- Rendez-vous de l'Institut
- Conference
Comment se ruiner au jardin (ou tenter d’y parvenir) by Patrick MASURE – Château de Bénouville
How to spend a fortune on the garden (or to try to)
During this conference, the most efficient methods for spending a fortune on a garden will be approached based on a few historic examples. Examples will be in the form of follies, grottos, bridges and pyramids… all involving the extravagant expense spurred by a passion for plants and botanical collections – expense that led to the ruin of many estate owners in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.
Selected and commented examples are as follows:
- François Count of Albon, the last prince of Yvetot (1752-1789) and his gardens in Franconville la Garenne
- Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (1732 -1799) and the Beaumarchais folly, opposite the Bastille towers in Paris
- Prince Hermann von Pückler Muskau (1785-1871) and the Muskauer and Branitzer parks in Saxony
- Ellen Ann Willmott (1858-1934) and her gardens in Warley Place (GB), Tresserve (France) and the Villa Boccanegra in Vintimiglia (Italy)
- Jacques Garcia and the grounds around the Château de Champs-de-Bataille in Normandy
Patrick Masure
Patrick Masure is an ESSEC Business School graduate and has obtained a degree in history of art. He designed and created the Javelière gardens (Loiret), certified a ‘Remarkable Garden’ by the French Ministry of Culture in 2012, together with a collection of botanical roses also certified in the ‘National Collection of Wild Roses’ by the CCVS (Specialised Plant Collection Conservancy). These gardens were also awarded the Bonpland 2014 ‘Prix d’Excellence’ with the special mention ‘almost unequalled site of excellence’. He is the author of the Guide des rosiers sauvages (Wild rose guide) published by Editions Delachaux and Niestlé, the German version of which, Wildrosen, was published by Haupt, and of several articles on roses, exploring botanists or the history of gardens, published in journals and magazines specialising in botanics (Hommes et Plantes) or in garden art. He is also behind conferences on the history of ‘Chasseurs de plantes’ (Plant hunters), held in Paris, Lyon, Orléans, Rouen, Lausanne and on the history of certain bygone parks. Also administrator of a number of associations reuniting botanics and garden enthusiasts, Patrick Masure is currently preparing a book on ‘horticultural mischievousness’ and a conference on the botanist and explorer of India, Victor Jacquemont (1801—1832).