Chaumont-sur-Loire

Le Jardin des Émergences

International Garden Festival

Gardens of the next century

The Jardin des Émergences is a metaphor for the vital impulse of plants, their energy. It is a message of hope for the landscape of the 21st century.

The climate change caused by man has eradicated the world of plants. The mistreated earth is becoming scarce, the soil is becoming mineralized, large slabs of schist and slate are forming on the surface. The plants, in their vital impulse, rebel, react, take their revenge. They break the earth's crust and rush to conquer the light. During his walk, the visitor is surprised by the contrasts between the dark minerals and the luminous plants springing from the ground. The shapes of the plants evoke the movements of rupture, eruption, explosion and the dynamics of the earth that opens and cracks. In seeking light for their survival, the plants are capable of a remarkable inventiveness of forms and colors, and of an unsuspected energy. They break the earth's crust and cause faults and fractures. The drought-resistant yuccas break through the soil, creating space for the substrates of herbaceous plants, perennials and other annuals adapted to the warmer environment. The predominantly orange and yellow colors evoke flames and fire and contrast with the black of the slabs. The garden of the 21st century is a hymn to the rebirth, to the bursting forth and vitality of the plant world.