Tag: Claude Monet
A Few Words About the Village of Giverny
First of all, Giverny is really tiny. The population is only about 500. This seems surprising for a place that is so well-known, but there it is. So it is not surprising that you cannot take the train directly from Paris to Giverny. Instead you have to get off at the somewhat bigger town of …
Giverny in September: Flowers First
In recent decades many garden designers have sought to de-emphasize flowers and pay more attention to form, foliage, and structure. Giverny’s upper garden, on the other hand, is first and foremost about flowers. There are no hedges, no ornamental grasses that I can remember, and not much in the way of plants used primarily for …
Giverny in September: Dahliapalooza
In early September, Giverny has a lot of Dahlias in bloom. I mean a LOT of dahlias. I don’t know any of their names, because I don’t grow any Dahlias, but here are some nice ones we saw. It’s not that I don’t like Dahlias. It’s just that north of zone 7 you have to …
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 …
The Lower Garden At Giverny
After Paris, we took the train to Vernon, then got a ride to the village of Giverny, where we stayed overnight. The next morning, we visited Claude Monet’s garden. Monet really created two gardens. There is the upper garden, which has vibrant masses of color emerging from rectangular beds – sometimes called the paintbox garden. …
Book Review: Painting with Flowers
Monet at Giverny, by Caroline Holmes; Cassel and Co., 2001. Monet’s Passion: Ideas, Inspiration, and Insights from the Painter’s Gardens,by Elizabeth Murray; Pomegranate Communications, 2010. Some of you know that Judy and I were lucky enough to visit Monet’s garden at Giverny in April of this year. Despite the clouds and chill, we were completely …
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