The Effect of Quarantine No. 37 upon the 
Nurseries of Holland 
P. M. KOSTER 
"Lone par les uns, blame par les 
autres je me hdte, d'en rire, de 
peur d'etre oblige d'en pleurer" 
Until last year September, I have been living in Boskoop (Holland). 
I was brought up between plants (it was in Father's nurseries that 
Koster's Blue Spruce originated) , and I was raised in a community 
where 700 nurseries were established and 7,000 inhabitants made a 
living on these nurseries. 
Many changes I have seen in these nurseries, a number of which 
were conducted successfully since a couple of centuries ! From a small 
village, supplying fruit trees, shrubs and shade trees to the- Holland 
consumers, Boskoop developed into a world-known nursery center, 
visited by numerous foreigners including many Americans. They did 
not only come to buy the products they needed, they also came to 
study what was grown and how it was grown, and no propagating 
house was ever closed to such visitors, all information was cheerfully 
given. 
Not only foreigners came to Boskoop but also many nurserymen 
from Boskoop made annual trips to almost every country where 
plants were bought, and these trips were greatly beneficial to the 
horticultural importance of Boskoop. 
Were we not proud to have discovered a plant, for which we knew 
a demand could be created, in Veitch's, or Lemoine's or Spath's 
nurseries, or in the Arnold Arboretum, the Jardin des Plantes, the 
Holland House and Temple Flower Shows or — some small 
nursery, as sometimes happened — a plant which had escaped the 
attention of our friends — competitors? 
Was it not a glorious time when the Boskoop nurserymen could 
show the products of their efforts in hybridizing: the splendid new 
Azaleas, Anthony Rosier, J. C. van Tol, Hollandia; the new Conifers, 
the new Lilacs? 
So many beautiful things were grown and grown to such perfection 
that we nurserymen were proud to show our products abroad and the 
visitors to the Great International Flower Shows of Diisseldorf, Ber- 
lin, Petrograd, London and San Francisco will undoubtedly remember 
the splendid collective-exhibits Holland made at these shows. 
In 1911 and 1913 great Flower Shows were held at Boskoop, 
horticulturists from more than a dozen foreign countries, including a 
very well known American nurseryman, came to Boskoop to judge the 
products grown and thousands of visitors, including royalty, admired 
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