I can’t remember if it was the great signage or the satnav that brought us to the glorious Jardin Plume,
seemingly springing-up from nowhere in the middle of surrounding fields.
After a rainy drive down, the skies started to clear as I wandered through the tempting nursery area into the orchard of the main garden.
What hits you first is the sense of space, which affords the opportunity to plant a whole series of large beds which in turn create rhythms throughout the garden.
Nine separate gardens are planted to perform at their best at different times of the year, and arriving in mid September, the Autumn garden was a dream to enter into. I almost felt hugged by the plants as I slowly wandered amongst the swaying grasses, gazed at the Persicarias (in all shapes and sizes), marveled at oodles of Verbena bonariensis and took in the heady scent of and glowing wands of Cimifuga atropurpurea. There’s a lot packed into this garden! Visiting a friend’s garden in Walthamstow recently, at over 6ft tall, he explained that he liked to plant huge grasses and other large plants as he like the sense of feeling small and contained. I think he would love to be in this garden.
Surrounded by curvy hornbeam hedging, the garden is created as small blocks within a larger block. Each block has its own mini theme which in turn ties in to a larger theme.
The result is lush,
and joyous,
floriferous,
and playful,
and full of bees and butterflies. I loved it.
Tearing myself away from the Autumn garden, there was plenty more to see, with a strong sense of design running throughout the gardens. The spring garden was packed with Astrantias in their second flush amongst huddles of sensuous box balls-
clipped to perfection.
From spring to summer was a tad more of the formal side, with box hedging containing hot reds and yellows tempered by more varieties of grasses.
All gardens lead back to the calm and spacious orchard where you can sit back and take time to enjoy this thoughtful garden.
Being an ardent veg grower, I was rather disappointed to find that the potager was no longer a potager,
but did appreciate the riot of colour that was offered up instead of fruit and veg,
and more stylish seating to take a moment or two to soak up the wonderful planting.
Passing through the ‘potager’, you arrive at another quiet contemplative area, where swathes of Miscanthus gently nod in the breeze and offer to hug again.
And finally, as you leave, you pass through the nursery again.
Le Jardin Plume have started to build up a number of their own plant varieties from over the years and Sylvie delighted in showing me this very elegant white Aster ‘Dentelle de Constance’, which is still going through its trial period.
This delicate yet vibrant Euphorbia will be on sale in the nursery come spring,
and I couldn’t resist buying a couple of Succisa pratensis (Devil’s bit scabious) which looked so wonderful with the late Asters in the autumn garden. This is my first visit to Le Jardin Plume, but hopefully I’ll be back again soon to see how it changes throughout the seasons.