Forthcoming Events
 
Friday 12 March 2010
Demonstration of taking cuttings with Nicole Arboireau of La Pomme d’Ambre
Nicole's garden La Pomme d'Ambre Jardin, Conservatoire de la flore en Provence littorale, is situated at the foot of the massif de l'Esterel. It is an intimate garden of 2000 square metres with many old plant varieties introduced to the Côte d'Azur, including Nabonnand roses and exotic sages. The garden is a refuge for birds.

The demonstration will take 3 hours and costs 20 euros. This includes a tour of the garden and Nicole is happy for you to have a picnic in the garden afterwards. There will be room for 20 people so please contact Carol Connolly or June Grindley if you wish to come.

Wednesday 17 March
Visit to see naturalised spring bulbs at L'Oisellerie in Quartier les Etangs, Bargemon
Until 10 years ago the L'Oisellerie was a seven hectare traditional smallholding that had been in the same family for 250 years. It was then acquired by partners Nigel Scott–Harden and Alain Miaule who, after a great deal of hands-on work, consider it can now be called "very much a garden"! The land, which has a very varied topography, privacy and water too, has been developed in a naturalistic way by nurturing and editing the existing "very interesting" natural vegetation to full advantage, and then planting to enhance it, with the inclusion of ponds, a potager and other surprises.

Nigel, after a B.Sc. in Horticulture at Reading in 1968, has followed a career in landscape design with many country gardens and projects worldwide. He is happy to give a talk during the visit on the subject of bulbs and their naturalisation. It is hoped the day will coincide with "Hyacinth Week", although there will be many other varieties "growing wild." Nigel has invited members to bring a picnic; he has requested that the group not exceed 15 people, so please can those interested contact Carol Connolly or June Grindley as early as possible.

Thursday 22 April
Visit to La Bouscarella at Chateauneuf de Grasse
La Bouscarella, owned by M. Jean-François de Chambrun, has over 2,250 plants and shrubs on a dozen 'restanques'. There are squares of lavanders and santolinas, with lines of bush and climbing roses as well as other equally interesting plants, surrounded by an unrestricted view of the coast. The visit to this magnificent garden will be followed by a picnic lunch at Lucia and Edward Grimshaw's home in Le Rouret.
Visit to La Chèvre d’Or in Biot following the picnic lunch from 15.00
This 9,000-square metre private garden was created in 1950 and is composed of notable features including wonderful wisterias and climbing roses, an arabesque of box, and ponds with lily pads and lotus. There are ten terraces filled with botanical rareties.

Friday 21 May
Visit to Le Vieux Cannet des Maures to the home of the artist Yvon Kergal
High above the A8 motorway, where the A57 splits to Toulon, perches the tiny medieval village of Le Vieux Cannet des Maures. Here a handful of houses surround the 11th-century church and tucked behind the church Yvon Kergal has created his lovely home from the ruins of an old monastery. Yvon, a multitalented artist, has invited us into his fascinating, beautifully decorated home and garden. The small, secluded garden spreads out from the house in a series of cool, shaded green "rooms" and terraces. Here and there, there are glimpses through the trees of the far-reaching views from Le Vieux Cannet.

Following this visit we will be going to the lovely home of Silke and Jeremy Chillingworth in the outskirts of Le Luc, on route de Cabasse, for a picnic lunch.

Thursday 27 May
Joint visit with MGS Languedoc Branch
To be announced once confirmed

Wednesday 23 June (provisional)
Visit to Domaine de Camp de Tende
The garden of Domaine de Camp de Tende has been designed by Jean Mus, one of the best-known landscape designers in the South of France. He has a distinctive style characterised by excellent use of landscaping.

Past Events
 
June 2009
Wednesday 3rd June found us at Hameau L’Autourière, La Garde Freinet – Philippa Woodall's garden. Philippa told us that L'Autourière is an ancient hameau and was a falconry ('autour' means goshawk), then a silk farm growing fruit and vines. Nestled in a valley in the curve of a cooling stream, it has rare deep fertile soil and a permanent and plentiful water source from the stream, thus permitting us to feast our eyes on a spread of green lawn and lush meadow. The garden takes its charm from the setting. The old stones of the Hameau buildings enclose between them two shaded and Trachelospermum–perfumed courtyards in which we ate a delicious lunch of seared tuna. We then roamed the gardens, admiring Philippa's potager, her Zimbabwean sculptures and the magnificent creamy-white flowers of the Magnolia grandiflora.

We moved on to Susanna Linhart's garden for dessert (or should I say desserts…). Surrounded by chestnut forests, wild flowers including helleborine orchids growing profusely, and beautiful views towards Mont Sainte-Victoire, we were enchanted by both the location and Susanna's paintings and collages.

On Tuesday 16th June we visited the Mas des Mauriers, Michelle and Guy Beddington's garden which is situated at one end of the interlocking group of valleys dominated by the village of Bargemon. The welcoming stone house was originally created from a barn and various outhouses by the previous owners but was enlarged and enhanced by Guy and Michelle. They have added a beautiful pool of dark green stone and planted the courtyard garden around it. Outside this partly enclosed space, Guy and Michelle are gradually clearing the undergrowth of an overgrown olive grove to create an open-air gallery for a number of intriguing installations by the Surinamese artist Marcel Pinas and beautiful, very large glazed pots by the German artist Peter Thumm.

Peter Thumm's pots at Michelle and Guy Beddington's

Following another wonderful lunch provided by Michelle and Guy, some had the energy to visit Guy Beddington’s Fine Art gallery which is in a lovely old house situated on the ramparts of the mediaeval village of Bargemon. The gallery has beautiful views towards the village of Clavier, over the olive groves belonging to Bargemon’s Château and the green hilly country beyond. 

Later in the still very hot afternoon, we convened at La Campagne Sainte Marie, the garden of Nicole Rengade in Tourettes near Fayence. The 5000-square metre garden which the Rengades acquired in 1995 surrounds a 200-year-old farmhouse whose façade is covered by vines and wisteria. Nicole has single-handedly created a wonderful garden. Decorating it with spare roof tiles inscribed with poems, she uses old casseroles as pots for geraniums and sedums. This very individual garden has a stream leading to an old lavoir, 800 varieties of plants and three Provençal donkeys. There's also a good nursery attached to the domaine run by her son-in-law. After we had wandered round the garden, Nicole generously treated us to some cold drinks including delicious home-made orange or lemon wine which revived us enough to drive home.
Carol Connolly & June Grindley

Denis Weis's garden pond

Mercifully the rain held off until after lunch and a plant exchange at Carol Connolly's garden in Bargemon but it scuppered the planned post-prandial visit to June Grindley's garden.

On May 7th the sun finally shone for the visit to Joanna Millar’s splendid garden in Tourrettes-sur-Loup, where a superb lunch was followed by an excellent, informative talk on Roses and Clematis given by Yve Dyson. In Joanna's garden one's eye was constantly caught by something magnificent: from the bright yellow 'Zantha' iris to the deep blue 'Jane Phillips'; from the Rosa mutabilis to the R. banksiae x gigantea climbing the pine beside the swimming pool; from the stunning huge deep blue Ceanothus to the quiet beauty of a little corner by the gate where a golden-leaved Philadelphus perfumed the air above a blue iris and a delicate white Tulbaghia in its pot.

In Joanna Miller's garden

Yve Dyson, speaking from her experience as a rose grower near Menton, gave us many helpful hints which will stop us struggling to try to grow clematis and roses unsuitable for the Riveria and will help us nurture and care for those that, like us, love the climate in Provence.

May 9th saw us in the south-east corner of the Var with a fascinating lesson in olive grafting from Fritz and Annette Hahn and a tour of their olive grove with its wide variety of olives and their many fruit trees in Ollioules.

Annette Hahn demonstrates olive grafting

Next, invited by their neighbours Philippe and Michelle Chrétien to see their garden and have a pre-lunch drink, we were delighted to see this beautifully designed, intensely planted space. A profusely flowering Rosa filipes 'Kiftsgate' had welcomed us, grown unusually along the fence to the front gate. We then moved through a shady arbour, where the dark foliage was relieved by a flash of white from a variegated Pittosporum, to a lovely pond, followed by an immaculate potager and thence through to a shaded terrace loaded with drinks and nibbles.

Philippe and Michelle Chrétien's garden

Returning to the Hahns' olive grove and fruit orchard, we ate our picnics and indulged in the delicious quiches, tarts and clatoufi cooked by the Hahns. Completely sated, we moved in the afternoon to the Domaine d’Orvès, Françoise Darlington's beautifully mature garden. Surrounding a 16th-century bastide house, the garden has a stately air. From the entrance gate, emphasised by areas covered by Ceratostigma bisected diagonally by two small long waters, we took a path edged by irises and overhung by arches formed from fig trees which led up to a shaded terrace with more formal ponds edging it. Behind the house, the garden with lovely white Romneya, growing taller than I have seen in the UK, leads to an old chapel and a wooded area with many unusual plants and shrubs.
Carol Connolly & June Grindley  

Francoise Darlington's Domaine d'Orvès

Spring 2009 - Journées des Plantes at Sophia Antipolis
The Provence Branch of the MGS started the year with an informal visit to the Journées des Plantes at Sophia Antipolis, although only a few braved the incessant rain to be tempted by the excellent quality and variety of plants for sale. The rain continued all day, impeding the planned afternoon visit to Vivienne and Martin Stead's garden. The few hardy souls who braved the weather were treated to the Steads' warm hospitality and enjoyed tea and biscuits and garden chat instead.
Rain continued to dog our plans and we had to postpone the next planned visit to Joann Millar's garden.
Carol Connolly & June Grindley

June Grindley

I have a B.Sc in Botany (alas mostly forgotten!) and a PhD in Molecular Biology. After postdoctorate work in the USA, I joined the then trendy Biotechnolgy Industry, working in Cambridge, Mass., California and Oxford, UK. I  finally became a consultant to the investment industry before retiring to garden in Bargemon, Var, France and in Winchelsea, UK. My husband Malcolm McIntyre and I struggle with the steep south-facing garden in France and potter in the mercifully small courtyard garden in Winchelsea.

June's garden in April 2008

Carol  Connolly

I was born in Zambia and educated in Zimbabwe, then UK and South Africa, where I studied medicine in Capetown (and lived a stone’s throw from Kirstenbosch Gardens). I worked in Johannesburg until moving to the UK in early 1990. Then I worked as a GP in Cambridge until retiring recently.
My first gardening experience was as a student in Capetown and since then I have been an enthusiastic amateur. I now live in Bargemon, Var, France where I am creating a garden mainly from seeds and cuttings, and plants from friends (including seeds from SA and Australia but I am being thwarted by the alkaline soil). I am learning through trial and error what works for me in France. I also have a well-developed garden in Cambridge, UK with abundant rain and good soil - the gravel drive there is my Agapanthus seedbed!

Pour tous renseignements en français sur les activités de la MGS en Provence, veuillez contacter:

Nathalie Rigg
43 Chemin de Picaillou,
83690 Salernes, FRANCE
tel: 04 94 60 63 98
nathalie.rigg@wanadoo.fr