Plants for Garden in the French Pyrenees

[donut_donut]

Hi! I'm writing a novel that takes place in the French Pyrenees (modern day), and I'm trying to figure out what plants to place in this fictional garden.

More info:
The novel takes place at a villa owned by a middle-aged bohemian lady who moved there from Paris maybe a decade ago. Gardening is her hobby. In the back of the house is a potager (vegetable garden), and I've got that covered. But the front of the house has a flower garden, and I don't know so much about that.

It doesn't need to be plants that are native to the region, but it has to be plausible that they would be available and could thrive there. It's summertime (late July-August), and I would like there to be flowers, because we often see her pruning the old blooms. I assume rose bushes would work, but I would love some other options to work with. I've been picturing something like hydrangeas or rhodedendrons, but I don't know how common they are in this environment.

Some kind of ornamental tree would also be nice, for a character cry under. A flowering tree or large bush would be nice but not necessary.

She has somewhat offbeat tastes, so anything off the beaten track would be great, but it has to make sense for the climate.

Thank you!

Comments

[harpers_child]

(I've done a little poking around the internet and have rewritten this post like five times so some parts may be repetitive.)

Poking at various online gardening resources it looks like western vs eastern side of the range has different climates. West end is more like the main body of France, eastern is more Mediterranean. Western end also gets more rain than the eastern. Your lady sounds like a serious gardener so that will get her some play in what you can grow. I'm most familiar with US classifications and that part of France is zone 6 or 7 depending on how high into the mountains you get. It's a very forgiving grow zone. In general a cooler color scheme of white, pinks, blue, and soft purples are traditional in French gardens.

Roses and lavender are what comes to mind as traditional French garden flowers. Given she has a vegatable garden she may play with various sages, thymes, and alliums in her flower garden. There are both functional and decorative versions of those. Trimmed boxwoods are part of more formal gardens, but not always seen in less formal ones. Lilies would work. It looks like some kind of pots or planters for things that need to be moved indoors or into a greenhouse for winter are popular options.

Some kind of structure (arch, pillar, pergola) with climbing roses, wisteria, or jasmine would be expected. (If you can't find a tree maybe your character could cry under a structure covered in a flowering something or other.)

I found this article that runs through French garden design and recommends specific plants: https://www.chezpluie.com/blogs/news/8-ways-to-create-your-french-garden

There's a Wikipedia page for "Flora of the Pyrenees" that talks about native plants: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Flora_of_the_Pyrenees (There's a Sweet William variant local to your story with red centers and white outers that I had to look up to see if I could have it in my own garden, but alas zone 9 isn't friendly to that particular varietal.)

[donut_donut]

Oh thank you, this is all very helpful! Creepers are a good idea.

>> In general a cooler color scheme of white, pinks, blue, and soft purples are traditional in French gardens.

Given that my character doesn't view herself as a traditionalist, is there a different color palate she might choose? Maybe brighter pinks or something?

[full_metal_ox]

“Non-traditionalist” is rather vague; what sort of aesthetics does her taste run to?

[donut_donut]

Well, the inside of the villa features a lot of flea market finds: mismatched crockery, stacks of ancient magazines, a tortoise shell, a taxidermied stoat... Bohemian eccentric?

She wants her garden to be attractive and colorful, but she doesn't mind if the neighbors tut about it.

[full_metal_ox]

Any witchy pretensions or reputation?

[donut_donut]

No, she was a famously slutty writer in her younger days, but not witchy.

[full_metal_ox]

Ah…in Colette/Anais Nin territory. Gotcha.

[donut_donut]

Exactly!

[donut_donut]

Actually, along this line... Could you suggest any sexually suggestive flowers? Like phallic shaped or something? I could see her enjoying that (and shocking her neighbors).

[full_metal_ox]

France is the home of topless beaches, pissing statues, color names like “baby shit”, and perfumes with deliberate genital, carrion, and excretory notes; I’m not sure how scandalized French countryfolk would be by naughty-bit-shaped produce, or even what form a French equivalent of Ken and Karen from the HOA might take (since I get the impression you really want her to épater les bourgeois.)

[donut_donut]

There's a reason that phrase exists in French! Believe it or not, some French people can be quite conservative.

I've lived in France for many years, so I do have some idea what I'm talking about. I just don't know anything about flowers.

[full_metal_ox]

Let’s see—although this might be more the realm of the potager, consider Pleurotus_eryngii, which your heroine would know as pleurote du panicault, or perhaps argouane, bérigoule or girboulot:

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleurotus_eryngii

In English, it’s known variously as king oyster mushroom, king trumpet mushroom, French horn mushroom, eryngi, king brown mushroom, boletus of the steppes, trumpet royale, or aliʻi oyster—-and can look downright salacious when the cap is young and small:

[donut_donut]

Haha those are quite suggestive.

[full_metal_ox]

And have a reputation as aphrodisiacs because of course they do.

(I used to refer to the ones I bought at the local Asian grocery as Dongs of the Forest.)

[harpers_child]

"Traditional" here equals formal. Formal french gardens are a whole things in and of themselves. (Think Versailles.) If your character isn't worried about the rules, then she can grow whatever colors she likes. Yellow and orange french marigolds are a thing for example.

You can probably find books on both formal French gardens and country style French gardens at your local library. If you know what specific town she's in, you can very likely find a list of recommended plants. (In the US this is agriculture extension services attached to a university. I don't know what they are in France.)

[voidampersand]

Where in the French Pyrenees? The climate is Mediterranean in the east, oceanic in the west.

There is a botanical garden in Foix, Les Épines de Lespinet, specializing in cacti and succulents.

Towns in the French Pyrenees are mostly at low elevations, 300-600 m, so I don't think altitude will have much affect on the climate. Unless your character is one of the few who live up in the snow zone, in which case July is spring for her.

[donut_donut]

Oh, good point!

Starting a new thread because the windows are shrinking.

[full_metal_ox]

Aubépine (hawthorn) isn’t particularly scandalous as far as shape goes, but in springtime would afford a suitable floral cover for Romantic Sobbing (as long as your heroine vigilantly clears the ground beneath; I can attest from personal experience that fallen thorny twigs and branches are a serious injury hazard.) The blossoms can smell either sweetly floral (1) or powerfully animalic (2)—likened variously to carrion, fish, or vulvas, which might be even more fun if she’s some flavor of queer.

(1) Which seems to be the kind referenced in this perfume: https://archive.ph/axE80

(2) Which has been my own experience; Robert Graves’ similar account suggests that it also occurs in Old World species.

Re: Starting a new thread because the windows are shrinking.

[donut_donut]

Oh, very pretty! That could be fun to play with, thank you.

Re: Starting a new thread because the windows are shrinking.

[full_metal_ox]

Given her age and the occupational hazards of La Vie Bohème (I’m guessing that AIDS alone would’ve claimed a lot of her friends?), she’s probably got a long mourning list.(1) Therefore, for eccentricity and literary/poetic/mythic associations, asphodèle:



Source: A. ramosus, 30 April 2005 by Jean Tosti: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asphodelus#/media/File:Asphodelus_ramosus7.jpg

(1)Patti Smith—-a Yank, but a Francophile and held in high regard there—-comes to mind.

ETA: you did say “middle-aged”, making her younger than I was imagining; for some reason I’d had a Boomer in mind.

Re: Starting a new thread because the windows are shrinking.

[donut_donut]

Haha I had the same struggle when I was first creating her. I knew she was middle aged, and I felt like that would put her date of birth in the '60s. Then I realized, no -- she's in her 40s, just like me! So she was born around 1980.

Time is weird.

Re: Starting a new thread because the windows are shrinking.

[full_metal_ox]

Which means that you’d have a more direct idea of her formative influences than I would.

Still endorsing the asphodel, though.

Re: Starting a new thread because the windows are shrinking.

[full_metal_ox]

Orchis italica is native to the Mediterranean (I’m seeing wildly varying accounts of what U.S. climate zone equivalent would support them, ranging from 5 to 10) and has culinary and medicinal uses.

This image of the blossoms is all over the web, but I’m going to credit Ana Retamaro by linking directly: https://www.anaretamero.com/Nature/Plants-ang-fungi/OrchidsOrqu%C3%ADdeas/i-fLDq79g

And here are the edible tubers: