The King's Garden
In The Sun King’s Garden: Louis XIV, André Le Nôtre and the Creation of the Gardens at Versalles (New York: Bloomsbury, 2006), Ian Thompson describes the potager du Roi, organized by Jean-Baptiste de la Quintinie, as “no modest kitchen-garden; it was something between an outdoor laboratory and an early example of agribusiness, and its production was destined for the ever-demanding Service de la Bouche. Sometimes the garden produced a surplus, which La Quintinie would distribute to the poor from a small passageway called the ‘Public,’ rather than sell it for profit, as others in the royal service might have done” (Thompson, 180). La Quintinie had organized le potger at Vaux that produced fresh fruit and vegetables for the table. He was asked to set up the potager at Versailles between 1678 and 1683 on a boggy site close to what had been known as the “Stinking Pond.”
In 1670 he was made director of all the fruit gardens and royal gardens, load created for him. While continuing to watch over his old creations, he is responsible for royal gardens and trees of the orangery built by Mansart. In 1678, he began creating a new garden that makes it even more famous. Quintinie wrote his Instruction for fruit and vegetable gardens, published posthumously in 1690. The book is his experience in the field of vegetables, but also with growing fruit. First, it highlights the role of the sap in the growth and fruiting of fruit trees, the root system of the trees, and the precautions to take when they are transplanted.
As a result of his services, he was knighted in 1687 by Louis XIV. At his death November 11, 1688, Louis XIV entrusted to his widow: "Madam, we made a great loss that we can never repair." La Quintinie, indeed, had a lot of influence through ties with many scholars of his time, French or foreign.
La Quintinie employed a number of techniques to optimize growing conditions, such as the use of glass bell-jars to grow melons and cucumbers and the use of manure and soil to force vegetables and trailing fruit out of season. Peas, which had been introduced from Italy around 1660, were an infatuation of the king.
As a result of his services, he was knighted in 1687 by Louis XIV. At his death November 11, 1688, Louis XIV entrusted to his widow: "Madam, we made a great loss that we can never repair." La Quintinie, indeed, had a lot of influence through ties with many scholars of his time, French or foreign.
La Quintinie employed a number of techniques to optimize growing conditions, such as the use of glass bell-jars to grow melons and cucumbers and the use of manure and soil to force vegetables and trailing fruit out of season. Peas, which had been introduced from Italy around 1660, were an infatuation of the king.
“He had been observed to gobble a whole dish of them and then be sick during the night. One of Mme de Sévigné’s letters reports that ‘the pea business still goes on. Impatience to eat them, the pleasure of having eaten them and the hope to eat more of them are the three questions constantly discussed by our princes’” (Thompson, 180-181). |
La Quintinie was renowned for his expertise in the cultivation of pears, listing more than 300 varieties. He used various pruning methods and employed glass frames to cover the beds and shield them from the elements. The king had a fascination with gardening himself, and was a regular visitor to le potager. The relationship between La Quintinie and Le Nôtre appears to be amicable because they posed no threat to one another; their skills complemented one another.
In Le potager du Roi (École Nationale Supérieure du Paysage and Actes Sud, 2003), Stéphanie de Courtois explains that since Louis XIV was fond of figs, La Quintinie created a special figuerie, a hollowed-out garden which was sheltered from the elements in winter, which enabled him to grow figs in mid-June. He also had special gardens for melons; three gardens for herbs, cucumbers and other green leaves; and gardens reserved for strawberries and cherries. He raised fifty varieties of pears and twenty varieties of apples for the King’s table, and sixteen different varieties of lettuce.
La Quintinie supervised the gardens until his death in 1688. His post was occupied briefly by his colleague, Nicolas Besnard, and then was taken over François Le Normand in 1690. Le Normand's two sons and their descendants ran the potager du Roi for the next ninety years. They created a new garden for raising asparagus, and had to make major reparations to the garden after the extreme cold spell of 1709.
During the time of Louis XIV, the potager was an enormous enterprise; it required thirty experienced gardeners to tend to the garden plots, greenhouses, and the twelve thousand trees. Louis XIV brought important visitors, such as the Ambassador of Siam and Doge of Venice, to see the wonders of the garden. He also sent samples of his favorite pear variety, Bon Chrétien, as gifts to other heads of state. The varieties of vegetables served in the garden were an obligatory topic of discussion at the dinner at Versailles. As Madame de Sévigné wrote, “The craze for peas continues; the impatience waiting to eat them, to have eaten them, and the pleasure of eating them are the three subjects our princes have been discussing for the past four days now.”
After the death of Louis XIV in 1715, the court departed Versailles, and the budget of the garden was greatly reduced. François II Le Normand made a lawn on the Grand Carré, and experimented with new varieties of plants. A coffee plant had been given to Louis XIV by the Burgemeister of Amsterdam. Le Normand succeeded in growing twelve coffee plants four meters high in the greenhouse of the garden so Louis XV could serve coffee grown in his own garden.
In Le potager du Roi (École Nationale Supérieure du Paysage and Actes Sud, 2003), Stéphanie de Courtois explains that since Louis XIV was fond of figs, La Quintinie created a special figuerie, a hollowed-out garden which was sheltered from the elements in winter, which enabled him to grow figs in mid-June. He also had special gardens for melons; three gardens for herbs, cucumbers and other green leaves; and gardens reserved for strawberries and cherries. He raised fifty varieties of pears and twenty varieties of apples for the King’s table, and sixteen different varieties of lettuce.
La Quintinie supervised the gardens until his death in 1688. His post was occupied briefly by his colleague, Nicolas Besnard, and then was taken over François Le Normand in 1690. Le Normand's two sons and their descendants ran the potager du Roi for the next ninety years. They created a new garden for raising asparagus, and had to make major reparations to the garden after the extreme cold spell of 1709.
During the time of Louis XIV, the potager was an enormous enterprise; it required thirty experienced gardeners to tend to the garden plots, greenhouses, and the twelve thousand trees. Louis XIV brought important visitors, such as the Ambassador of Siam and Doge of Venice, to see the wonders of the garden. He also sent samples of his favorite pear variety, Bon Chrétien, as gifts to other heads of state. The varieties of vegetables served in the garden were an obligatory topic of discussion at the dinner at Versailles. As Madame de Sévigné wrote, “The craze for peas continues; the impatience waiting to eat them, to have eaten them, and the pleasure of eating them are the three subjects our princes have been discussing for the past four days now.”
After the death of Louis XIV in 1715, the court departed Versailles, and the budget of the garden was greatly reduced. François II Le Normand made a lawn on the Grand Carré, and experimented with new varieties of plants. A coffee plant had been given to Louis XIV by the Burgemeister of Amsterdam. Le Normand succeeded in growing twelve coffee plants four meters high in the greenhouse of the garden so Louis XV could serve coffee grown in his own garden.
The Court of Louis XV returned to Versailles in 1723, and Louis Le Normand, who became director of the potager du Roi after the death of his brother François, replanted the Grand Carré with herbs and lettuces. He also built a Dutch greenhouse, a low greenhouse with a rounded roof, where, beginning in 1735, he was able to raise pineapples. By the time of the French Revolution, there were eight hundred pineapple plants in the greenhouses.
Under King Louis XV, some functions that were relegated to the grounds of Versailles were placed inside, or on the roof. In Madame de Pompadour: Mistress of France (New York: Grove Press, 2002), Christine Pevitt Algrant notes that "at roof level there were extensive terraces with trellises, dovecotes, birdcages, and even a chicken coop" (Algrant, 51). However, most food-related activities remained off-site, in the potager du roi.
Jacques-Louis Le Normand succeeded Louis as the head of the Potager in 1750. He built three new heated greenhouses, and expanded the scientific work of the garden. The garden no longer provided ordinary vegetables and fruits to the Court at Versailles, but only rare and special fruits. Le Normand experimented with rare varieties of plants, such as Euphorbia, jasmine, Latania palms, and bananas brought back by French explorers.
Jacques-Louis Le Normand, the last member of the family to direct the potager du Roi, died in 1782, and the garden came under the direction of Alexandre Brown, of English origin, who was the gardener at the royal garden at Choisy. Brown made renovations of the garden, reducing the size of the pond in the center, and tearing down the walls between eleven gardens on the north terrace to create five.
In 1793, during the French Revolution, the garden plots were rented out and the tools and plants, including the eight hundred pineapple plants, were auctioned off. In 1795, the Convention, the revolutionary government, declared the potager to be a national institute, the tenant farmers were ejected, and the garden became a school and scientific center.
When the monarchy was restored after the fall of Napoleon I, much of the garden was overgrown, and many of the trees had died. The new director, Count Lelieur, replanted the orchards and resumed the growing of early vegetables. New greenhouses heated with hot water were installed in 1829, which allowed growing of more exotic tropical fruits and vegetables, and, in 1840, bananas were successfully grown in the Large Greenhouse.
In 1848, the potager became part of the new Institut national agronomique at Versailles, and, the following year, was put under the direction of Auguste Hardy, an agronomist. Hardy directed the school under the Second Republic, then under Napoleon III’s French Second Empire, then again under the Third Republic. In 1874, the school became the École nationale d'horticulture (ENH). Under Hardy, the garden grew nine thousand species of vegetables, 309 varieties of apples, 557 varieties of pears, and 94 varieties of peaches.
Today the garden is open to the public. It is currently under the direction of Antoine Jacobsohn, and produces over fifty tons of fruits and thirty tons of vegetables each year, which are sold in Versailles markets and at the school. About 400 varieties of fruit trees and many varieties of vegetables are grown at the Potager, making more exotic fruits and veggies available to the French public.
Under King Louis XV, some functions that were relegated to the grounds of Versailles were placed inside, or on the roof. In Madame de Pompadour: Mistress of France (New York: Grove Press, 2002), Christine Pevitt Algrant notes that "at roof level there were extensive terraces with trellises, dovecotes, birdcages, and even a chicken coop" (Algrant, 51). However, most food-related activities remained off-site, in the potager du roi.
Jacques-Louis Le Normand succeeded Louis as the head of the Potager in 1750. He built three new heated greenhouses, and expanded the scientific work of the garden. The garden no longer provided ordinary vegetables and fruits to the Court at Versailles, but only rare and special fruits. Le Normand experimented with rare varieties of plants, such as Euphorbia, jasmine, Latania palms, and bananas brought back by French explorers.
Jacques-Louis Le Normand, the last member of the family to direct the potager du Roi, died in 1782, and the garden came under the direction of Alexandre Brown, of English origin, who was the gardener at the royal garden at Choisy. Brown made renovations of the garden, reducing the size of the pond in the center, and tearing down the walls between eleven gardens on the north terrace to create five.
In 1793, during the French Revolution, the garden plots were rented out and the tools and plants, including the eight hundred pineapple plants, were auctioned off. In 1795, the Convention, the revolutionary government, declared the potager to be a national institute, the tenant farmers were ejected, and the garden became a school and scientific center.
When the monarchy was restored after the fall of Napoleon I, much of the garden was overgrown, and many of the trees had died. The new director, Count Lelieur, replanted the orchards and resumed the growing of early vegetables. New greenhouses heated with hot water were installed in 1829, which allowed growing of more exotic tropical fruits and vegetables, and, in 1840, bananas were successfully grown in the Large Greenhouse.
In 1848, the potager became part of the new Institut national agronomique at Versailles, and, the following year, was put under the direction of Auguste Hardy, an agronomist. Hardy directed the school under the Second Republic, then under Napoleon III’s French Second Empire, then again under the Third Republic. In 1874, the school became the École nationale d'horticulture (ENH). Under Hardy, the garden grew nine thousand species of vegetables, 309 varieties of apples, 557 varieties of pears, and 94 varieties of peaches.
Today the garden is open to the public. It is currently under the direction of Antoine Jacobsohn, and produces over fifty tons of fruits and thirty tons of vegetables each year, which are sold in Versailles markets and at the school. About 400 varieties of fruit trees and many varieties of vegetables are grown at the Potager, making more exotic fruits and veggies available to the French public.