More of Monet's Gardens at Giverny?

Spring is in the air and gardeners anxiously await the first blooms in the garden. To boost my enthusiasm, I peruse the volumes of garden photos that I've taken in the springtime—my own garden as well as those that I have visited.

I always find myself studying the hundreds of photos that I took at Claude Monet's gardens at Giverny, France in May 2009. Are you ready for more Monet? 

Monet's Gardens at Giverny, France
The Clos Normand, May 2009.

Looking through a veil of purple. 

The beautiful Tamarisk tree
(can be invasive in some areas).

Perfectly planted in pink.

Lawn and garden merge.
No doubt the foliage of spent daffodils in the grass.

Another Monet moment?

We're returning to France in April 2011. Monet's gardens in early April will be filled with tulips and other spring bulbs. Will we take the train out of Paris for a return trip?

Sometimes seeing less can reveal more—as in the bones or structure of a garden that may be hidden behind the billowing blooms in peak season.

I may be ready for another Monet moment.

Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel. All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks, copyrights, or patents owned by those respective companies or persons.

Bold Brushes of Color in Monet's Garden

Which came first — the art or the garden? Impressionist artist, Claude Monet was first an artist. When he moved to Giverny, he became an obsessed gardener. His garden was designed not only for his enjoyment as a gardener, but as a subject for his paintings.

Monet's Gardens at Giverny have been reconstructed from his paintings, over 500 of which were based on his gardens. Pastel colors are abundant, but there are also swaths of bright yellow, orange and red. The photos shown here were taken in the May, but the garden colors and flowers change with every season.

Tulips, wallflowers and pansies provide much of the bold color in the spring gardens inside the walled gardens, named the Clos Normand, at Giverny.



One of my favorite books is The Impressionist Garden by Derek Fell. Given to me so many years ago, this well-worn book served as inspiration for my gardens as I dreamed of someday visiting the gardens in France.

After visiting Giverny in May 2009, I found the courage to try the bolder colors in my garden. I set about rearranging plants last fall and eagerly await the first results this summer. Mind you, I'll never have a Giverny, but in small vignettes through my borders, I have planted little pockets of orange, red, yellow and gold.

Not having the same space, place or climate, I look for substituting plants of the same colors, but not necessarily of the same variety or used in the same season. My spring colors are still based upon the pastel colors of purple, blue and pink. But, my summer and fall color scheme in 2010 will include colors inspired by Giverny.



I have planted a swath of bright orange and gold gaillardia at the feet of red monarda 'Jacob Kline' that is set among salvia greggii 'Bright Navajo Red' and crocosmia 'Lucifer'. Marigolds in orange and zinnias in soft golden yellow will be sown as seeds when the soil warms up in the spring. The deep green foliage of osmanthus fragrans and white oleander serve as a buffer between this vignette and another.

The deep red tulips planted at the edge of Monet's Water Garden are stunning paired with green foliage of irises, planted beneath a weeping tree. This is a color combination that I'd also like to replicate using red geum. I planted my first geum in summer 2009 and will see how well it overwintered and if it continues to be deer and rabbit resistant.

My pineapple sage, when in bloom beside the clumping bamboo, is the closest that I've come so far in achieving the red and green duo. If you don't have deer or rabbits, you can probably come up with many more possibilities!


One of the most beautiful flowering shrub displays at Giverny in May was the clustering of soft apricot-orange and bright red azaleas with a Japanese Maple. This is a combination that can be tried by studying the colors available in the rhododendron family until you get just the right colors to work with the burgundy foliage of the maple.

Native azaleas come to mind as good options for the edge of woodlands. Rhododendron austrinum (Flame Azalea) is a flashy orange-flowering native for USDA zones 6-10; part sun to shade in moist soil.

Behind this color scheme, large trees divide the bright colors from the soft, lavender panicles of wisteria growing on Monet's bridge, trellises and arbors around the pond.



Proving that not all garden color has to come from plants, this big rooster proudly holds court at the entrance to Monet's Clos Normand!


Location: Giverny, France; May 2009; Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel. All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks/copyrights/patents owned by those respective companies or persons.

The Pastel Palette of Monet's Garden

Look to Monet's Gardens at Giverny, France for true cottage garden inspiration. Spring-blooming bulbs, perennials, annuals and vines are used liberally in a garden that is literally stuffed so full of flowers that no ground is visible. Pebbled garden paths add to the inviting, casual style. Soft spring colors of pink, purple, white and blue are soothing and tranquil.

Elements from these famous, but unpretentious French gardens can be translated for use at home. The plantings aren't suitable for every growing zone, but the pastel color palette provides wonderful examples of how to use shapes and heights together in random beauty.

Billowing wisteria drips over Monet's water garden, a signature plant for many of his paintings. The wisteria wraps the arched Japanese bridge as well as arbors and trellises that accent the winding paths around the water's edge. Although the fragrant wisteria sinensis is truly glorious, careful control is necessary or it will take over native plants and entire woodlands.

The dainty pink tulips, planted as bulbs in autumn, are underplanted with annuals such as pansies and self-sowing myosotis sylvatica (forget-me-nots). Since tulips bloom best during the first spring, they are often regarded as annuals and replanted each year. Tulip 'Pink Impression' is a good choice for replicating this vignette.

Purple alliums are bulbs to plant at the same time as tulips. For home gardens, a good choice is allium 'Purple Sensation' randomly arranged in a mass planting among companions. Hardy geraniums such as 'Rozanne' and Dutch iris 'Rosario' work well as perennial partners. Poppy 'Angels Choir' and nigella 'Mulberry Rose', easily sown from seed, are good annual choices for the home garden, too.

Vertical displays of blooms are evident throughout the walled gardens of the Clos Normand. Bowers of pink and white clematis scramble over arbors in Monet's gardens. Clematis 'Pink Fantasy' and 'Guernsey Cream' are candidates for recreating the look. Flowering trees and shrubs at Giverny include tamarisk, pink dogwood, lilac, and apple. Meandering plantings through meadow grass provide calm expanses beneath the orchard trees.

Colors, paths, accents and plants — there is much to inspire gardeners and artists!




Bright blooms are also used in Monet's spring color scheme around the pond and within the walled gardens. Next time...

Location: Monet's Gardens at Giverny, France. May 2009. Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel. All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks/copyrights/patents owned by those respective companies or persons.

Monet's Water Garden at Giverny

Claude Monet wanted to extend his gardens at Giverny beyond the walls of his flower garden, Clos Normand. In the 1890s, he purchased adjacent property along a stream to create a pond and water garden.

To reach the pond, visitors walk through a tunnel beneath a road to reach the pathways leading to, and around, the water gardens. All along the shady paths, azaleas, rhododendron and other spring-flowering shrubs are in bloom in riotous colors of yellow, orange, pink and white. The textures of the weeping willows and the Japanese maple trees add to a sense of tapestry as you glance across the pond.

The arched, green Monet bridge is draped with the lavender wisteria that is depicted in so many of Monet's paintings. The famous water lilies float on the pond, but are not in bloom in spring - they will bloom in the summer.

When funds were raised to restore Monet's gardens, the pond had to be completely dug out again. The water gardens are a restoration interpretation, based upon Monet's his paintings and photographs. Liste des plantes et des fleurs du jardin de Claude Monet provides a list of plants in the gardens of Impressionist artist, Claude Monet.

We walked counterclockwise from the approach to Monet's bridge, waiting until we had circled the pond before crossing over it. This area of Monet's gardens is quiet, shady and so peaceful.














Story and photos by Freda Cameron; Location: Giverny, France; May 2009

Monet's Gardens: The Clos Normand

Impressionist artist Claude Monet used his personal gardens at Giverny as inspiration for over five hundred of his works. After his death in 1926, his home and gardens were inherited by his youngest son, Michael. Following Michael Monet's death in 1966, a foundation was established to raise enough money, mostly provided by Americans, to restore the gardens for enjoyment by the public.

Due to this restoration effort, today's artists, tourists and gardeners have an opportunity to draw inspiration with the design, color schemes and flower choices growing in the gardens.

Monet's house overlooks a one hectare (2 1/2 acres) walled garden called the Clos Normand. On either side of this central path there are multiple paths and rectangular flower beds. Most are laid out in straight lines with few curved edges. However, the overflowing blooms and foliage soften these lines with billowing forms. Trees and vertical elements of arbors and supports are used for climbing vines, such as clematis.

At the bottom of the garden is a wall. The willows and other trees on the other side of the wall surround Monet's famous water garden pond with lilies and the wisteria-draped arched bridge (to be featured in the next story).










Color schemes are sometimes harmonic while others are contrasting. Soft palettes of blue, pink and purple are mixed in some gardens, while others sport strong red, orange and yellow hues. With the gentle slope of the gardens down from the house, you can view the wide sweeps of color or take a close look at the individual blooms. Those who are familiar with Monet's paintings will recognize different views of the gardens.

Story and photos by Freda Cameron; Location: Giverny, France; May 2009

Monet's House and Gardens

French Impressionist artist, Claude Monet, is famous for his paintings and his house and gardens. Monet moved to his house (as a rental) in the village of Giverny in 1882. Seven years later, he purchased the house and began to develop the gardens in his own style. He lived here until his death in 1926.

During the first years, he did most of the planting himself, but as his paintings sold, he kept a head gardener and five assistant gardeners. His gardens have been the subject of hundreds of his paintings, most notably Water Lilies ("Nymphéas"), which depicts his beautiful pond. He painted many versions of the water lilies, but the most famous panels are installed at the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris, located in the Tuileries gardens (Jardin des Tuileries) right by the Louvre.

The Giverny gardens of Monet have been on the top of my list of "gardens to see before I die" for as long as I can remember. It was time! To try to describe these gardens won't do them justice, so I did my best to capture the gardens with my camera.

It was an overcast day, which worked in my favor to photograph the true colors of the flowers without glare from the sun. We visited on May 6 and the gardens were in spring bloom.

Monet's house of pink and green provides the perfect backdrop for the display gardens planted with pink tulips and underplanted with blue forget-me-nots. The foundation plantings are a mix of colors and flowers, true to "cottage garden" style. I tend to identify the green trim paint with Monet's house. The green color is used on all of the benches, trellises and fences throughout the estate.





No photographs are allowed inside the house, but I loved the dining room in sunny yellow. The kitchen that appears quite functional given the era, is tiled in blue and white with copper pots hanging along the walls.

It seems as though every room in the house has a beautiful view of the gardens. The walled gardens, or Clos Normand, will be featured next in my series of Monet's Gardens at Giverny.


Story and photos by Freda Cameron. Location: Giverny, May 2009.

Getting to Giverny: We took the 8:15 am Rouen-bound train from the Saint Lazare station in Paris. After about 45 minutes on the train, we got off at the village of Vernon. Just outside the train station, buses wait to take travelers to the village of Giverny, 4 km from the station. While you can walk or rent a bike from Vernon, we decided to save our energy for the gardens and took the bus.

Inspiration de Jardin: Giverny Musée des Impressionismes

Flowers are planted in sweeps of overlapping color in the gardens. Much like an impressionist painting, the gardens at the Giverny Musée des Impressionismes blur the lines of color so that it takes close inspection to identify the individual flowers planted in the gardens.

The village of Giverny, France is the location of the home and gardens of artist Claude Monet. It is just a short stroll down a village lane from Monet's home to the Museum of Impressionism. During our recent visit, the museum had a special exhibit of Monet's garden (jardin) paintings. Monet's paintings are on loan from the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. The exhibit runs until August 15.

We went to the art museum to see Monet's paintings and to have lunch. We had already toured Monet's house and gardens during the morning. The lunch of quiche and salad served at the museum cafe was quite wonderful, and I recommend it when visiting Giverny.

It was great to see Monet's paintings of his gardens after seeing his gardens in person. I will be writing about Monet's gardens when I organize the 200+ photos from that visit.

Twenty of Monet's art interpretations of his gardens were on display at the museum. The small Musée des Impressionismes was not crowded during our visit, so we were often alone in the rooms with Monet's garden paintings. During our week in Paris, we also saw Monet's paintings at the Musée d'Orsay, Musée de l'Orangerie (where Monet's famous Water Lilies panels surround an entire room), and the Louvre.

The fact that the art museum grounds are planted with several small gardens was a pleasant surprise and worth a mention to any gardener making a trip to Giverny. These gardens at the Impressionism art museum are nicely organized by hedge divisions, turning each color scheme into an individual garden room. The quaint village lanes in Giverny add to the charm of the gardens.

Forget-me-nots (Myosotis) are often used in combination with tulips. I later identified the variety when visiting the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. The Forget-me-nots are Myosotis sylvatica Sylva series 'Rose' (pink), 'Snow' (white), and 'Blue'.





Since our trip was during the spring bloom, other flowers that we saw included roses, clematis, poppies, pansies, wallflowers, alliums and irises -- and more. Every garden, large or small, was a delight to visit!

Story and photos by Freda Cameron. Location: village of Giverny, France. May 2009