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Bewitching clouds of muhlenbergia and miscanthus beckon amid twinkling lights, dew and hoarfrost, in the evocative, enchanting setting of what was once the Temple of Diana. Grasses almost demand excess: huge swathes of limited varieties can give a stunning effect, rather like the field maples fading into the horizon. The purple heads of coneflowers and veronicastrum add contrast, reminding us that the dry and the faded can have charm and intrigue, instead of irritating confusion. As we can see from the spider’s web in the foreground.
Learn more about the botanical varieties you can see in the image:
.Acer campestre(pdf)
.Echinacea pallida(pdf)
.Muhlenbergia capillaris ‘Regal Mist’(pdf)
.Veronicastrum virginicum ‘Fascination’(pdf)
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Bold squares, a network of roads and orderly lines of trees: the gardens of Venaria have their own precise rigour – at least, in their design. Like any real garden, they know that rationality is the primary virtue. Mother Nature will create gentle disorder: thistles will grow, and the lavender and lamb’s-ear borders will overspill. The flowering cherry trees in the background underline the importance of repetition, counterbalancing the flat expanses of the park, year after year. Vistas open up and curtains close. At last, the rhythm of the Gardens can be heard.
.Cynara cardunculus(pdf)
.Lavandula ‘Officinalis’ (pdf)
.Prunus subhirtella (pdf)
.Stachys lanata(pdf)
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A tangle of twigs and greenery in a sequence of leafy walks and views filtered through the trees, a central feature of La Mandria’s glorious parkland. Their majestic trunks are furrowed by time and lichen, and sometimes twisted into a marvellous variety of shapes. The linden trees turn golden along the avenue, one of many routes followed by the royal hunts. Despite regular maintenance, the wood is wild, bustling with life: a perfectly balanced ecosystem. Even the carpets of leaves remain in place: beautiful and useful, they teach us that after all, a little dirt in a garden is never a bad thing.
.Tilia cordata(pdf)
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A striking and entertaining visual impact. Brightly-coloured ruffles of coleus in the border beds break up the austere patterns of the Gran Parterre. Phormium with its pointed leaves highlight the bronzed tones, awaiting the exodus to the greenhouses. Other than that there are simply dark pyramids of yew, boxwood and stretches of lawn. Simplification (with intelligence) is essential in historic gardens. It has taken years to find the right variety of the beautiful coleus, which grows vigorously through to late autumn. Introducing this plant in large quantities without too much interference is no easy task.
.Buxus sempervirens(pdf)
.Coleus scutellarioides ‘Redhead’(pdf)
.Phormium tenax ‘Sundowner’ (pdf)
.Taxus baccata(pdf)
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In the misty dawn, the large fishpond seems to be suspended in time, waiting for someone unknown, in a frame of fountaingrass that adds to the evanescence of the whole. These grasses are not part of the Gardens’ past, but when planted over large areas they help to soften the architectural lines. The still water collects in the pond before flowing back out into the Ceronda river (nothing is wasted!), and its reflection brings a piece of sky down into the Gardens. Wherever you look: up, down or all around, the view stretches without end.
.Pennisetum alopecuroides(pdf)
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Waves on waves. A small sea of plants in a storm. From the grey shades of the onions and lavender to the dry stalks of the coneflowers and reedgrass to the brilliant green fennel and the almost black of the cabbage leaves. There’s even a third layer of purplish aubergines, barberries and perilla. A kitchen garden is a bright and cheerful melting pot where there’s space for almost anything, and where rules and traditions are no obstacle to new ideas and stunning visuals. The perfect combination for La Venaria. The round-leaved nasturtiums have no fear of winter: they remain year after year, growing in the face of the consumerist trend of treating plants as annuals when they aren’t.
.Berberis x ottawensis(pdf)
.Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ (pdf)
.Perilla frutescens(pdf)
.Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii ‘Goldsturm’ (pdf)
.Tropaeolum majus(pdf)
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A dazzling burst of fiery colour (after all, this is a tree from the USA!). The fall is a time of sharp contrasts with the red acers’ scarlet leaves, opalescent white trunks and the deep greens in the background. A sensational colour scheme is part of any modern garden, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Underneath, there is a quieter kind of beauty, made up of unseen details. The meadow of panicgrass is beginning to wither, as the crinkled leaves pile up on the ground. A few stragglers remain suspended, glimmering between the twigs, almost like flowers. Even the autumnal wither and fall has its own charm, if you know where to look.
.Acer rubrum ‘Red King’ (pdf)
.Panicum virgatum ‘Heavy Metal’ (pdf)
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Dream or reality? The Reggia’s reflection is perfectly mirrored in the waters of the Lower Park. Its historic lines are perfectly at home in such a modern, minimalist space. A winning combination, set off beautifully by the mature woodland, which dilute the abundance of minerals. The wood is planted with a few carefully-chosen species: lindens of the Macedonian variety with silver-backed leaves, and dove trees, also known as the “pocket handkerchief tree”. The hard nuts are ripe now, and the wood is alive with busy squirrels. A few nuts, cracked by frost, might even germinate.
.Davidia involucrata(pdf)
.Tilia cordata(pdf)
.Tilia tomentosa(pdf)
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Lindens, bricks and blue sky: the same ingredients as in the previous scene, but with a different atmosphere, with the Mandria nestling amidst the trees and the lawn little more than a glade. Near the entrance are clusters of boxwood, which have grown into irregular shapes over the centuries and give the idea: imposing and monumental, yet with a certain roughness around the edges. Perfect for a country estate used for hunting and rearing thoroughbred horses. There is no garden, luckily: adornment doesn’t always signify improvement. Some places ask only to be left alone. It’s a question of nuance.
.Tilia cordata(pdf)
.Buxus sempervirens(pdf)
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From above, you can see the empty spaces, gravel tracks and paths outlining the Flower Garden. But on the ground, what counts is the filled space: three-dimensionality makes the scene captivating. The fountaingrass is in full flood, vervain and Russian sage are almost bursting over the borders, while the coneflowers create patches of faded colour. All is bold and conspicuous, so why not show off? The hibiscus bloom gaudily with their double flowers, the Japanese anemones are not subdued by the summer heat, and in the middle of the party, a cluster of SunPatiens withstands the full glare of the sun. Still flowering even now, resistant to the rain, they are the lucky charms of this parterre.
.Anemone japonica(pdf)
.Hibiscus syriacus ‘Arden’s Double Purple’ (pdf)
.Impatiens ‘Sunpatiens Series’(pdf)
.Verbena bonariensis(pdf)
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A fragment of fragments: this close-up of the kitchen garden is a tribute to the broad-leafed Italian black cabbage. As the cold weather tightens its grip, the garden thins out and breaks down. The eye searches for details. The echinaceas, now spent, the comforting green of the yew trees and the luminescent globes of Golden Queen flowers emit the last few rays. They were polled after the summer bloom to encourage a second, late burst of colour, and to give our pollinators a few last drops of nectar. Growing plants is all about strategy: a game of continuous making and unmaking, so that everything lasts as long as possible.
.Trollius x chinensis ‘Golden Queen’(pdf)
.Echinacea pallida(pdf)
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More than seven hundred metres of visual clarity. The eye is free to roam uninterrupted, across the flat water. In a garden, deciding not to plant is just as important: two bare meadows with no trimmings give the necessary breathing space. The Hercules Canal is the backbone of the Gardens, the heart of it all, yet it is merely a long pause amid the botanical busyness. The lines of field maples on each side, their winged seeds now ripe, replicate the spectacular view as if to symbolise the power radiating from the Reggia at every angle.
.Acer campestre (pdf)
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A dreamlike view of the Mandria at sunrise. Like an archipelago, it is hard to distinguish see which is water and which is mist. Oaks, downy oaks, hornbeams and black alders with a few surviving elms: on these plains it’s hard to find such a wide, well-preserved amalgam of trees. There are also lakes, oxbows, canals and streams. The tips of the white pines, introduced during the last century, remind us that patches of evergreen in a deciduous wood can have a striking effect, weaving a pattern that withstands the desolation of winter.
.Quercus robur (pdf)
.Quercus petraea (pdf)
.Carpinus betulus (pdf)
.Fraxinus excelsior (pdf)
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Real trees, fake trees, trunks of wood and of bronze. Giuseppe Penone’s sculptures blur the boundaries between art and nature. In the Gardens, interplay is the order of the day: ancient and modern converse endlessly, going far beyond the strictures of artificial vintage. La Venaria is designed primarily as a place of the present moment, with its eye firmly on the future. The vibrant linden firmly rooted in the photograph symbolises the definitive protection of this place, and of its inhabitants. After centuries of misfortune and abandonment, that is no small thing.
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Who knows what the birds see from up there, in this pattern of lines worthy of the best abstract art. They could certainly advise us on the best pairings and cross-references. Taking a bird’s-eye view every so often helps us to consider the whole, showing that in large spaces, large clusters can be strategic. Field maples against a backdrop of muhlenbergia, astilbe interspersed with miscanthus and newly-bedded bluestars, in the ruins of the Temple of Diana: after all, it’s a difficult circle to plant. A hint of rust-coloured confusion would add the final touch. After years of trying, and trying again, will this one finally be the right choice.
.Amsonia hubritchii (pdf)
.Astilbe chinensis ‘Purpurlanze’ (pdf)
.Miscanthus sinensis ‘Littile Kitten’ (pdf)
.Miscanthus sinensis ‘Silver Feather’ (pdf)
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