Gardens of the Loire Valley

The Loire Valley is known as the Garden of Francehorticulture for its authenticity.
and its fertile land is watered by the mighty LoireThe Parc Floral de la Source is a wonderful garden,
River as well as the Eure, the Loiret and the Cherwinner of the best Park competition in 2003 and has
rivers.some magnificent large flower borders packed with
This region famous for its chateaux also has ashrubs and perennials. A lot of the garden has quite
selection of beautiful gardens. The gardeningan ‘English garden’ style.
enthusiasm in the region perhaps began when kingsOne of my favourites is a much more intimate
and nobles ordered impressive gardens for theirgarden, ‘The Jardin d’Atmosphere du Petit
chateaux but the tradition continues to modern times.Bordeaux’. This is the garden and home of a
The Chateau de Villandry is the most famous of thecouple who show what can be achieved in your own
gardens in the region and this immense formalgarden if you have a flair for gardening and an eye
‘French style garden’ is one of the mostto detail. The garden is a mature garden with
celebrated formal gardens in the world. If you likecollections of Acers and Cornus.
vegetable gardening this is a must, the vegetableAnother unmissable event when looking for gardens
garden laid out with as much attention to colour,in the Loire Valley is the International Garden Festival
symmetry and form as all the other gardens is anat Chaumont sur Loire. The grounds of the Chateau
incredible sight.display twenty or so gardens, winners of an
The Loire Valley is home to the largest Japaneseinternational competition. For 2009 the theme is
garden in France - the Parc Oriental de Maulevrier.‘Gardens of Colour’.  The gardens tend to
This magnificent park covers 29 hectares and hasbe very contemporary and involve architects and
met with the approval of Japanese professors ofartists as well as garden designers.