About the garden
Owned by
Philippe Dubreuil
Newfor 2023: Following many years of working abroad as a garden designer in the UK, USA, Africa and some EU countries, the owner Philippe Dubreuil finally decided to take root in the Perche in Normandy, France, to create Les Jardins du Montperthuis. Its beautiful rural landscape and authentic historic houses and cottages were reminiscent of the Cotswolds, where he lived between 1996 and 2002.
At the time, Manoir de la Pillardière was a run-down agricultural estate in a decayed condition, the land around it was a pasture with some cows and the remains of some old fruit trees and a beautiful pollarded hornbeam. Not a single shrub but some brambles to separate the fields
Ten years later, the garden has developed around the buildings and amassed a collection of more than 400 old roses, magnolias, viburnums, lime trees, hawthorns, hostas, peonies, oaks, hydrangeas, and thousands of bulbs placed in garden rooms separated by hornbeams.
Hard work has created beautiful vistas, varying levels, paths to guide you around the garden and added features such as pots and sculptures. A heated greenhouse allows for a collection of citrus and agapanthus, a vegetable garden of an acre provides the house, and a collection of old varieties of apple trees complete the gardens.
This ‘Jardin Remarquable’ has more than 5,000 colourful perennials flowering throughout the year with many ponds, bassins and a rill creating the sounds of water and allowing the birds to drink on hot days.
