travel
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Château de Vandrimare
Seeing the park at Château de Vandrimare was very interesting, I think it was the one garden that I missed the first time I was in Normandy since for some reason I had the wrong opening times. Seeing it now with our wonderful group did not go quite perfectly either. We were shown around by the owner himself who was really knowledgeable and had collected some wonderful trees, shrubs and perennials to the garden. The problem was just the weather that did not play ball. Despite our visit being in the middle of May, it was very windy and at one point it hailed! It hailedMespilus germanica, one of many…
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Le Vasterival
Le Vasterival was the garden that I was most looking forward to seeing on our trip. It is world renown and it is one that I had not been able to visit before, as you can only visit it as part of a group. It was created by Princess Greta Sturdza and her husband Prince Georges Sturdza of Moldavia in the mid-twentieth century and Princess Greta continued to develop it until her death a few years ago.It is a spectacular collector’s garden that still manages to be very beautiful. The plants are planted in naturalistic groupings, mostly in a woodland setting. The combinations are stunning. An exquisite Acer palmatum All sorts…
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Parc du Bois des Moutiers
This gorgeous house was originally created by the famous English architect Edward Lutyens and the park was influenced by Gertrude Jekyll. It’s in the Arts and Crafts style that the pair represented. The park is 12 hectares and it’s situated on a slope towards the sea. The gardens near the house and more formal and towards the sea there are beautiful woodland areas with a lot of Rhododendron, rare trees and azaleas. It is truly a stunning place! The pergola Lovely Viburnum Beautiful Rhododendron And a sweet azalea.
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Château de Miromesnil
The next day we started the trip properly and our first visit was to Château de Miromesnil. It’s a beautiful castle with a splendid kitchen garden. It is also one of the places I visited when I was a student and went to Normandy for the first time. On that trip I stayed with my godmother who lives in Normandy for almost half the year. I have loved great kitchen gardens since my first visit and the one at Miromesnil is a truly wonderful classic potager. I saw it then in August so it was a little different to see it in May this time. Interesting though, this time around it…
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Waiting for the Growing Season
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Giverny
I visited Normandy last spring with some people from Blomsterodlingens vänner i Finland. BOVarna, for short, is a very nice gardening club that I’ve belonged to for several years. My mother is also a member and among the members I have several good friends and my best gardening friends for sure! We started out with Giverny, which I’d rather have dropped from the agenda, but some people who had not been there before wanted to see it, so we went there anyway. Don’t get me wrong, Giverny can be beautiful and Claude Monet’s paintings are for sure, it’s just that the garden is one of the worst tourist traps I…