Mediterranean Garden Society
Mediterranean Garden Society
In the Heart of Marrakech
by Marc Jeanson
photographs copyright Fondation Jardin Majorelle
Photographs to illustrate the article published in The Mediterranean Garden No. 113, July 2023
The photo at the top of this page shows a collection of agave in the Jardin Majorelle (Photo © Fondation Jardin Majorelle)
Marc Jeanson is Directeur Botanique at Fondation Jardin Majorelle in Marrakech. He writes:
Jacques Majorelle (1886-1962) was the son of Louis Majorelle (1859-1926), an eminent French furniture designer and interior decorator. The family lived in Nancy, the city in eastern France which was the cradle of the Art Nouveau Movement in France at the turn of the 20th century. Indeed, Louis Majorelle was the co-founder of the renowned École de Nancy, a hub for the many different crafts which employed the Art Nouveau style.
As the style was based on the forms of the natural world, it was no coincidence that Nancy was also a horticultural centre at that time, with well-known nurseries and plant-breeders.
Jacques Majorelle studied at the École des Beaux Arts in Nancy and later in Paris. As a child, he suffered from a respiratory disease and in 1910 he started to travel to warmer climates, such as Spain, Egypt and Italy. In 1917 he was invited to Morocco by a friend of his father, Marshal Hubert Lyautey (1854-1924), who was the Governor of the country. (Morocco was at that time a French Protectorate with France controlling the country under the nominal rule of the Moroccan king.)
While there, Majorelle visited Marrakech and soon fell in love with the city. In 1923 he bought a piece of land on the outskirts of Marrakech, among native palm groves, and started to create a garden that he envisioned would become a source of inspiration for his painting. It is easy to imagine that, as the son of a master of Art Nouveau, the shapes and forms of plants would have been very important in his aesthetic awakening. He retained many of the original date palms on his plot and began to introduce exotic species. We do not have much in the way of documents from the time of the creation of the garden, just a few photographs.
In 1931, Majorelle asked French architect Paul Sinoir to design an Art Deco-style studio in the garden, then decided to paint the studio white, despite town planning regulations that restricted this colour to coastal cities only.
Majorelle visited West Africa, as well as travelling extensively within Morocco, sometimes to very remote regions. Although access to such areas of the country was prohibited at the time, the Pasha supported his endeavours. Majorelle developed a strong interest in traditional Moroccan architecture and artisanal crafts. On his travels he learned a great deal about Moroccan culture, in which he immersed himself deeply.
Back in Marrakech, he developed a new kind of decorative art in the workshops attached to the Villa Bou Saf Saf, the home he built in his garden. The unique aesthetic approach that inspired his artistic creation is also visible in his unique garden and can be seen as a true orientalist fantasy.
It is also said that it was during his extensive exploration of Morocco that he discovered a unique shade of blue. He later introduced it in his garden and painted his studio in this colour, which was to become famous as ‘Majorelle blue’.
In 1947, Jacques Majorelle decided to open the garden to the public, while at the same time continuing to develop it and add new plants. The garden, with its collection of plants and coloured pots, can be seen in his paintings, particularly in the Black Nudes series.
Majorelle died in 1962 in Paris and is buried with his parents in Nancy. After his death, the garden began to deteriorate to the point where, in 1980, a proposed real estate project directly threatened the site. It was at this moment that a legendary couple would appear on the scene. The renowned French couturier Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé first came to Morocco in 1966 and they too immediately fell in love with the country. It may not be a coincidence that Saint Laurent had spent his early life in North Africa.
Ten years after the purchase of their first house on the edge of the medina, they bought Villa Dar Saada, which adjoined Majorelle’s villa. Being so close encouraged walks in the Jardin Majorelle, and for Yves Saint Laurent these became an almost daily occurrence. The Jardin Majorelle, with its colours and plants, was an enormously important source of inspiration for the couturier.
Learning that the garden was at risk of destruction, the pair leapt into action. They bought the whole property with a clear intention in mind: “to make of the Jardin Majorelle the garden that Majorelle himself had dreamed of”. Once the structures were put in place to preserve as much as possible of the original plan, Yves Saint Laurent enhanced the colour scheme with the pots that punctuated the walkways, using luminous yellow, olive green, sky blue and Majorelle blue. He also introduced new structures, such as the circular arbour in the middle of the garden, which he designed himself, being inspired by Jean Gallotti’s Le Jardin et la Maison Arabe au Maroc, published in 1926.
The artist’s studio was restored and transformed into a museum of Islamic art. Then, in 2011, it became the Pierre Bergé Museum of Berber Arts, a place dedicated to the culture of the indigenous Berber people of North Africa.
In the garden, the botanical collection was expanded with new species to complete the various plants introduced by Majorelle, some of which are still visible today, such as the spectacular pencil trees (Euphorbia tirucalli), a magnificent Mexican blue palm (Brahea armata) and the monumental elephant’s foot palm (Beaucarnea recurvata).The site is dominated by the crowns of dozens of hundred-year-old Washingtonia palms and an enormous Mount Atlas mastic tree (Pistacia atlantica).
Villa Oasis, path lined with Washingtonia robusta
Some years after the rescue of the garden, Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé decided to move into Villa Bou Saf Saf and to rename it Villa Oasis. In 2002, they asked garden designer Madison Cox, American-born but resident in France for many years, to take over the gardens - both the private garden at Villa Oasis as well as the main garden that is open to the public every day of the year.
In the relatively small public garden (only about one hectare or 2.5 acres), it is the collections of cacti and bamboos that we come across first. In 2019, some 1.5 million visitors enjoyed the refreshing shade and the graphic design element of these large bamboos (Bambusa vulgaris) that were introduced into Morocco by Majorelle. The bamboos are home to numerous species of birds, including the common bulbul whose melodious song is the signature sound of the garden. When visitors arrive, they are invited to follow the pathways of red polished concrete that are now and again framed by walls of bamboo canes.
Bamboo frames the pathways
Before arriving at the collection of palm trees, the visitor comes across an Islamic pavilion offering a perspective of the irrigation channel at the approach to the Pierre Bergé Museum of Berber Arts. These architectural elements are painted in the Majorelle blue that vibrates right to the heart of the garden. The palm tree collection still has numerous large specimens of date palms, with their bluish-green leaves, as a tribute to the original palm grove. The large diversity of plant shapes and the remarkable array of different shades of green that contrast boldly with the pale beige of the gravel covering the ground can all be enjoyed on a stroll through this area.
Then an opening reveals the memorial dedicated to Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, who both wished to be commemorated in the garden. The visit continues on to a more open area around a reflecting pool planted with water lilies, and to the Pierre Bergé Museum of Berber Arts. The walls of the Museum are painted in Majorelle blue, which also brightens the borders of large planters that run along the pathways as well as the square fountain found on the southern side of the Museum.
Beyond the Pierre Bergé Museum of Berber Arts, the south-east side of the garden is principally dedicated to the collection of cacti and succulents: giant euphorbias, aloes, agaves, pachypodiums. sansevierias and numerous species of cactus. Viewing this collection, the visitor is plunged into the extraordinary world of spines, waxy bluish-greens, areoles and mysterious shapes.
In spring and at the beginning of summer, exuberant blooms, fleshy and shimmering, appear in abundance in this garden, which for the most part is focused on shades of green rather than on flowers.
An arbour runs along this area and serves as a support for a collection of creepers and climbing shrubs (Podranea, Bougainvillea, Tecoma and Cobaea).
A few metres from the public garden is the one surrounding Villa Oasis, once the private residence of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé. It has a less dense canopy and its straight paths contrast with the more sinuous ones of the public garden, These paths are lined with slender Washingtonia robusta and, in front of Villa Oasis, four relatively low squares echo the traditional layout of the Arab-Andalusian garden. Each of these squares is planted with a specific botanical collection.
Collection of cacti and ‘zellige’ tiles
In front of the villa, the long rectangle running parallel to the façade contains a collection of cacti, while another square has a collection of cycads. Further from the villa, the two other squares are given over to aloes and agaves. In the middle of each of these squares are fountains decorated with contemporary ‘zellige’ tiles designed by Madison Cox.
Behind a curtain of bamboos was once a rose garden, which pre-dated Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé. Its maintenance proved too difficult in the Marrakech climate, so in about 2010 it made way for a citrus garden, whose squares are edged by lemon and orange trees that stand guard over a collection of rare citrus plants in pots: citrons, bitter oranges, Buddha’s hand, finger lime, makrut lime and more. At the beginning of spring their flowers scent the air.
Collection of agave
Two pools, filled with water lilies, lotus and other aquatic plants, enliven the garden. A pavilion, designed by the American interior designer Bill Willis, complements the pool situated on the south-western side of Villa Oasis. Since the death of M. Bergé in 2017, this garden is occasionally open to visitors.
As a tribute to the work of Yves Saint Laurent and recognising the inspiration he found in Morocco, a second museum was opened that same year – the Yves Saint Laurent Museum Marrakech, sister to the Yves Saint Laurent Museum Paris. The Fondation Jardin Majorelle, inaugurated in 2001 under Moroccan law and now presided over by Madison Cox, manages the combination of museums and gardens. This non-profit foundation also supports dozens of Moroccan institutions in the field of culture, health and education. At the heart of the Yves Saint Laurent Museum is the library, much of which is dedicated to the world of gardens, landscapes and botany. This library is open to the public by reservation. A wide-ranging cultural programme (cinema, lectures, concerts) is available to all who visit the Foundation.
In 2019 the Fondation Jardin Majorelle created its Botanical Department and I arrived to head it. The objectives of this department are numerous, the first being to make an inventory and a map of all the botanical collections across the whole site. Today, the number of species is estimated to be 350, but it is growing continuously thanks to a policy of expansion and acquisition.
Maintaining the tradition of exoticism and consolidating the already large botanical groupings (palms, succulent plants and bamboos) are at the heart of our work, but we are also dedicated to the presentation of species that are emblematic of, and endemic to, Morocco. These species are introduced into the collections by seed or young plants collected in their natural environments during field trips.
On the practical side, we have to take account of the heavy soil, mostly clay, and the dry climate. Rainfall these past two years has been about 106mm (4 in.) per annum. It usually falls between November and February but, like everywhere else in the world, it is becoming more erratic.
We have approximately 15 gardeners, most of whom are not trained at all when they arrive. A training strategy has been developed so they can learn basic techniques in ecological management as well as specific skills, for example in succulent and cacti management. Recently, we have hired young gardeners who already have a basic training from a new gardening school founded in Salé by a Spanish Foundation.
Dried specimens are an invaluable testament to diversity and to the evolution of Moroccan flora; they are collected and deposited in various herbariums, in particular the University of Marrakech and the National Herbarium in Rabat. They are also sent to other international herbariums in order to spread knowledge of Moroccan flora.
The Foundation organises an annual botanical symposium that allows the general public to meet and have discussions with various experts and also, importantly, to bring together as many initiatives as possible on a national and, it is hoped, international scale.
Botany also features in the cultural programming of the Museum and in 2024 an exhibition will be held linking the scientific and artistic expressions of the cactus. The botanical aspect, which is emblematic of the garden, will thus form the link between the museums and the living collections.
All these evolutions must be carried out sensitively, at the same time preserving the heritage and aesthetic spirit of the place. The significance of these developments only makes sense when they are shared with our visitors who, once they have been seduced by the beauty of the gardens and buildings, and the aura of the artists who created them and lived there, increasingly want to find meaning and a true encounter with the plant world.
This article was first published in HistoricGardensReview, Issue 44, September 2022, and is reproduced here by kind permission.
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