Les Jardins Du Homme Libre (Fils de Patter)

Take a look at all of these images, soak in the veritable rainbow of colours, admire the azaleas, revel in the rhododendrons, and then consider the fact that the blooms you see are already 30% past their peak. These images were taken on June 20 in the garden of our photographer friend. Let's call him 'Homme Libre' to protect his identity.

Homme Libre told us that we arrived four days after the peak (June 16) of what we now call 'the greatest show on Earth'. Monsieur Homme Libre has something like five or six hundred azaleas and rhododendrons in his gardens. It is to be believed.

I believe! I believe!!

La Wendy, El Guppo and I were spielbund, spillband, spoolbound....bound by spelling. We felt like little fleshy pink Smarties, high on LSD, in a juicy bag of technicolour Skittles. It truly was a candy shop for our mind's eye.

Homme Libre and his gardener, Anne du Jo, have done a spectacular job of creating an oasis within an oasis. They deserve high praise (hence the LSD reference) for hard work and creative planning. If the world of gardening had two celebrity gardeners to give a 'two green thumbs up' rating (a la Siskel and Ebert, in a living sense), then I'd mention it here. I looked up 'celebrity gardeners' on Google in an effort to reference someone/anyone, but I didn't recognize a single name. Curious. The world has celebrity chefs (J.O), celebrity celebrities (J.Lo), celebrity athletes (M.J.), and even people famous for being famous (M.B-G.), so why not celebrity gardeners?

I hereby nominate Homme Libre and Anne du Jo for the coveted Pelle d'Or award. Of course I made that award up, but that in no way diminishes the deservedness of these two soil toilers/petal pushers. They are as brilliant as the azaleas and rhododendrons
that I photographed. I thank them for a most pleasant experience that has lasted far more than one fine morning in June.