Due to the magic of technology, previously written posts have been showing up here on the blog while I've been traveling around France photographing plants and gardens for the last couple of weeks. My husband and I finally took our 30th anniversary trip (after being married 37 years...took us awhile to pull it together) to Paris and the south of France.
Who would have known that France is a gardener's paradise? I was spellbound with everything from the formal gardens at the Tuleries to the agaves sprouting from the rocky cliffs above the Mediterranean Sea. You can't believe the beauty and lushness of the Mediterrean coast, with lemons, hibiscus and oleander everywhere, and the hugest magnolia trees I've ever seen. Public gardens, like this one at the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, a villa high above the sea in Cap Ferrat, are filled with exotic succulents.
And in Paris, crape myrtles (Lagerstroemia) were in full bloom at the base of the Eiffel Tower the last week in September.
I was surprised at the complexity and variety of the bedding in all the parks, narrow strips of plantings outlining public squares, paved or grassy. At Versailles, the color scheme was silvery pale, almost ghostly; at the Luxembourg Gardens on the Left Bank, the bedding was more colorful, with Melianthus major, fountain grass, and hot pink and purple dalias.
Stay tuned for a look at Paris's fabulous trees, enchanting flower shops, and the exotic plants along the Mediterranean Sea...
WOW! Beautiful, I just moved from the PNW to Dallas, and my friend form there is going to Paris next week. I hope she has a chance to visit these sites.I still read your blog, keeps me connected to a place I have loved living in. Finding this area to be an interesting place to garden in.
Posted by: kathy | October 09, 2010 at 04:50 PM
Welcome back. Can't wait to see more photos, especially the creative bedding plant combinations of the French.
We all benefit from your travels enormously! Thank you enabling our vicarious experience!
What is to the left of the artichoke/cardoon?
Strobilanthes or dark leaf basil? Or something new?
Alice
Posted by: Alice | October 10, 2010 at 05:06 PM
Hi Alice,
I was blown away by the plant combinations and variety, plus the creative formality of the French gardens...I'll be posting more photos...
I believe the plant next to the cardoon is one of the very dark basils...
Val
Posted by: valerie Easton | October 10, 2010 at 07:01 PM