Schovenhorst Country Estate is famous for its unique tree gardens. The Small Pinetum and the Large Pinetum used to be nurseries where trees were grown for the estate's forest. Some of the trees have reached heights of over 40 meters. The Arboretum and the Three Continents Forest have been laid out by successive generations of the Oudemans family. Their aim was to study how ‘foreign' trees grow in our climate.

Educational Forestry
In the course of the years the estate developed into an educational forestry. In 1848 experiments with a range of trees were set up. The Dutch forestry sector owes much to the owners of Schovenhorst Country Estate. They have found types of trees which do well in the heathland soil. The Small Pinetum and the Large Pinetum, the Arboretum and the Three Continents Forest developed from these test areas. The Small Pinetum boasts the Mammoth Tree which is well over 150 years old.

The layout of the sections and the roads in the Arboretum was based on the geographical division of the conifers of the northern continent as well as on the beauty of the various trees. The gardens are surrounded by 150 hectares of forests boasting a wide variety of trees.