Paulien van Vredendaal

Meto Johan Vroom (1929-2019) was the youngest son of Jan Vroom Jr. He studied landscape architecture at the Agricultural College in Wageningen and succeeded J.T.P. Bijhouwer as professor there in 1966. After his retirement in 1994, Meto Vroom published the Lexicon van de tuin- en landschapsarchitectuur. An English and a revised edition would follow later.

The style of garden design underwent many changes during the 47 years that J. Vroom Jr worked as a landscape architect. The designs from the early period are largely mixtures of styles with architectural elements such as brick walls and steps, pergolas and hedges. These were surrounded by wooded areas, ponds, groups of trees, lawns

The garden at the Noorder Sanatorium in Zuidlaren was designed by J. Vroom Jr around 1935. Jan Vroom Sr lost his eyesight in 1911 due to an illness, after which his son Jan had to quit the horticultural school in Frederiksoord after just one year to take over his father’s work. In addition to private

This aerial photograph of Glimmen was taken on 29/11/1944 and is part of the RAF collection (RAF 025-01-3136). The Bonte Hoek nursery consisted of several plots of land and was conveniently located near the De Punt train station on the line between Groningen and Assen. The largest plot of the nursery can be seen on

In 1871, the family moved to a farm near De Punt, south of the city of Groningen. Melle and Jan Vroom Sr probably established the nursery there in the late nineteenth century so that they could grow their own trees and shrubs for the gardens they designed. There are two drawings in the collection that

This undated design for a villa garden is possibly a study or draft plan intended for potential clients. The design was probably produced in the late nineteenth century by Melle (M.G.) Vroom (1829-1913) or his son Jan Vroom Sr (1855-1923) in the late nineteenth century. Melle Vroom’s father, Geert Cornelis Vroom (1801-1876), was a gardener