Colourful Croci

The first Crocus varieties to flower are the so-called botanic croci (or crocuses). These small-flowered selections and hybrids produce more than one flower per shoot. The large flowered Dutch Crocus has a single but bigger flower per shoot. The small types naturalise readily, some will even self-seed. The colour range goes from yellow via cream and white to ice blue, lilac, mauve, violet blue and purple. Often the outer tepals are feathered in bronze or purple or have a slightly different shade than the inner tepals.

fltr: Crocus chrysanthus 'Cream Beauty', C. chry. 'Bleu Pearl' and the original Golden Crocus

New Towns in the Netherlands

As most Western European countries the Netherland quickly developed after WW2. So much so that from all the buildings in the country no less than 75% is from after 1945!. As a country of many small cities and towns urbanisation gave rise to piecemeal expansion with every council determined to secure both new employment and residential possibilities within their own territory. As a result the 1950s saw new housing estates and industrial estates developed on the edge of every city, town and village in the Netherlands. Growth was only less tempestuous in isolated areas. Growth and urbanisation was concentrated in Holland, Utrecht, North-Brabant and Guelderland.

To direct suburbanisation and growth the Dutch government decided to adopt a policy of New Towns and Centres for Growth. In a 1958 Policy Report the need for an 'Overflow Policy' was expressed with regards to the Randstad, a non-continual conurbation incorporating the four biggest cities Amsterdam, Rotterdam the Hague and Utrecht. The idea behind the 'Overflow Policy' was to not only accommodate urban expansion around existing urban centres but also expand pre-existing medium-sized cities (between 50,000 and 100,000 inhabitants in size). In 1960 the First Spatial Development Act laid down the principles of the centres for growth policy and dubbed it: coordinated deconcentration (gebundelde deconcentratie). The goal was to prevent rural areas from being completely overrun by suburbanisation. Rural settlement not designated for growth were thus only allocated 1% growth per year. As urban development was very much the result of factors outside zoning laws and planning by quota the result was that many small cities and towns still expanded rapidly, especially around Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The Second Spatial development Act of 1966 estimated that the Netherlands would grow from 12,5 million to 20 million inhabitant by the year 2000 (in reality this would turn out to be almost 16 million).

From 1972 planning policy shifts towards central control over spatial development by way of administrative agreements between central and local government, centralized land policy and financial incentives. The focus shifted from permissibility planning to enforcement planning. Near the most important cities so-called centres for urban growth (groeikernen) were appointed. These are: Alkmaar, Almere, Haarlemmermeer, Heerhugowaard, Hoorn, Huizen, Lelystad and Purmerend for Amsterdam, Capelle aan den IJssel, Hellevoetsluis and Spijkenisse for Rotterdam, Houten, Leusden and Nieuwegein for Utrecht and Zoetermeer for The Hague and Duiven, Westervoort (both Arnhem), Etten-Leur (Breda) and Helmond (Eindhoven).

Some of these centres for urban growth were existing towns that were expanded like Alkmaar, Etten-Leur, Helmond, Hoorn, Huizen, and Spijkenisse. These can be best characterised as expanded towns. Waalwijk is also an Expanded Town (for neighbouring Tilburg), but was scrapped as such after the initial designation. The town was expanded into a city nonetheless. Others should be typed as new towns. Of these Almere and Lelystad stand out as they have been built in Flevoland at the bottom of what used to be the Zuiderzee, now a polder. In the Haarlemmermeer, a drained lake, two new towns were developed: Hoofddorp and Nieuw-Vennep. The other new towns are: Capelle aan den IJssel, Duiven, Heerhugowaard, Hellevoetsluis, Houten, Nieuwegein, Leusden, Westervoort and Zoetermeer.

The centres for urban growth are distributed across the Netherlands with a clear focus on the western and southern part of the country. These areas were also historically the cultural centres. In the south they connect to the main Flemish cities like Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, Brussels, Mechlin etcetera. We can distinguish New Towns (in orange) and Expanded Towns (in red). The New Towns are: Lelystad (1), Almere (2), Heerhugowaard (3), Purmerend (4), Hoofddorp (5), Nieuw-Vennep (6), Zoetermeer (7), Hellevoetsluis (8), Nieuwegein (9), Houten (10), Duiven (11) and Westervoort (12). The expanded Towns are: Hoorn (1) Alkmaar (2), Huizen (3), Leusden (5), Spijkenisse (6), Capelle a/d IJssel (7), Etten-Leur (8), Waalwijk (9) and Helmond (10).   

Besides these New Towns and Expanded Towns large new suburbs were planned and developed. The best known is probably Amsterdam-Southeast. Amsterdam also has Amstelveen and Amsterdam-North-Zaanstad as important suburban areas. For Rotterdam Hoogvliet resembles a New Town but wasn't planned as such. Other suburbs are IJsselmonde, Ridderkerk and Vlaardingen. The Hague was already surrounded by cities like Delft, Leiden and Gouda that grew fast, so there was only one New Town planned here. Towards Delft the suburbs of  Wateringen, Rijswijk, Voorburg and Leidschendam are located. The town of Alphen aan den Rijn grew into a satellite for the region, although never designated an official centre for growth. It is basically an Expanded Town. In Utrecht the suburban developments of Maarssenbroek and Kanaleneiland-Hoograven are built directly next to the city on land annexed from rural municipalities. To spread development away from the central city, it was also decided to designate Amersfoort a growth city. In other major cities suburban developments were planned, such as Veldhoven and Best (Eindhoven), South-Huissen (Arnhem), Wijchen (Nijmegen), Rosmalen (Bois-le-Duc), Reeshof (Tilburg) and Prinsenbeek (Breda).

The urban development -as envisaged in government policy- was to be concentrated in certain areas. Provisions for expansion were most needed around Amsterdam (1) and covered most of West-Frisia and Flevoland. The so-called Randstad-area also encompasses the urban regions around The Hague (2), Rotterdam (3) and Utrecht (4). The smaller centres are Arnhem-Nijmegen (6) and the Brabantian row of Breda (9), Tilburg (8), Bois-le-Duc (7) and Eindhoven (5). Large cities are shown in deep red. The planned suburbs are shown in tangerine.

The Fourth Spatial Development Act (1988) introduced the compact city as the new planning policy. The New Towns had led to a sharp increase in commuter traffic because the employment opportunities never paralleled the development of residential areas, so a strong dependency on the 'central city' remained. This was especially true around Amsterdam and Utrecht. Urban nodes within interconnected urban networks where the new core of government planning.

Public purple

 

The city's Parks and Gardens Department thinks of public spaces in bold statements. The grass verges between and along the Ring Road are often planted with trees to create more interest. The grass used to be cut regularly and had the character of a lawn. Nowadays these grass verges are cut much less which gives flowering plants a chance to develop. In places bulb have been planted to great effect. Large groups of Crocus are now in flower, greeting the late winter sun with their purple flowers for all the public to enjoy. Now everyone can see, spring is almost here!

Market towns in the Low Countries

One of the city rights was the right bestowed on a settlement to organise markets. In most cases all the legal rights were bestowed on a settlement making it a city (stad). In the Low Countries no distinction was made between cities and towns. Some cities however were never fortified -Oisterwijk, St Oedenrode, Schagen, Hoogstraten, Poperinge to name a few- and could thus be equated to towns. Another category of settlements without fortifications are the market towns.

Market rights were designated in early medieval times. In 800 Charlemagne granted market rights to Esslingen am Neckar. The conferment of market rights was one of the regalia in the Holy Roman Empire and persisted throughout the centuries that followed. The modern-day Low Countries were part of the Holy Roman Empire as a collection of territories: Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, Guelders, Drenthe, Frisia, Groningen (together the seven United Netherlands after 1581), Flanders, Brabant, Hainault, Namur, Liège and Luxemburg. Parts of what is now the Netherlands were part of Juliers. With the rise of these territories the Dukes, Prince-Bishops and Counts made good use of their ability to designate market rights under German Law.

In the Low Countries it is evident that most settlements that were granted market rights were also granted other city rights. In a few areas in Frisia, Brabant, Hainault and Holland market towns were created to encourage business and trade to be concentrated in certain places and thus develop the territory. The people in the town often had a monopoly over the trade or purchase of certain wares. Commercial privileges included bull markets, horse markets, butter markets, cheese markets, cloth markets and so on. Most market towns look like villages with the exception of the presence of a large market square and specialized non-rural buildings.

The market towns are clearly a minority in the Low Countries compared to the cities. The market towns are also clearly aggregated in certain areas. The market towns around The Hague stand out together with the Frisian market towns and the central Brabantian market towns. The market towns in Hainault are less distinct in distribution but clearly visible.   

More winter blooms

The mild winter this year has meant that plants known to flower in the wintertime actually are! Winter jasmine, as the name suggests, flowers between November and March. The bright yellow flowers are born on bare stems. The Lenten rose (middle) is not related to roses at all. Like its close cousin the Christmas rose it is part of the Buttercup family. They flower in early spring around the time of Lent, hence the name. This year the flowers came early! This variegated Hebe 'Waireka' normally flowers in spring and summer, but its position against a south wall and the mild winter have spurred it on, giving these midwinter flowers.