19th century Alice Alley Azaleas Bamboo climbing roses door entrance Exhibition Flower flowers Garden Giverny Giverny Garden home house Impressionism Japanese Japanese bridge Mill Monet Monet's garden Monet's House Museum Museum of Impressionisms Giverny Nymphea painting pink Pond Poppy rhododendrum rose Snow spring Tulip Vernon Water-Garden Water Lily water lily pond weeping willow Winter Wisteria Woodblock yellow flower yew trees
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Let the old year become a dry leaf blown away by the wind, and new sprouts grow, like green buds full of life and energy!
It is time for garden dreams, when flowers still sleep in the cold ground.
And time for dreams of travelling as soon as the sun is higher and warmer again.
Will you come to Giverny this year?
This is how the garden of the Museum of Impressionisms Giverny looks like in April.
Small chambers of monochromatic beds are hidden behind tall hedges. Each one has a different atmosphere, creating a surprising effect for visitors who stroll along the central alley.
Tulips are a must in spring, of course. But they need to be planted together with smaller flowers at their feet for a greater impact.
Several varieties are suitable to cover the bare ground. Pansies exist in so many colors that it is possible to create infinite harmonies.
Daisies are also a simple solution. Their pink gives a fresh look to the flower bed.
But if you are as lazy as I am, you will certainly prefer forget-me-nots. They reseed on their own and offer a very tender and poetic cloud of tiny flowers for weeks.
They are generally blue, but can also be found in pink or white. In Monet’s garden they are widely used: blue forget-me-nots with pink tulips, white ones with white tulips or pink with pink tulips for a ton sur ton harmony.
Here in the Museum’s garden they are planted in a wave towered by a bunch of tulips: this way they give rhythm to the border.
The main alley of Monet’s garden at Giverny is invaded by nasturtiums.
Monet planted them this way, but originally, it was not on purpose.
Monet wanted to soften the straight lines of his alley by an edge of small flowers, and he planted what he thought were dwarf nasturtiums. Which appeared to be… rambling ones, and they started to creep over the gravel.
Monet liked this effect, then he repeated it intentionally every year.
It is a talent to know how to use one’s own mistakes.
Claude Monet was influenced by his extensive collection of Japanese woodblocks when he created his water garden.
He liked all the bamboos, wisterias, water lilies or peonies he could see on them and wanted these exotic plants in his garden.
He also loved the curved bridges which are so common on Japanese prints.
But although Monet knew pretty well the lay out of a Japanese garden thanks to his readings and to his neighbour American painter Lilla Cabbott Perry who had lived in Tokyo, he took poetic license.
He didn’t intend to create a true Japanese garden. His bridges are much less bent than authentic ones, and they are green. In a true Japanese garden, they should be red.
Monet’s garden at Giverny is full of roses.
It is not a proper rose garden, for there are also many other sorts of flowers, but nonetheless it is gorgeous in May and June when the roses are in bloom.
They are everywhere, weeping from the umbrella like structures, climbing on trellises, on fences, on trees, on the facade of the house, wrapped around tripods, in bunches, or among peonies and sweet rocket in the mixed borders…
All sorts of colors can be seen, pale cream, pure white, soft yellow, many pinks, red, orange… Not all of them are simple roses but many are scented. Light and delight.
This part of Monet’s water garden at Giverny ‘looks like Japan’, as the painter would have said.
Monet was inspired by his large collection of Japanese woodblocks when he landscaped his water garden. He planted many exotic species of plants he could see on the prints, like azaleas, rhododendrums, wisterias, bamboos, Japanese maples and of course water lilies. Monet imported peonies in trees from Japan. Many plants in his garden had never been seen before in Giverny.
However his garden is not a true Japanese garden, the spirit being very different.