Ronald van der Hilst's Hortus Conclusus, a walled church garden in Antwerp

Ronald van der Hilst, the Dutch landscape architect and tulip historian based in Antwerp, lives in a renovated 19th-century coachman's house. Across the street is the garden he calls his calling: Hortus Conclusus, the walled garden of St. George's Church (Sint-Joriskerk) on Mechelseplein. In 2018 the clergy, his neighbours, asked him to take over a garden the congregation no longer used. He agreed on condition of real freedom and was given carte blanche.

The roughly 4,800-square-foot plot layers old symbolism with sheer abundance. A single olive tree stands at the centre, cypresses line the wall, a small basin stands for the source of life and a continuous path echoes monastic walks. Around them grow some 500 species, 5,000 tulips and 2,000 other bulbs, mostly planted singly rather than in drifts, with no ordered beds or symmetry. He treats it as a plant lab and aims for something in flower every day, winter included.

It is the first garden he has designed that he can occasionally open. Visits are by appointment, by word of mouth or on open garden days, and a lucky caller might get tea from homegrown herbs in porcelain he made himself. Worth arranging ahead for anyone in Antwerp who loves plants, or quiet corners behind closed doors.

Our summary of a story from Architectural Digest, published 26 October 2026. Read the original