“A great wilderness”, Harrie van Noort describes the Laan pear trees that he found a few years ago at the former horticultural school in Frederiksoord. Of the authentic row of trees from 1884, only a few copies were left. “In the nineties there were seventies, when I returned there were only eighteen. There were quite a few gone.” He picked up the glove and restored the heritage together with other volunteers. Now the collection is complete again, just before the world Leifruitdag.
The pear trees are the oldest part of the former horticultural school, which is now called the test and founded by the society of beneficiary. “They are actually monuments,” says Van Noort. The first school director took the trees from Belgium, the country where he himself came and completed his studies on slate trees. “He was the first to plant those slate trees here, so the oldest elements of the horticultural school garden have been the Leipers.”
Van Noort was a practical teacher at the horticultural school in the 1990s, which closed the doors in 2005 and seriously falling into disrepair. In 2020 he returned with a mission. “I have traced the disappeared varieties again,” says Van Noort. “I had a nursery where I got grilled. And fellow growers who have ever been to school here have also once taken trees from here. Or at least branches of the old pear line that I could use.”
The oldest part of the pears has since died. But other small shoots of varieties from 1900 are raised in a delivery room on the site. Van Noort; “There are also trees that are a reserve for when one of the old trees gives it up.” The constructions have also been replaced and the remaining trees have been pruned considerably. The restoration project is clearly dear to Van Noort.
Van Noort points to one Pyrus Communis, “Minister Doctor Lucius.” “You don’t see this tree anywhere anymore. It is not offered anywhere for sale. It is a breed that has completely disappeared,” he says. “It is a nice pear and the tree is also very fertile. There are many pears per ironing meter. Actually it is very good to keep such a breed.”
The repaired Perenlaan is not an identical copy of the past. Van Noort wants more variation. “We have brought back the same trees, but we also found some old varieties that are also interesting and some more varieties from the twentieth century so that we will have some breeds from this time again in a hundred years.”
But now that everything is there again, it is not yet time to lean back. “It takes about a hundred years to get them just as big as the trees that have remained standing,” says Van Noort. “” Fortunately, they can reach the length in ten or eleven years. Then I am 84 years old but that is not bad because I hope that there are also young people who want to learn this profession. “Next Saturday, interested parties can visit to look in Frederiksoord.