French Gardening history: Heritage plants

Mark BROWN brown.mark@wanadoo.fr
Sat, 28 Jan 2012 02:26:39 PST
I did forget to mention that some heritage bulbs do survive in old abandoned gardens and in some old estate walled gardens that have not been revamped. There must be some farmers gardens that have some continuity, as on the market here in Dieppe every spring a few farmers wives sell bunches of Narcissus poeticus 'Plenus'.I have seen this growing in the potager at the chateau of Bosmelet not the far away and had quite a lot of it here in the garden when I arrived.I was really glad because I cold never persaude either the farmers wives to sell some bulbs ( understandable as it was part of their livlihood to sell the flowers) or the chatelaines to part with even a single bulb!
Narcissus 'Telamonius' is very common.But then I have just about seen it in every country I have ever visited.
Espaliered pear trees on houses are a very much traditional part of gardens in this region.
A tradition that is fast dissapearing.
I lower Normandy I did find a double form of Narcissus pseudonarcissus in several places.
It was lined out in a horses paddock as a remnant of culture and around a stone cross in gravel, surviving weedkiller just!
There must have been flower beds there before.
Narcissus pseudonarcissus is very common here as a wild flower.It carpets some woods with solid yellow in spring and is in many old cider apple orchards.These are dissapearing too!
Mark.

1924 route de la mer,
76119 Sainte Marguerite-sur-mer,
France



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