Re: flowers and bouquets in the south of France

Hi Bridget -

A good reference for this project might be Vivian Russell's "Gardens of the Riviera" (Rizzoli International, 1994, ISBN: 0847817784). Ms. Russell chronicles the various horticultural personalities that created a new gardening tradition in the French and Italian Riviera. Time periods are detailed as well as many plants featured in the gardens. For more information about this book, see:
http://www.mediterraneangardensociety.org/inprint/gotrvr.cfm

Some of the garden featured in this work might also be good resources, if any have easy access to their own history of plant introduction. I can put your author in contact with Carolyn Hanbury, who lives at Hanbury Gardens and may also have contacts for you within that garden and also with other famous gardens in the area.

Interesting . . .

Best regards,
Seán O.

(c.c. Medit-Plants)
(b.c.c. Carolyn Hanbury)

At 10:29 AM 11/22/2002, you wrote:
Hello, everyone!

I am helping an author whose work involves a movie star named Rosemary who is visiting the south of France between 1925 and 1929. Her life is greatly affected by flowers. She visits a lavish hotel there and there flower arrangements around the hotel and in her hotel room. Do any of you know what she may find? I'm not sure how big the floral industry was back then and/or how readily available certain flowers were. I was thinking since she is rich and the hotel is pretty up-scale, there would be things that would be "hard" to take care of (ie: things that needed fussing over) or very exotic for that time. For example, I would think she would find orchids, either in pots or in vases; gingers or similar tropical flowers; birds of paradise. Please let me know if you have any insights about what might had been around back then.

Thank you much!
Bridget
No. Calif. Branch of the Mediterranean Garden Society
Seán A. O'Hara - Branch co-chair
(510) 987-0577; fax (707) 667-1173; sean@support.net
1034A Virginia Street, Berkeley, California 94710-1853, U.S.A.
http://www.MediterraneanGardenSociety.org/branches_CANo.html
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index