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.)

[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.

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.