The Jubilee Lime of Vijfhuizen
In 1923 the Netherlands marked twenty five years of Queen Wilhelmina on the throne, and this lime went into the ground in Vijfhuizen to mark it, one of many jubilee trees planted across the country that year. The register keeps the reason on file even though almost nothing else about the tree has been written down. It stands on the Spieringweg opposite a spot known locally as the Fortwachter, in what the register calls a plantsoen: an ordinary municipal planting strip rather than a park. A common lime grown out in the open like this builds a dense, rounded crown down to head height, and in July it does what limes do everywhere: small pale flowers open in hanging clusters, the tree hums with bees for a couple of weeks, and the scent carries across the road. A century is not old for a lime, which can run to several, but it is old for anything standing in the Haarlemmermeer, ground that was still open water until 1852. The register is the only source that has looked at this specific tree. If you know more about the planting or the jubilee it marked, tell us.
In bloom
July, when it flowers and the scent carries across the Spieringweg
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
Spieringweg 510, opposite the Fortwachter, VijfhuizenYou can recognise it by its dense, rounded crown reaching down to head height, standing in an ordinary planting strip. It stands on the Spieringweg, opposite the Fortwachter, Vijfhuizen.
Free, alongside a public road, always visible.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.
- In the official register: Landelijk Register Monumentale Bomen (Bomenstichting), no. 1685741
- monumentalebomen.nl
- services-eu1.arcgis.com