A world trip through the Botanic Garden of Meise

Exploring one of the largest botanical gardens in the world tailored to children. Enjoy countless walks per season and take a trip around the world through the Plant Palace. A walk with plenty of challenging moments such as the play forest with the Wonder-Your-Feet-Path or take the raft to the Water Garden its floating paths above the Castle Pond.

Castle of Bouchout: 0km - 0,5km

Like previous walks in Enghien and Braine-le-Comté, this domain and castle once belonged to the House of Arenberg. The Castle of Bouchout - completely unknown to many of us, but in the meantime this domain has become the most famous botanical garden in our country.

 

The Botanic Garden of Meise or formerly the 'National Botanic Garden of Belgium' belongs to one of the largest botanical gardens in the world. With a living collection of 18,000 different plant species and an archive of 4 million preserved species, to be reused when a certain plant species is in danger of disappearing. With so many plant species from different corners of the world, I also think it is ideal to visit in autumn.

 rates, opening hours & more about Botanic Garden Meise

 

Once parked along Nieuwelaan - N277, we make our way to the entrance. A friendly employee of this Flemish Brabant botanic garden shows us around with a word of explanation, supplemented with a detailed map of this 92-hectare domain. Formerly a national domain managed by the federal government, but since 2013 it has been managed by the Flemish government, which recently carried out thorough renovations and renewals.

 

We opt for a child-friendly walk that starts towards the castle of Bouchout. A fortified castle whose origins lie around the 12th century. An important defense at the time of counties, where this settlement played a role in the defense of the county of Brabant, located between the county of Flanders and the lords of Grimbergen. In 1359 these rival lords of Grimbergen were defeated and their castle at Grimbergen destroyed by a collaboration of the Brabanters with the Flemings.

After this revolution and the creation of Belgium, this castle domain gradually took shape. In 1879 it was bought by Leopold II for his sister, Princess Charlotte of Belgium. During WWI, this domain regularly became the refuge for the local population. Since it had ties with the German occupiers, this domain was respected and not attacked by the German soldiers. After her death in 1927, the well-befriended painter Edwin Ganz was allowed to continue living on this domain, which has been owned by the Belgian state since 1938 to create its National Botanic Garden of Belgium.

 

You can visit this castle freely, where there is a permanent exhibition about the history of the domain and its inhabitants. In the keep you can go to the roof terrace with a beautiful view over this botanical garden in autumn mode.

 

Conservatory of the Botanic Garden or the Plant Palace: 0,5km - 1,5km

After the castle it is time for a small trip around the world in the Plant Palace. A large collection of plants that do not thrive in our climate and where you can find different greenhouses with plants from the desert, the savannah, the tropical rainforest, Mediterranean, ... each with their typical climate.

It is the largest and 'most beautiful' publicly accessible greenhouse complex in Europe, where you can admire unique plants such as the prehistoric giant ferns, giant water lilies that can carry up to 40kg and where an annual baby shoot takes place. Or the giant arsenic that are among the largest flowers in the world and attract thousands of insects and visitors here during flowering.

 

Today about 1.20m and not yet smelling of rotting meat, but a nice experience richer in these special greenhouses full of exotic plants and can still be impressive.

 

English Bridge & Amelvonnesbeek: 1,5km - 3,5km

After the tropical temperatures in the Plant Palace, enjoy tropical temperatures on this beautiful autumn day in October. We take a path under the English bridge that takes us between the Medical Garden and the Balatkas. This glass and steel jewel is located in the Cronquist Garden and was designed in 1854 by Alphonse Balat.

This court architect of Leopold II made this Balatkas as a scale model for the Royal Greenhouses in Laeken. Originally this greenhouse was located in the Leopold Park, after which it moved to the Botanique in Brussels and eventually ended up here in the Botanic Garden of Meise. You can also recognize this Balatkas in the logo of the Botanic Garden of Meise.

 

A crystal clear stream or the Amelvonnesbeek that rises in Relegem to flow through this Botanic Garden of Meise via Hamme and Wemmel, to the ... stream. We bridge this watercourse twice via the Bee Hall and a giant beehive towards The Oak and Rose Collections, a rose garden that we leave behind in the fall. We approach the Orangeriemeer, but leave this lake and its restaurant for after the Wonder-Your-Feet-Path.

 

Wonder-Your-Feet-Path: 3,5km - 4,5 km

Arriving at the beginning of this barefoot path you can leave your shoes in some provided suitcases and there is a place to rinse your feet afterwards. We start with a piece where many bolsters of wild chestnuts fill a soggy path. This makes this path more of a balance beam exercise on the adjacent beams to avoid these tantalizing forest fruits.

 

The Wonder-Your-Feet-Path is always accessible between March 15 and November 15, so well at the end of the 'barefoot' season. This Wonder-Your-Feet-Path is almost entirely located in the play forest of the Botanic Garden of Meise and allows you to enjoy about 1 km of a piece of forest with adventurous obstacles in natural materials.

It was the very first barefoot path in the province of Flemish Brabant and gives a nice moment to the children - and older participants with the necessary moments of laughter. Extra clothing certainly can't hurt here, especially after crossing some deeper trenches filled with water. After these deeper trenches or pools, there are some climbing obstacles that take us next to the wall of the Culinary Garden, again to the starting place.

 

After cleaning and drying as well as possible, we continue through the Flower Theatre to the Orangerie.

 

Orangeriemeer and the Castle Pond: 4,5km - 6 km

Another mile ahead and another bit of adventure over the renewed Castle Pond, so after the Wonder-Your-Feet-Path we take the time to relax, with a drink and an ice cream on the terrace of the Orangerie converted into a restaurant.

After this moment of enjoying the Oranjeriemeer with the beautiful autumn-colored trees that reflect on this large pond, we take the wooden elevated path along this beautiful 'lake'. Also at the end of this winding wooden path we again get to see some statues with the different autumn colors in the background.

 

You can experience a last piece of adventure (optional) by taking the raft to the island on the Castle Pond. This newly cultivated artificial island or the Water Garden is currently still bare and will only be manifested in the coming spring, but currently some challenging floating paths above the pond already offer enough fun and a beautiful view of the Castle of Bouchout.

 

A final piece next to the Scents & Color Garden and the Medieval Garden brings us again to the main entrance of the Botanic Garden of Meise. For the entrance tickets we paid, this was well worth the money and we spent a nice day here. Again a surprising piece of Belgium near Brussels in the Flemish Brabant Green Belt along the A12.

 

For those who do not like to walk or are more difficult to walk, on Sundays and public holidays you can use a train (included in the ticket), which stops at various stops throughout the domain.