November 2004 Feature Article - Part One
After several year's of procrastinating, last summer I finally had the chance to visit Les Jardins de Métis, also known as the Reford Gardens. I wanted to see two things; the International Garden Festival and the peonies. Both surpassed my expectations and I wondered why I had waited so long to visit!
Les Jardins de Métis has an informative bilingual web site with loads of photos that are a treat for the eyes (especially at this time of year...). www.jardinsmetis.com
Mary Pratte, President of the Canadian Peony Society, has been working on the peony collection with Patricia Gallant, the head gardener at Les Jardins de Métis, for several years now. This time last year she wrote an article about the garden and the peony collection that was published in the Newsletter of the Canadian Peony Society (www.peony.ca). With Mary's permission the article is 'reprinted' below. It introduces the reader to this very special garden and the puzzle the peonies pose.
Since the article was first published however, Mary has made some discoveries and drawn some conclusions that make for fascinating reading, especially for those that like a bit of mystery or the occasional puzzle! The link to the left (Part Two) will take you to an update of the original story below
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Rediscovering the Peonies at Métis
by Mary Pratte |
Elsie Reford had no horticultural training when she started to garden along the windswept South Shore of the St Lawrence at Grand Métis, Quebec, in 1926. Nor did her great grandson, Alexander Reford, when he became Director of Les Jardins de Métis, also known as the Reford Gardens, in the mid-1990's.
Almost 70 years separate their respective introductions to the world of plants, but both seem to have come from the same mould: strong, determined individuals unafraid to launch into the untried, the avant-garde.
Elsie created a beautiful garden filled with the newest, most challenging plants, shipped to her from all over the world. Alexander is painstakingly re-establishing her collections which were almost lost in the years after her death. She was a true pioneer of Canadian horticulture in the 30's, 40's, and 50's, and he has moved into the new millennium steadfastly following in her footsteps.
I attended a presentation given by Alexander about the gardens in 2001 where I saw beautiful slides of the enormously varied plant material under his care, the most interesting of which, to me, were their peonies. Would it be possible to have a list of what they had, I asked? They were largely unnamed, I was told.
Thinking it would be an interesting challenge to help them identify what they had, I went to the gardens in the summer of 2002, but in the end, it will be Elsie Reford herself who will be of most help in guiding us. Every year after making her way from Montreal to Grand-Métis, she faithfully noted in her diaries the various plants she had purchased, where they were procured, and how they were faring.
About 42 different peonies are mentioned in those diaries. Eight hundred and sixty-two lactifloras were purchased in 1930 with familiar names such as 'Festiva Maxima'(200 plants for $90), 'Lady Alexandra Duff', and 'Sarah Bernhardt'(100 plants, $100 total cost). A number of species were ordered from Barr and Sons, England, in 1939, including the exceedingly beautiful Paeonia mlokosewitschii and Paeonia wittmanniana.
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'Lady Alexandra Duff' |
'Sarah Bernhardt' |
One Canadian plant bred in 1926 by Harry Norton, of Ayer's Cliff, Quebec - for which there is not even a colour description in the APS listings - was singled out on July 12th, 1939 in the diaries - "'Lady Byng' in the Long Walk has 54 buds just about to open". 'Charmer', an officinalis cross apparently bred by Peter Barr, and used by Prof. Saunders in his breeding program was mentioned as was a series of ten tree peonies (none of which remain) purchased from the famous British peony nursery, Kelways, in 1933, including 'Souvenir de Maxime Cornu', 'Christine Kelway', 'Duchess of Kent' and 'Duchess of Marlborough', all of which are to be found, 70 years later, on their website! (www.kelways.co.uk)
And finally, there are some stunning early Hybrids such as 'Green Ivory' (Saunders, 1938, lactiflora x wittmaniana), which is almost certainly still in the gardens; 'Avant Garde' (Lemoine, 1907, lactiflora x wittmanniana) with a slight tinge of salmon and darker edges on the petals as the bloom fades; 'Chalice' (Saunders, 1929, lactiflora x macrophylla), which has huge white, satiny petals, puckered and wrinkled at certain stages like fine satin, flopping in the breeze like long forgotten petticoats of days gone by.
Others mentioned in the diaries such as 'Sabini', 'Fire King', and 'Defender' are still to be positively identified. As to what is actually still on site, Patricia Gallant (the personable and knowledgeable head gardener) and I will have a better idea after a few summers of careful recording, but right now there are but a few, apart from those previously mentioned, for which there are names.
There is a handsome specimen of Paeonia tenuifolia which was added to the collection in recent years, and scattered throughout the gardens are delightful little plants of Paeonia veitchii (or a subspecies thereof), with a compact mounded habit, divided leaves, and nodding candy pink flowers of varying shades.
A single 'Festiva Maxima' remains, a remnant of the hundreds which used to populate the 'White Peony Bank', and another which definitely opened looking as if it would be 'Felix Crousse' turned out to be more of a semi-double with prominent stamens, leaving us puzzled. 'M. Jules Elie' is certainly the first of Mrs Reford's 'pinks' to bloom just as she noted in1939 - "The whole of the top left curve of Long Walk in flower and looking very magnificent". They are still located in the same place, and they still take one's breath away.
This is but a beginning. We will continue our attempts to name the unknown peonies of the Jardins de Métis, and hope, also, to re-introduce any found in her diaries which have been lost over the years. It would be lovely to grace the house once again with the delicate blooms of the species and the exotic flowers of the tree peonies. Elsie would definitely approve!
For an update of this story, use the link below:
Part Two
Photos by Mary Pratte
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