Visit one of the most beautiful gardens of France – Latour-Marliac is a horticultural gem in South-West France that inspired Claude Monet’s famous waterlily lake.
Le Temple-sur-Lot in the Lot-et-Garonne department (between Bordeaux and Toulouse) is named after a still-impressive medieval Commandery of the Knights Templar. Since the mid 19th century, however, the village has been the temple of something else entirely – waterlilies and lotuses.
A temple of watery delight
Joseph Bory Latour-Marliac (1830-1911) studied law in Paris but never liked it much, and returning to his native Granges-sur-Lot to learn his horticulturalist father’s art. In 1850 he struck out on his own with the purchase of 10 acres in Le Temple-sur-Lot. It came with a stream, two wells and 14 springs. Bamboo had become fashionable in mid 19th century gardening and Joseph’s dream was to create Europe’s greatest bamboo collection.
From bamboo to waterlilies
Even though it went well – Joseph is credited with introducing two new varieties – there was too much competition in the bamboo business, so he began to experiment with waterlilies at a time when they were all but impossible to purchase. At that time the only variety that survived outdoors in Europe was the white Nymphaea Alba.
Joseph was to change all that. Through some kind of mysterious green thumbed alchemy, he hybridized N. Alba with yellow N. Mexicana to create the very first hardy waterlily that wasn’t white.
In 1875, he re-founded the nursery, specifically dedicated to aquatic plants – waterlilies and lotuses. Working his magic on tropical and semi-tropical specimens from North America, Joseph would go on to create hardy waterlilies in every shade from pale yellow and pink, to ruby red and copper.
In 1889, he sent 17 of his most beautiful specimens to Paris to compete in the Exposition Universelle. One case was lost on the train and had to be replaced. When it was discovered over a month later and sent back to the nursery, Joseph expected to find all the plants had died – instead they were still thriving. Waterlilies may look delicate, but they are as tough as weeds.
The World’s Fair that changed Paris and art history
It has been noted that only two major things have survived from the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle: the Eiffel Tower and Latour-Marliac’s waterlilies. Displayed in water gardens outside the Trocadèro, they took first prize in the flower competition.
It was pure serendipity that Claude Monet was exhibiting in the Pavillon des Artistes next door to the Trocadèro. He was totally beguiled by the waterlilies. A year later he bought the house he’d been renting for seven years in Normandy (after spotting it from a train that ran along the bottom of the garden). In 1893 he bought land on the other side of the tracks to create a water garden. “I love water, but I also love flowers. That’s why, once the pond was filled, I thought about adorning it with plants. I got a catalogue and simply chose at random.”
Monet ordered as many lotuses as waterlilies, but sadly they failed to thrive. Otherwise his sublime Nymphéas – jewel of the Orangerie in Paris – might look very different, along with more than 250 other waterlily paintings that now feature in museums around the world.
The small museum at Latour-Marliac displays some of Monet’s handwritten orders. Other clients included the king of Bulgaria, the Vatican and writer Leo Tolstoy, who ordered waterlilies for the ponds at his home, Yasnaya Polyana in Russia. Much of the nursery’s business came from Britain, led by the influential garden designer Gertrude Jekyll (whose name was borrowed by her friend Robert Louis Stevenson in his story about Mr Hyde).
Latour-Marliac today
After Joseph’s death, family members ran the nursery until 1991, when Ray and Barbara Davies of Stapeley Water Gardens in England took over and restored the gardens. Both have lilies named after them. Their efforts were rewarded in 2004 when Latour-Marliac was designated a Jardin Remarquable. Since 2007, the owner has been American Robert Sheldon.
The gardens are open from 15 April through 15 October, but are at their most fragrant, full blooming finest, in summer. Highlights include Joseph’s elliptical pools, today containing the French National Waterlily Collection, lined hypnotically with antique terracotta pots where cuttings were once grown before they were sold.
Other waterlilies and lotuses grow in the rectangular pools (from the air it looks like a set of watercolours) where frogs hop and plop, amid the dragonflies and butterflies. Twenty kinds of bamboo grow by the pretty pond, with its waterfall and a Japanese bridge – a nod to Monet’s Giverny.
The garden’s excellent Café Marliacea serves lunch, and dinner on Sunday evenings in summer, when the nocturnal tropical waterlilies in the greenhouse show their stuff, including the Amazonian Victoria, with its 1.5m diameter pie-pan leaves.
If you’re feeling Monet-ish, Latour-Marliac’s excellent website tells how to create your own water feature. Study it before you arrive, because it’s all too easy to be overwhelmed by the magnificent lilies!
Website: latour-marliac.com
Take a half day tour: with French Country Adventures frenchcountryadventures.com
For more Bamboo and Waterlilies…
From Le-Temple-sur-Lot it’s just over an hour’s drive to two other Jardins Remarquables in the Dordogne: the exotic bamboo Jardin de Planbuisson (planbuilsson.com) in Buisson de Cadouin and the Jardins d’Eau (jardinsdeau.com) in Carsac-Aillac home to Europe’s only waterlily labyrinth.
Dana Facaros has lived in France for over 30 years. She is the creator of French Food Decoder app: everything you want to know about French food, and co-author of the Bradt guide to Gascony & the Pyrenees and many guide books to France.
Want more France?
Discover more fabulous destinations in France with our free magazine The Good Life France
Love France? Have a listen to our podcast – everything you want to know about France and more!
All rights reserved. This article may not be published, broadcast, rewritten (including translated) or redistributed without written permission.
