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

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: