Along the old wall, next to the Quimper cathedral on one side and the Odet river on the other with its flowered bridges, is this small park. It is landscaped in the style typical of the formal French gardens, with the low growing edges of boxwood around the symmetrical curved borders, and with topiaries at the corners.
The less traditional border at one end is filled with elephant ears.
Tis September and the season for pumpkins and assorted squashes that absolutely thrive in Brittany, France, and few vegetable gardens fail to have a patch of pumpkins spilling over. This one also has some rows of trellised tomatoes approaching the end of the growing season. Flowering shrubs hedges and a “flowered” wall covered in blooming groundcovers enclose the garden.
My first post on the Jardin des Plantes in Nantes was about the hothouses and scientific garden, the second one was on the art and statuary, this one focuses on the theme gardens and plantings.
Meandering through the park, from the scientific garden, I first came across the shade garden, ferns and hostas surrounded by an amazing variety of evergreen shrubs and trees.
The theme garden “the Mountain” is inspired by 19th century gardens such as Kew garden in England, and was installed in 1847 by the then director of the Jardin des Plantes. A labyrinth of plantings guides a circular ascension to the top and a lookout point to the Loire river.
Water features dot the park.
Thousand of annuals, perennials and shrubs create lush borders year round. Photos below show just a small sampling and include gunnera, pennisetum, gingko, silk tree, hydrangea borders and mixed borders throughout the park.
Climbing roses and purple clematis cover the arch at the entrance to this stone cottage straight out of a fairy tale in a small fishing village of northern Brittany, France. More climbing roses cover the front of the house, although they have finished blooming for the summer, and yet more roses, old fashioned knockout roses, cover the hedge. Hydrangeas flourish in the shade of the side wall.
The photos above were taken in August. The ones below were taken in September when the roses were reblooming in a stunning display of color!
This is a very traditional French country cottage garden with such features as climbing roses trellised over the hedge, hydrangea borders, mixed perennial borders, a collection of potted floral arrangements throughout the garden, and a brick outdoor fireplace.
As already mentioned in one of my previous posts, every French village had one or more communal wash houses, many of them just a fountain filling a basin to wash clothes in.
This one on the edge of the village of Roscanvel has been converted into a lovely aquatic garden basin with papyrus and other aquatic plants, and assorting plantings of ferns, erigeron … around it.
I happened upon this lovely seaside garden in the village of Roscanvel. The plants and flowers in the raised beds are all carefully labeled. The beds are arranged in a grid pattern with grapevines and apple trees growing along the back wall. When the vegetables in a raised bed have been harvested, wildflowers are planted as cover crops. The ocean view of course is beautiful!
