As the week comes to a close, garden enthusiasts and design aficionados are treated to another captivating stop on Fine Gardening’s Stunning Gardens of the Netherlands tour. This leg of the journey takes visitors to Leusden, where flower stylist, gardener, and lecturer Marieke Nolsen has cultivated a property that she affectionately describes as a living bouquet. After taking in the sweeping views and intricate details of her roughly 1,600-square-meter—or approximately 17,200-square-foot—property, it is remarkably easy to understand why she characterizes her life’s work this way.
Marieke and her family originally moved to the property in 2002, taking on the challenge of transforming what was then a rather simple and conventional landscape. At the time, the grounds consisted largely of basic lawns, conifers, paving stones, and rigid hedging. Recognizing the potential of the space, Marieke took on the design work herself. She carefully structured the roughly two-fifths-of-an-acre property by dividing it into distinct garden rooms defined by strong lines, clean paths, and structural elements of beech and boxwood. She then filled the expansive borders with a rich tapestry of perennials and shrubs. Because of her professional background as a floral designer, she deliberately cultivates flowers, berries, and foliage that she can harvest for natural arrangements, creating a seamless and continuous overlap between her outdoor garden and her indoor floral artistry across all the seasons.
A Preference for Lush, Airy Plantings
Throughout the property, the planting style reflects Marieke’s distinct preference for what is known in Dutch as weelderige, transparante borders—lush, airy plantings that maintain a remarkably natural and effortless appearance. In these generous garden beds, white blooms and delicate seed heads rise dynamically through layered tiers of foliage, while taller surrounding trees and shrubs provide the planting with a soft, billowing shape that changes gracefully with the wind and the light.
Standing among the layered plantings of her garden on the historic Landgoed Den Treek-Henschoten estate, Marieke’s design philosophy becomes immediately apparent. She meticulously laid out straight sight lines extending outward directly from the house, anchoring the grand perspective of the property, while connecting its various sections with traditional brick and grass paths. Openings carved through the structural hedges—such as the ivy-covered passage situated just behind her—offer deliberate, partial glimpses into what comes next, encouraging visitors to wander deeper and explore the unfolding landscape room by room.
Color, Texture, and Favorite Blooms
In one particularly striking border, vibrant pink hydrangeas mingle effortlessly with plume poppy (Macleaya cordata, hardy in USDA Zones 4 through 10) and globe thistle (Echinops cultivars, hardy in Zones 3 through 8). Hydrangeas hold a special place in Marieke’s heart as her absolute favorite flower, and she cuts them freely throughout the summer and fall months to incorporate into her seasonal arrangements. Nearby, yellow wax-bells (Kirengeshoma palmata, Zones 5 through 8) contribute broad, maple-like foliage that anchors the shady corners of the garden with rich texture before their soft-yellow, nodding flowers emerge to brighten the late summer and early fall landscape.
Transitioning from the ornamental borders to the working areas of the property reveals an equally thoughtful approach to land management and craft. A dedicated potting area serves as a functional workspace used to store terra-cotta and zinc pots safely through the winter months and to pot up delicate seedlings destined for the garden beds. The charming small garden house anchoring this operational zone was constructed entirely by Marieke’s husband, Martin.
The Evolution of the Cutting Garden
Adjacent to the working spaces lies the cutting garden, which Marieke and Martin created by transforming an old vegetable plot after drawing inspiration from a visit to Sarah Raven’s renowned Perch Hill Farm in the United Kingdom. Dahlias (Dahlia cultivars, Zones 8 through 11) serve as the indisputable stars of this space. When planning the dahlia beds, Marieke deliberately selects color combinations and growth habits with future bouquets in mind, grouping companion plants and flowers that she knows will harmonize beautifully once harvested and brought indoors.
To keep these vigorous plants upright and orderly without disrupting the natural aesthetic of the space, Martin constructs sturdy supports using wooden posts and interwoven hazel branches. Marieke also utilizes woven birch twigs to support plants subtly, ensuring the functional infrastructure remains hidden and never distracts from the visual harmony of the living display.
Containers and Botanical Craftsmanship
Marieke’s overarching approach to container gardening borrows heavily from the principles of professional floral design. Rather than treating containers as isolated, individual specimens, she groups terra-cotta and zinc pots at varying heights and intentionally combines warm color palettes featuring shades of orange, salmon, yellow, pink, and red. This careful orchestration allows the overall container display to read as a cohesive artistic composition rather than a mere collection of potted plants.
Further demonstrating her commitment to botanical craftsmanship, natural wreaths woven from materials foraged directly from the grounds are tucked into vine-covered gates and garden entrances. Her educational workshops frequently incorporate these seasonal plants, teaching participants how to craft natural decorations for both the interior and exterior of the home.
The incredible range of material available in the garden—from dahlias and hydrangeas to rose hips, berries, seed heads, ornamental grasses, and distinct foliage—provides endless raw material for her creative endeavors. As Marieke often reminds her workshop participants with a lighthearted joke, cutting from such a breathtaking garden can sometimes inspire a mild case of "cutting fear" when the landscape is looking particularly pristine and difficult to disturb.
The garden tour ultimately concludes with a live demonstration by Marieke, illustrating how these garden-grown flowers, textured foliage, and other seasonal remnants effortlessly come together into a unified, stunning arrangement. Experiencing Marieke Nolsen’s property offers a profound shift in perspective regarding what a cutting garden can truly be. It stands as living proof that a productive harvesting space does not need to consist merely of regimented rows of flowers; instead, it can be a deeply immersive landscape worth walking through and experiencing for its own inherent beauty, with the wonderful added bonus of providing fresh inspiration for the home through every changing season.
