
Tour group including one of our Netherlands tour coordinators, Niek Botden, President, HortiLink (second row, far right) and Sebastian Hogervorst,
Sales Manager, Anthura B.V., our site tour guide (back row third from left) after touring Stolk Plants, anthurium growers.
In order to visit all of the sites, we pushed hard everyday with few complaints. After landing at Schiphol Airport we spent the first day in Amsterdam trying to work off jetlag followed by a bright and early start at 6:00 AM the next day to catch the Aalsmeer Flower Auction in action. Capping off a busy day visiting businesses we ended the day at Keukenhof Gardens prior to arriving at our next hostel location and base camp in Rotterdam. Three nights in Rotterdam offered us the chance to tour the center of the nursery industry in Boskoop as well as numerous pot plant growers (e.g., Anthura B.V., Stolk Plants, and the Hebe Center), perennial grower Rijnbeek en Zoon, Rijk Zwaan Vegetable Seed Company, Sem Rose growers. Prior to moving eastward toward our next base camp hostel at Arnhem we visited Andre Ebben tree nursery followed by a weekend of free time with visits to Germany and Palais Het Loo, and a well deserved break from the schedule and the vans. Our tour finished with visits to van Wageningen University to learn about research and educational opportunities, B&P tree nursery, and a tree fruit producer. The tour culminated with a free day in Amsterdam.
The general consensus among the participants was that it was a great tour with something for nearly everyone. 
Most of the participants were impressed by the efficiency of the companies, the amount of agriculture production much for export in such a small country and the friendliness of the people both our hosts and people on the street. The general view is that this is a tour that should be repeated. It appears obvious to me that between this course and tour and last year’s garden tour of England that well targeted and organized study abroad programs can improve our knowledge and provide an excellent experience for both students and faculty. The greatest issue will be to make the programs sustainable and to develop other tours that offer a wealth of horticulture and landscape opportunities which would be worth repeating in a regular cycle over the years along with the Dutch Horticulture Tour. So, where do we go next, any suggestions and more importantly any willing organizers and donors?
