It seems to me that in most pictures I've seen of Roseraie de l'Hay the roses look uncared for and starved. The bushes look dry and there are hardly any blooms. I've often wondered about that.

Ingrid

Oh My-----don't they have a whole fleet of gardeners to take care of the roses?-----

Sorry you were disappointed.

Florence

What city is it?

Mauvegirl, L'Haÿ is a municipality a short distance south of Paris. The gardens there were established just over 100 years ago by Jules Gravereaux, the owner of a large Parisian department store. The rosary there now contains what it considered to be one of the world's most extensive collections of roses.

Oh dear. I wonder if it is the recession doing its worst. All the pictures I ever knew made it look like a rosy wonderland. I hope better days are coming soon. Enjoy your visit and please post pictures and more stories of what you are seeing.

It doesn't make me happy. They must be short of money. I would hope to see it well cared for.

The condition of the roses there has been an issue for years. Etienne Bouret (AmiRoses) has worked for a decade to try to preserve the Hybrid Perpetual collection, including budding a duplicate set of roses and planting them in another location. The soil was depleted and the French way of tending roses is to till, till, till the surface of the soil and to use no mulch, which looks pretty shocking to this California gardener. (A lot of old rose books advocate the tilling approach as a way to stimulate the surface roots, by the way.)

Etienne has written and spoken about his efforts at a couple of Heritage Rose Foundation conferences and will do so again in Lakeland this November, so we will have a chance to hear the latest. It's not just budgetary, it's also management and horticultural practices. Don't forget, too, that the French take a very long vacation in the summer and probably weren't weeding much!

Peter Boyd, the British spinosissima expert, has also worked hard with them and I'm glad that they looked great. They sucker a lot and were all mixed up in the planting beds, but I'm hopeful that they've been sorted out and the ones that were lost have been replaced.

I visited there about six years ago and saw some roses that looked great and others that were terrible. Somebody told me "the French like to torture their roses" and indeed roses were pruned hard and climbers were trained over elaborate structures. I was there too late for most of the ramblers and other roses were spent, too. I'd love to go back at peak bloom, which in most years is late May, I understand.

Thanks for the update. Photos would be nice! I broke my camera on that trip so have no photos of this garden. Just some scribbled sketches and notes!
Anita

I try never to disturb my roses roots. Tilling around them seems detrimental to me.

I've visited L'Hay only once (late June, 2001). I was simultaneously impressed and disappointed. The issue for me, I think, was that my fantasies of the place were unrealistic. I concluded that the overriding (if not singular) mission at L'Hay is preservation of the collection, with little concern for providing a dazzling garden experience for the public. Even tho my visit was anticlimactic, I encourage people to go there. It's L'HAY, for God's sake! If you love roses and are in the vicinity, you MUST go. How can you not?

Not terribly far from the town of L'Hay-les-Roses there are other, lesser-known rose gardens that definitely do not disappoint. On a 2010 trip, a Belgian friend took us to two garden gems, La Roseraie Jean Dupont in Orleans, and La Roseraie des Terrasses de l'Evêché in Blois. Both are meticulously tended. Jean Dupont is planted exclusively with OGRs, including some quite rare ones (rare, at least, to U.S. gardeners). Other than the wonderful roses planted at Terrasses de l'Evêché (esp. the climbers!), that garden is memorable for two things: (1) Its elevation, which provides stunning views of the ancient town and the Loire Valley; and (2) the fact that EVERY rose plant is carefully labeled (I've found that labeling is a hit-and-miss proposition in French gardens).

Closer to L'Hay, another antidote to any disappointment is the Parc du Bagatelle. Bagatelle is always a happy place, even when the roses aren't strutting their stuff. Last year I posted a link to some Bagatelle photos. Below is a link to that thread.

BTW, I'm anxious to learn about what's going on at Malmaison. A couple of years ago there was much excitement and chatter when Piaget (the Swiss timepiece & jewelry firm) and others funded a major restoration of Josephine's rose gardens there. Does anyone have an update on that project?

Here is a link that might be useful: Parc du Bagatelle Pics

Windeau, thanks for posting that Bagatelle link again. It reminded me that I want to get a McFlurry. Are they available over here? Hope so. :=) >

Hearing this makes me feel SO much better about my own garden. I will visit L'Hay one day ... no matter what state the roses are in, it's still L'Hay!