Jardins du Prieuré de Saint-Cosme, demeure de Ronsard

Prior Ronsard’s home shelters a garden with roses omnipresent, of every shape and every shade.
Eight independent spaces present the art of gardening from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
Erected on an earlier island on the Loire, the Prieuré de Saint-Cosme and its church were built from the XIth to the XVth century.
In the XVIIth century, the monks’ community received one of its most illustrious priors: Pierre de Ronsard, who stayed there up to his death in 1585. The prior’s lodgings, which were modified in the XVIIth and the XVIIIth centuries, contain the famous poet’s study. The gardens of the priory are contemporary creations combining the profane with the sacred, inspired both by the Middle Ages and Renaissance gardens. Comprising of eight independent areas, it has the rose as a uniting element and is meant as a tribute to Pierre de Ronsard.
Before the flowering of the roses, visitors can also admire the collection irises in bloom from March through to June.
The “pink garden” is planted with rose bushes framed with box borders on a backdrop of lawn spread around a four-century-old box.
The cut flower garden is composed of snapdragon, lilies, tulips and dahlias depending on the season. Next to it lies the Francis Poulenc garden, with more refined geometry.
Protected with an arbour, season flower shrubs are lined with box borders that enhance the beauty of climbing roses and rose shrubs. On the other side of the buildings, the “Jardin Androuet du Cerceau” takes inspiration from the patterns drawn by the famous architect in the XVIth century. The broderie patterns display rose bushes in pastel colours. The perennials border, enclosed by a wall decorated with a hedge of roses, is blue and pink in colour. The “Velvet garden” is a great lawn planted with a line of freestanding and palmette fruit trees and with a pergola supporting climbing roses and rose shrubs mixed with climbing vines and laburnums. On the back wall, roses and vines intertwine. The cloister garden drawn by a ribbon of blue lavender around its perimeter, the kitchen garden with its earthly goodness and the orchard with cone-shaped trees conclude the visit to this richly maintained place.