THE BOTANICAL GARDEN OF VAUVILLE
Botanical garden, exotic garden
Less than half a mile from the coast and exposed to the warm, salty winds of the Gulf Stream, Vauville’s Botantical Garden has a surprising and unique collection of evergreen species from the southern hemisphere acclimatized and cared for by three generations of passionate family.
Vauville, the poetry of organized disorder
The garden’s history began after the Second World War, in 1948, when Eric Pellerin, a perfumer and sailor, together with his wife Nicole, decided to give the cow pasture adjoining the thousand-year-old castle a completely different destiny. Then begins an extraordinary botanical adventure and a family history. Guillaume Pellerin et son épouse Cléophée de Turckheim reprennent à partir des années 1980 le flambeau, qu’ils transmettent ensuite à leur second fils Eric en 2017.
À Vauville, le principal défi est d’offrir aux espèces provenant des antipodes, les conditions favorables à un nouvel enracinement. Une sélection de plantes robustes plantées en masse en lisière du jardin a permis de créer des haies brise-vent et un écrin propice au développement d’une collection de plantes d’Amérique du Sud, d’Afrique, d’Asie, de Nouvelle-Zélande ou de Tasmanie…
Le jardin botanique de Vauville s’inscrit dans une tradition d’acclimatation de plantes exotiques rapportées en Europe par des explorateurs et des botanistes partis en voyages dans des contrées lointaines. Ces spécimens rares ont un statut de « curiosités », ils sont recherchés pour leur intérêt botanique, parfois médical, également pour leurs qualités esthétiques – couleurs, écorces, feuillages, port -, en cela, les plantes et les arbres sont vus comme des objets d’art, mais surtout, ils véhiculent l’imaginaire de l’ailleurs.
L’esprit du jardin botanique de Vauville est d’être un jardin en mouvement. The latter is reflected in the winding layout, by the variations in volumes, by the freedom given to trees and shrubs to grow, by the undulations of the foliage due to the sea breeze, by the succession of rooms of greenery with evocative names : “the traveling trees”, “the path of discovery”, “the blue vault”…which transport the walker, in a constantly evolving garden.
Far from the rigid image of the conservatory, Vauville succeeds in the synthesis between poetry and rigorous scientific approach.
The botanical collection
The botanical collection of the garden began with the specimens collected and imported into the Cotentin by Eric Pellerin when he traveled the world as a perfumer. It is regularly enriched by its successors. In addition to its scientific diversity, all the plants constitute a magnificent palette of shades of green in the foliage of trees and evergreen shrubs, to which the soft or shimmering hues of the blossoms are mixed: amaryllis, echiums pininana, libertia, callistemons, rhododendrons , hydrangeas, pseudopanax, southern cordylins, trachycarpus, strelitzias, eucalyptus, yuccas, bamboos, cistus, anigozanthos, tree ferns, jasmines, edychiums, camellias, fig trees …
The Botanical Garden of Vauville has been listed in the Supplementary Inventory of Historical Monuments since 1992, classified as a Remarkable Garden since 2004, member since 2018 of BGCI (Botanic Gardens Conservation International) but also “Partner Garden” of the Royal Horticultural Society. It is sponsored by the Jardin des Plantes de Rouen in order to be approved “Botanical Garden of France”.
It’s in the news
Le Parisien Jardin, 30 October 2023 at 10.58 am
Le jardin botanique de Vauville
14 Route des Fontaines
50440 Vauville, La Hague
Phone: +33 (0) 2 33 10 00 00
