What Is Jans Alpines?

Jans Alpines (jansalpines.com) is the personal website of Harry Jans, a Dutch alpine plant enthusiast and retired specialist. Its main draw is an image gallery of over 36,000 plant photographs with detailed information, plus a search function that lets you look up plants by country or species. It is a reference and photo resource for people interested in alpine plants, rock garden plants, and seeing plants in their natural mountain habitats — not a commercial nursery or shop.

Who runs it

The site is written in the first person by Harry Jans. According to the homepage, he was born in 1957 and has lived in Loenen, near Apeldoorn in the Netherlands, since 1986. He studied Garden Design & Maintenance and worked for the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment as a Specialist in Wintermaintenance from 1982 until his retirement in 2024.

His interest in alpine plants began during a vacation in Switzerland in 1981. He joined the Alpine Garden Society to learn more, and he was a founding member of the Dutch Rock Garden Society (Nederlandse Rotsplanten Vereniging, N.R.V.), founded on 21 September 1985, serving as its president from 2000 to 2006. The society grew from about 20 members at its start to roughly 550, including members from Belgium, Germany, and Denmark as well as the Netherlands.

What you will find on the site

• Image gallery — over 36,000 plant images with detailed information, described on the homepage as the site's extensive gallery.
• Search engine — a tool for finding plants by country, plant species, and similar criteria.
• Garden documentation — images and pages covering his own garden, including a large alpine house partly sunk into the ground, a small aluminum frame house used for propagating, sowing, potting up, and storage, and a cold frame for raising plants.
• Personal background and plant-growing experience — his history with alpine plants, rock garden societies, and the exchange of information and rare plants among enthusiasts.

Who it is useful for

This site suits you if you want to:

• Identify or browse alpine and rock garden plants by species or by the country where they grow.
• See photographic records of plants in their natural mountain environments.
• Pick up ideas for constructing or planting your own rock garden or alpine house.

It is less suited to someone looking to buy plants or supplies, since the homepage describes a personal collection and information resource rather than a store.