GARDENS IN PROVENCE

    The gardens in Provence are not just pretty pictures but a whole way of life. Certainly there is beauty for the eye, but also heady fragrance, refreshing shade, a leisurely enjoyment of each season as it comes, and a delectable, light cuisine based on fresh produce...from the garden

   The picturesque countryside of Provence has long attracted international visitors, but its gardens were little-known until a decade ago. Partly because they remain very private, and partly because, unlike England and northern France, Mediterranean France has never separated practicality and pleasure, delight and profit. Gardens in Provence continue to cherish their agricultural roots. A well-grown, well-pruned cherry tree in bloom is as marvelous as any rarer essence, and its fruit in June and fall color provide two more seasons of beauty.

 Today gardeners from all over the world admire Provence for its rare balance between earthiness and sophistication, already evident in its rural architecture and landscapes, but nowhere more seductive than in its gardens.
   From the Rhone valley to the west, the Italian border to the east, from the foothills of the Alps to the north and the great inland sea, the Mediterranean to the south, this region has many variations in topography, many microclimates and even soil types
But its culture, whether in western Provence or on the French Riviera, first took shape at the time of Christ, under Roman rule. It was the Romans who first created the celebrated countryside of Provence, much as it survives today--cultivated land alternating with wild scrubland, called garrigue, used for pasturing sheep and goats, and hunting, and the foraging of wild mushrooms, truffles, asparagus...

  It was the Romans, too, who first gardened in Provence, on landed estates which, like those of Tuscany, combined productivity with elegance. Vineyards and orchards already then surrounded the farmsteads of Provence, and some of today's large mas (the Provençal name for these domains) are built on Roman foundations. The Romans were already expert in the art of topiary, the pruning of evergreen shrubbery into formal shapes. And they had already developed a whole art of climate control, which still today involves hedging for protection from the violent north wind, the mistral, the judicious balancing of sun and shade, and careful management of the garden's precious life blood : water.

   The traditional Provençal garden, as it came down to us from the Romans, is predominantly green. Its frames are created by tall evergreen hedges of box, laurel, evergreen oak and viburnum (or laurustinus), lower ones of myrtle or rosemary. Acanthus, that spiky perennial whose foliage inspired the Greeks in their design for the Corinthian capital, appears in all the old country gardens, and is far more genuinely Provençal than lavender !

  Stone walls, steps, sculpture also participate in the basic design, and the contrast between luminous pale limestone and dark greenery is one of Provence's most characteristic effects. These strong outlines provide good bones all year round.
   Within them, seasonal variation begins unfolding with the brilliance of almond trees flowering in February, following by all the other fruit trees in turn. Sumptuous wisteria draped on trellises and pergolas opens the spring show in April, when cascading yellow 'Lady Banks' roses flower at the same time as deep purple redbuds or Judas trees, blending into lilacs of all hues, with honey-scented yellow coronilla and later the smoky pink tamarisk. Iris--blue or violet--keep the shrubs company, lining paths and holding the earth on rough hillsides.
Until May, when the roses start their main season...

Vincent Van Gogh admired this dazzling image of the Provençal garden in 1888, when he praised : "these farm gardens, with their lovely big red Provençal roses, and the vines and the fig trees! it is all a poem, and the eternal bright sunshine too, in spite of which the foliage remains very green."

   May and June have always been the best flowering months in old-fashioned country gardens in Provence, though September and October can be like a second spring, when crepe myrtles are at their best, and many roses bloom again until Christmas. More bulbs appear then--the star-like sternbergia makes great colonies under trees. And the fall color must be seen to be believed : scarlet Virginia creepers, and each variety of fruit tree and vine turning a different shade of red, orange or yellow--all set off by the deep blue-purple October sky.

   The old farmhouses always face south or southeast with their backs closed to the cold. A long trellis usually sports a grapevine, creeper or wisteria, all leafing out late, to let in winter sun and provide shade--and fragrance, and perhaps even fruit--in the summer and fall. Most homes also have tall shade trees directly in front--planes, or limes, hackberries or mulberries. There are comfortable patios or terraces for outdoor eating on summer evenings--often, in fact, several such for different times of day. Even in December, when the light can be particularly brilliant, there are days for lunch on the terrace. Many plants flower in winter : headily-scented laurustinus, and all the rosemaries.

   Although the old Provençal gardens were at their best in winter, spring and fall, today's gardeners often want summer appeal. For many visitors, Provence is a colorful vacation land of sensuous enjoyment, of orange and gold, ocher-toned buildings and the bright tones of the sunny Provençal fabrics so popular in recent years. Oleanders and geraniums in warm, terracotta pots brighten up these gardens in the summer months.
   Today's nurserymen have been expending much effort to extend the range of colorful, summer-flowering but also drought-resistant plants--perennial sages and solanums among them. Subtropical exotics often appear, especially on the French Riviera where some flower all year round : dazzling hibiscus, or bougainvillea, or softer citrus in infinite variety.

   Another style of gardening in Provence has gained ground in recent years : a cool, soft-hued look, modeled not so much on farming traditions as on the wild evergreys and blues of the scrubland or garrigue. The olive tree's grey-green foliage sets the tone here, as does lavender in its many variations. Or the local pearly limestone. Flowering here is limited to pastels: blues, pinks and whites. Evergrey plants like lavender, artemesias, santolinas are moreover generally more drought-resistant than lush green, leafy plants.
   If the first approach with its intensely warm colors echoes the Provence of Van Gogh, the second recalls rather Cézanne, for whom grey and grey-blue formed the basis of all color experimentation.

   In both schools, strong design is provided by a backbone of carefully pruned shrubs.
For pruning in Provence, whether of vines and orchards or in the formal lines and shapes of gardens, is a whole way of life. It does not mean domination of nature but a mark of human caring, like the rearing of children. " Does it bother you to cut your nails " asks one garden designer ?

Nor could anyone in Provence ever imagine controlling a climate which can be so fierce : violent winds, months without rain in summer, sudden floods in spring and fall... It is true that Mediterranean landscapes are profoundly humanized--people have been cultivating this land since neolithic times. But this is a respectful dialogue with nature, who always has the last word.

   Today's Provençal gardeners, whatever their persuasion, all admire the juxtaposition of the olive tree with the cypress. The latter is a comparative new addition to the landscapes of western Provence, at least in its use for rural windbreaks. The orchards and fields of vegetables which cypress hedges protect today only came into being after the extension of irrigation networks from the Rhone river in the mid-nineteenth century.

   Van Gogh's celebrated cypresses were planted only a generation before his arrival in the country in 1888. They replaced...olive orchards, which traditionally grew on dry slopes, not irrigated land. Olive trees on the Riviera are often centuries old, with wonderfully massive, gnarled trunks, planted on the terraced hillsides which rise so steeply from the sea behind the Mediterranean. Whereas in western Provence, olive trees were often killed back to the ground by the fierce frost of 1956, and so today grow in rings of rootsprouts which, though slimmer than their ancient counterparts, have their own appeal.

   So it is that fashions change : the olive and cypress trees which once belonged to different contexts today set each other off in almost every Provençal garden. Similarly lavender fields, once associated with vast plantations at higher altitudes where this plant is still grown commercially, now struggle with the rich soil of valley farms turned into gardens. Contemporary gardeners all want their stretch of lavender. Many also want emerald lawns...not at all a Mediterranean tradition but an English import, requiring constant watering.

   Contemporary gardeners must make important decisions about when to perpetuate traditions which, after all, were based on the logic of climate and soil, and when to experiment with new images. Olive trees planted in lush lawns suffer and sicken. But few gardeners today would give up the deeply satisfying association of olive trees with cypresses, just because it was unknown two hundred years ago.

  The French Riviera has an incomparable heritage all its own. Until the late eighteenth century, its old families practiced the age-old art of country living it shared with the rest of Mediterranean France. But then the Riviera was discovered--some would say invented--by an influx of wealthy foreigners, largely English, but also Russian, American, even Parisian !

   All with the means to realize any fantasy dear to their hearts and imaginations--in the garden as in other domains. Cannes was transformed from a small fishing village into a fashionable resort. Monaco, thanks to the railroad, opened its casino... and planted its palm trees. The Belle Epoque or turn-of-the-century estates of the French Riviera offer an astonishing variety of extravagant gardens and constitute a heritage unique in Europe and perhaps in the world.

  Many have been preserved and restored and are open to the public today, particular in the city of Menton.
Individual experimentation on a grand scale became the quintessence of Riviera gardening, from the great exotic plant collections of La Mortola just over the Italian border, to the round-the-world gardens imagined by Beatrice de Rothschild on Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.
   These grand old coastal gardens were so fabulous that today's gardeners refuse to compete. They have largely turned away from the over-busy coast, to seek simpler images of country life. Today's best Riviera gardens lie near the city of Grasse, long famous for its cultivation of roses, jasmine, tuber roses and citrus blossoms for the perfume industry. Riviera gardening today has recovered the rural heritage which it shares with all of southern France.

   British writer Lawrence Durrell chose to retire to southern France because he felt it combined the best of the ancient Mediterranean world he so cherished with a peculiarly French gift for comfort and refinement.    The same may be said of the Proven�al garden today. Here the blending of English, northern French and Italian influences has created a style which is elegant but intimate, cosmopolitan but with strong country roots. Individual experimentation on a grand scale became the quintessence of Riviera gardening, from the great exotic plant collections of La Mortola just over the Italian border, to the round-the-world gardens imagined by Beatrice de Rothschild on Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.

    These grand old coastal gardens were so fabulous that today's gardeners refuse to compete. They have largely turned away from the over-busy coast, to seek simpler images of country life. Today's best Riviera gardens lie near the city of Grasse, long famous for its cultivation of roses, jasmine, tuber roses and citrus blossoms for the perfume industry. Riviera gardening today has recovered the rural heritage which it shares with all of southern France. Max-Phillipe Delavouet, a Proven�al poet, once wrote that : "Art in Provence, in its best manifestations, is always peasant art. It never forgets the earth from which it springs and its finest works, even those born in cities, always keep that refined and rustic air which confers nobility on our countryside..."