If like me you live in the southeastern corner of England, it is easy to become spoiled by the sheer number and range of top rated gardens. Although the county of Kent was historically known as the garden of England - due mainly to its once large swathes of fruit production - the title can still justifiably stand on its private gardens and landscapes alone. In fact, within less than an hour’s drive, you can reach the likes of Kew, Wisley and that contentious garden of gardens – Sissinghurst!
Jacques Majorelle was the son of the celebrated Art Nouveau furniture designer Louis Majorelle, and an artist by profession. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Nancy, and later at the Académie Julian in Paris where he became trained in the then fashionable ‘easel in the nature’ – whatever that is!
Suffering from Tuberculosis, he moved to Marrakech in 1919, not just to improve his health but to continue his career as an artist. But it was here, after securing 1.2 acres of land in 1924, that he began his greatest masterpiece – now known as the Majorelle gardens.
It is easy to become fixated with the blueness of the garden – it is everywhere, but by being everywhere it transforms a garden which is composed of many – and possibly confusing – layers, into a garden of seamless transitions. Even more so, in a climate that can reach temperatures upwards of 40 degrees Celsius, the blue gives the garden both a dramatic cooling and cleansing effect – a welcome relief to the scorching North African heat!
These ancient techniques help to explain the presence of the sunken borders, the extending pseudo canal, and the high concentration of ornamental pools and water features found throughout this landscape. But it is so much more to it than that, not only do they help to define the areas within the garden, they also provide irresistible features that draw you along the various pathways to ever more extravagant vistas. Of course, they also act as a device to keep the environment as cool as possible during the baking heat of summer.
What makes Majorelle a world class garden is that Jacque Majorelle was an obsessive plant hunter, to a point where he would finance his own plant hunting expeditions. His collection of cacti and succulents is outstanding in itself but it is the details that raises this garden yet further. Substandard specimens are just not accepted here, so it is not just a collection of rare and unusual plants; it is a collection of quality and excellence. But there are further layers of detail. Each specimen plant is given the space required so that every one of them can be seen and appreciated as an individual. Their nearest neighbours are frequently of a different colour and architectural shape so that the plant you are looking at does not fall back to become lost in the general background of foliage.
This effect has been enhanced by covering the ground in a thick layer of terracotta/pink gravel, again to highlight the colour and form of each plant, and all suckered progeny are religiously removed to maintain the clean lines of the parent plant. Maintaining such a strict and rigid regime is not easy and requires constant maintenance form the gardening team. In such a comparatively small garden you may well be surprised to learn that Majorelle runs with a full time team of 12 gardeners - Sissinghurst runs on about 4 and is twice as big!
For related articles click onto the following links:
EASTER ISLAND - A LESSON IN ENVIRONMENTAL EXPLOITATION
ELCHE GARDENS - The Huerto del Cura
HOW TO GET TO THE GARDENS OF ELCHE - The Huerto del Cura
HOW TO GROW BAMBOO IN POTS
HOW TO GROW PEYOTE FROM SEEDS
KNOLE HOUSE AND THE GHOST WITH NO NAME
MAJORELLE GARDENS
SISSINGHURST GARDENS - a secret history
THE SECRET TO HARD LANDSCAPING
THE SECRET LIVES OF THE KNOLE HOUSE GHOSTS
HEVER CASTLE
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