Dutch donors create Easter garden in St. Peter’s Square
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Three semitrucks full of flowers and plants — doused with holy water by a bishop before beginning their journey from the Netherlands — arrived in St. Peter’s Square March 30.
Since 1985 Dutch flower growers have created the garden of blooms paired with blossoming bushes and trees that frame the popes’ celebrations of Easter in St. Peter’s Square.
After Easter the flowers, shrubs and trees are planted in the Vatican Gardens and in the gardens at the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome.
Working with the gardening team from the Vatican City State governors’ office, Dutch florists and two dozen volunteers — including Dutch citizens living in Rome — gather in the square in the early morning quiet of Holy Saturday to empty the trucks and arrange the flowers.
In a press release March 26, the Dutch florists said the 2024 Easter array will feature more than 21,000 bulbs: 16,320 tulips and daffodils and 5,180 hyacinths. They will be complemented with 3,500 gerberas and 600 bouvardias.
The altar and the doors of St. Peter’s Basilica will be decorated with 1,250 Avalanche roses, 700 delphiniums, 600 chrysanthemums, 350 anthuriums, 100 budding forsythia branches and hundreds of Matthiola StoX antique roses in white, yellow, cream and purple.
Visitors to St. Peter’s Basilica stop to look at the flowers, shrubs and trees from the Netherlands volunteers arranged March 30, 2024, for Pope Francis’ Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
A volunteer arranges flowers from the Netherlands on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican March 30, 2024, in preparation for Pope Francis’ Easter morning Mass. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
Rows of tulips and daffodils from the Netherlands form part of a garden created March 30, 2024, for Easter morning Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
A volunteer works on a flower arrangement as part of the garden for Easter Mass with flowers, shrubs and trees from the Netherlands in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican March 30, 2024. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
Vatican employees and volunteers unload daffodils from the Netherlands March 30, 2024, as they create a garden for Easter Mass with flowers, shrubs and trees in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
A volunteer works on a flower arrangement as part of the garden for Easter Mass with flowers, shrubs and trees from the Netherlands in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican March 30, 2024. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
Volunteers pose for a group photo in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican March 30, 2024. Their collective efforts culminated in the creation of a garden for Pope Francis’ Easter morning Mass with flowers, shrubs, and trees from the Netherlands. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
Volunteers Helle Lynge and Linda Van Der Slot water plants that are part of a garden for Easter morning Mass created with flowers, shrubs and trees from the Netherlands in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican March 30, 2024. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
A volunteer works on a flower arrangement on one of the columns on the facade of St. Peter’s Basilica March 30, 2024, as part of the garden created for Pope Francis’ Easter Mass with flowers, shrubs and trees from the Netherlands. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
A volunteer holds a bouvardia, one of the new flowers from the Netherlands featured in vast array of flowers, shrubs and trees prepared March 30, 2024, for Pope Francis’ celebration of Eastern morning Mass the next day in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
Vatican employees and volunteers create a garden for Pope Francis’ celebration of Easter morning Mass with flowers, shrubs and trees from the Netherlands in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican March 30, 2024. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)