CECI N’EST PAS UN MONOCHROME

Garden and Garden House  |  Chaumont sur Loire |  France

The theme of the Festival des Jardins de Chaumont-sur-Loire 2009 is colour. The design is for a monochromatic blue garden, although such a garden cannot actually exist, as no two plants have the same colour. The colour selected, blue, is the most abstract and difficult colour to work with. A mix of annuals and perennials with different flowering periods and various heights was planted. The individual characteristics of each plant are swallowed up. What is left is a single, glowing field of blue. Each plant serves only one purpose: to contribute to the monochrome.

From a narrow terrace, visitors overlook the blue field. The monochrome’s ingredients are on show in the garden house. The white interior and incident daylight from above focus attention on the separate plants and allow them to display their individual characteristics and, above all, their individual colours. A tribute to the individual plant, ceci n’est pas un monochrome.