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Le jardin des Ifs : l’aventure contemporaine d’un jardin historique by Martine and Delphine HIGONNET – Château de Bénouville
The Yew Garden: the contemporary adventure of a historic garden
Martine and Delphine Higonnet
Martine Higonnet is the translator of Guide Pratique pour Connaître, Cultiver et Soigner les Buis : Le Manuel du Buis by Lynn R. Batdorf and published in August 2007. She is an active member of the EBTS, European Boxwood and Topiary Society and is the owner of the ‘Jardin des Ifs‘ (Yew Garden) in Gerberoy.
After studying Japanese (specialising in history of art), at the Paris National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilisations, Delphine Higonnet spent several years working in finance in Japan. Back in France, she has worked for the past 16 years for a major French company in the field of Communication and Heritage Valorisation. She is co-owner, with her brother, of a house in Gerberoy (in Oise), one of the ‘Most Beautiful Villages of France’, located just an hour and a half from Paris. In 2016, she decided – along with her brother and her fiancé – to open the estate’s monumental topiary and historic garden (an exceptionally rare example dating from the 17th century) to the public, together with a restaurant where they valorise produce from their vegetable garden and local country fare. She is in charge of communication and development of the ‘Yew Garden’ which was recently awarded three quality labels: in 2016, the ‘Arbres Remarquables’ (Remarkable Trees) label for three monumental pruned yews (A.R.B.R.E.S. Association); in June 2017, the ‘Jardin Remarquable’ (Remarkable Garden – French Ministry of Culture) and, in December 2017, the ‘Arbre de l’Année 2017’ (Tree of the Year 2017 – Public prize within the framework of the eponymous contest, organised by the French National Forestry Commission and the magazine Terre Sauvage). They will be here to tell you the story of this adventure…