Giverny In September: Look, Ma, No Hedges!
So let’s talk about the structure of the upper garden, the Clos Normande, at Giverny. Giverny has no hedges, clipped or otherwise, but that doesn’t mean it is an amorphous blob. It has paths, arches, trees, walls, and of course Monet’s house. There is structure beneath all that exuberant color and greenery.
The structure begins with the house, which forms the north side of the upper garden. The house is covered with climbing roses on trellises, though these were mostly not blooming during our visit. It is painted soft pink and a pleasant blue-green, which sounds weird but which echoes colors found in the garden and looks entirely harmonious.
Then there is the grand allee, a wide path that forms a central north-south axis for the garden. Long and narrow rectangular flower beds border the alee on either side. Nasturtiums are planted along both edges, and sometimes they meet in the middle.
Smaller rectangular beds lie on either side of the ones that border the grand allee. However, they are not placed symmetrically, so where on one side they lie north-south, they may be east-west on the corresponding spot on the other side of the allee. There are also small lawns placed asymmetrically on both sides of the garden. Of course, I should say that by summer, there is so much plant growth that you cannot see the smaller paths unless you are right on top of one.
The grand allee also has arches covered with climbing roses. And throughout the garden there are arches, tuteurs and other structures covered with climbers – roses, clematis, morning glory, and more – some of them still blooming in early September when we were there.
And we can’t forget the trees and other woody plants. At the north end of the grand allee, there are two hoary old evergreen trees (cedars, maybe?). Apparently when Monet moved they lined the whole allee. Reportedly he quarrelled with his wife – he wanted them to go, she wanted to keep them. Eventually he removed all but two.
Scattered throughout the grassy parts of the garden are smaller flowering trees and shrubs – cherry, apple, laburnum, viburnum, Japanese maple, and more. Larger trees include chestnuts, lime trees, and sycamores. There are also many roses grown as standards, which have a substantial visual impact.
Finally, there is a wall along the southern edge of the garden, along the road that divides the upper garden from the lower. The wall is painted xxx. And there is a fence made from living apple trees, which flowers and bears fruit.
Do you have hedges in your garden? What is your favorite structural garden element?
gardeninacity 
I love that there are no hedges. I feel like you can really get lost in the beauty. So the big question, are you more motivated to plant nasturtiums now? lol
I’ve always wanted nasturtiums, just discouraged by failure with them years ago. I meant to try them this year in my containers but didn’t. Maybe next year …
I realy must try to see this garden, I don’t really understand how it fits together, even from your excellent posts. I love pergolas, places to sit in filtered light on a hot day. I love lots of kinds of hedging, the most obvious in my garden are bay, photinia and lavender.
I’m going to try to google a map and put it in my next post.
It’s all too lovely! The colours of the house really do complement the plants. And those rose arches must be fantastic ehen in full bloom. Monet certainly had good taste. (I love his paintings too). I’m not keen on hedges, simply because of the maintenance involved. But I do like a natural looking boundary so in our garden it’s the only option in places.
I would really like to see his roses at their peak. My next dream would be to visit in June – I’d see the wisteria also.
I like hedges and have used them in the past but they don’t “fit” with the current (and final) garden. Cathy is right, they are high maintence for most of us, but In England and Normandy, France (much further north than SC) they require pruning only once a year (in autumn).
I have a sort of naturalistic mixed hedge on one side of our back garden, but I give it minimal pruning.
It looks gorgeous! seeing those nasturtiums makes me wonder where mine got to this year? Hmm?
I have not had much luck growing nasturtiums, though it’s been a while and I am steeling my resolve to try again.
This is one of many gardens on my bucket list. I enjoyed your tour. I will admit that I really dislike hedges in my garden. It doesn’t fit with our garden style but I also hate pruning! Over the years I have been removing the hedges that the builder put in the landscape. Some require pruning 3-4 times a year. .
Digging out old foundation shrubs can be a lot of work, the roots get really thick. I’ve gotten to the point now where I just cut them down close to ground level.
Such an interesting post, seeing the pictures and your descriptions give me a better idea about what it would be like to visit. Certainly don’t need hedges in this case.
Glad you liked the post.
I just love the grand allee. Sigh. I fondly remember the apple tree fence and, even in college, feeling motivated to try to create one! (It hasn’t happened yet.)
An apple tree fence is just way too ambitious for me!
I really enjoyed this post Jason – your words and pictures certainly set the scene. Gardening on such a scale is way beyond my imagination!
There is plenty to take away that could easily be transferred to a smaller garden, although in my mind no hedges would only work on a grand scale.
Thanks for sharing.
I have taken some lessons from this garden that I think I can apply, though perhaps .less so regarding garden structure. As you say, it is hard to comprehend gardening on this scale. But we can still dream!
Oh my…the Grand allee stole the show for sure. I have hedges growing in front of our railings to give a little privacy…..but I’d love a yew hedge which are expensive and slow growing.xxxx
I have a huge old Japanese Yew, but just one, it doesn’t make a hedge. I have a mixed hedge on one side of the back garden to mark the border with the neighbors there, but that’s it. The grand allee really is breathtaking.
You must post a pic of your yew…I’d love to see it.xxxx
Interesting that there are no hedges in terms of structure or background. But I see plenty of arches!
There are definitely lots of arches and related structures. But I think this was the only garden we visited on our trip without hedges.
great photos of Monet’s house. The arches were great but the thing that stood out for me was the green front door
Thanks. The house combines incredibly well with the garden.
This is a beautiful place, and all from a man who said that his life had been nothing but a failure.If only I could fail as well as he!
I didn’t know that about Monet. I had the impression he had a happy life, especially compared to the average artist.
That’s a famous quote by Monet. I don’t think he was quite as bad off as Van Gogh, but he had his moments. He also said “I am very depressed and deeply disgusted with painting. It is really a continual torture.”
How beautiful, especially your photo of the blue green trellis against the sky. When I exhibited at Winterthur we bought paint that color and painted all the furniture we took. I didn’t realize it came from Giverny.
That is an especially fetching color, and goes well with the soft pink.
Oh, my! I am so jealous.
Me too! I wanted to move in.
I have hedges. They are not high maintenance in our climate generally if one does not want that razor cut look. I like the Grand Allee and have seen it done more with large trees, but the herbaceous look of the one at Giverny is beautiful I have seen photos at different times of year where it really makes a statement in each season. I like the color of the house. His landscape was his art as much as his paintings.
I think I like the allee with the rose arbors and herbaceous plants better than an allee with trees.
I love a nice hedge too! But this garden has so many geometric shapes and straight paths that it doesn’t really need a hedge. I never noticed they were missing until you pointed it out.
I need to do a little poking around this winter and figure out how this garden all goes together. Your pictures show a side that I never knew about, all the wildness and overflowing plants are totally different than the wisteria bridge and neat iris beds that I’m used to seeing.
I have a map of Giverny and I’ll put it in my next post. That will make it clearer how it all comes together.
That second shot of his house with the blue green door and climbing roses is out of this world! It makes me want to add color to my door. In many ways his house melts right into the garden! And the Nasturtiums along the grand allele is such a lovely choice! Your photos capture the amazing layers of his garden. Such a spectacular site!!!
I know, after visiting I thought: why did we paint our house white? There are so many other great possibilities!
Simply beautiful! Loved seeing so much more of this great garden!
Good, because I’m just getting started. (Not really.)
I like my native red twig dogwoods…what a beautiful natural area