Flowering season 2025

In the forest edges, the blackthorn blooms with its snow-white flowers. The nectar and pollen of the blackthorn are attractive to early-flying bumblebees, bees, digger bees, flies and butterflies. These ensure pollination. There are still flowering wild daffodils, but the flowering is past its peak. Wood anemones provide a white carpet of flowers in the forest. If it doesn’t rain too hard in the coming days, they will certainly be the most striking spring bloomer in the forest for another 10 days. Especially when the sun is shining, their flowers are fully open. The white petals then concentrate the heat of the sun’s rays to the centre of the flower to attract pollinators. Here and there a flowering wild bluebell appears. But for now it is the long, narrow leaves of the bluebells that stand out. They pierce through the dry beech and oak leaves and colour the forest floor green where no wood anemones grow. Because there are no leaves on the trees yet, this is the ideal time to enjoy the birds in the forest. Be sure to bring binoculars. And as long as it is quiet in the forest, you can, with a bit of luck, meet a roe deer. Please also stay on the hiking trails for them, even where there are no ropes. Practical information about accessibility, parking, toilets and marked walks during the blooming of the hyacinths can be found here.

Snowdrops are blooming. Fortunately, they are resistant to a layer of snow and the frost that will certainly strike. They can handle temperatures down to -30°C. This is thanks to self-made ‘antifreeze’ in their leaves. Starch from the bulb is converted into sugars that act as ‘antifreeze’ in the leaves. Because they bloom so early, snowdrops are not dependent on pollinators to reproduce. Snowdrops reproduce mainly by dividing the bulb. That is why they are often so close together in large numbers. On warm days, a bumblebee may visit and ensure cross-pollination. In the forest edges, the yellow, hanging male catkins of the hazel stand out from far away. They are ready to produce pollen. In the meantime, the beautiful female flowers, with their red stigmas, of the hazel can also be seen. That is a real sign that spring is coming. Young bluebell leaves are starting to pierce through the old dry beech leaves here and there.

After more than a year and a half of work, the ecoduct over the RO is ready. The plantings still need to be done, but the path is already accessible for walkers and cyclists. You can walk and cycle back along the Vlasmarktdreef from the forest museum to the Achtdreven. The hazel is ready to bloom in the forest edges. Both the male hanging catkins and the female flower buds are waiting for the first warmer days.