Saturday 6 June 2015

Citronniers et orangers

Versailles orangerie
71 years since D-Day... Incredible. Anyway, yesterday you saw a tractor in the palace gardens. Today you see what the tractor was doing: bringing various citrus trees from the palace orangerie where they spent the winter to make very neat rows of planters next to the dragon fountain which you had seen here and here (and can just about see at the end of the row in the second photo)! Each tree in its planter has a numbered tag attached to it! VDP was amazed at how many varieties of lemon trees there were, in different stages of ripening!

71 ans depuis le débarquement... Incroyable. Quoi qu'il en soit, hier vous avez vu le tracteur dans les jardins du château. Aujourd'hui, vous voyez le parfait alignement d'orangers et de citronniers de l'orangerie installé près du bassin du dragon que VDP vous montrait ici et ! Il y a là un nombre impressionnant de citronniers d'espèces différentes, avec certains fruits presque arrivés à maturité et d'autres encore minuscules et tout verts !
Citrus trees Versailles palace gardens
Lemons Versailles palace gardens
Lemons Versailles palace gardens
The fragrance of the orange blossoms was totally intoxicating!

Le parfum des fleurs d'oranger était envoûtant !
Orange blossoms Versailles palace
Tractor citrus trees Versailles palace

24 comments:

Blogoratti said...

What lovely photos!

Revrunner said...

I bet there were some bees on those trees. :-)

Unknown said...

Beautiful, so elegant, so stylish, must be France...

Taken For Granted said...

Ah, orange trees. Who would have thought they were grown in boxes. Looks great.

Lowell said...

I knew those things were planters! Now that's an orange/lemon/lime grove!

Lovely photos, too!

RedPat said...

That 's wonderful, Ciel! I was in Florida once at orange blossom time and I always remember how beautiful the scent of the blossoms was.

Michelle said...

What a wonderful, and portable, citrus grove.

Randy said...

I do miss citrus trees.

VP said...

An impressive work, well documented!

Thérèse said...

Perçoit-on une difference dans les parfums ?
Quel travail !

Anonymous said...

That's a busy tractor! Regarding D Day, my father was part of the D Day landings and actually died on June 6th, 49 years after the event.

Dina said...

Citrus perfume in the air and in your pictures.

Birdman said...

Fresh squeezed?

GreensboroDailyPhoto said...

What a fun tradition! I'll never forget about the orange trees now!

Janis
GDP

AsAeenBySusan said...

Do you know why some planter boxes are white while most are green?

Small City Scenes said...

June 6th---D-Day

Orange is my color this year in a part of the garden--no orange trees though
MB

Sharon said...

Wonderful photos of the trees! Makes me wonder what they do with the fruit.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Ciel, do you mean they do this every year? I never thought about it but it seems both lemon and orange trees can't stand the snow after all.
Btw, do you know the orange was brought from China by the Portuguese on the 16th century? That's why the name is very similar to the word "Portugal" in countries like Greece, Turkey or Romania. I only realized it when I was in Istanbul. :-)

cieldequimper said...

@ Susan: no I don't!

@ Sharon: freshly squeezed orange juice sold in the palace gardens. I've always wondered if all of the oranges they use come from the palace though, it seems like they would need a lot more.

@ JM: Yes, they get them out of the orangerie to the orangerie parterre. It's the first time I've seen them in this specific location of the gardens though. And no, I didn't know, thanks for the info!

Stuart said...

We have one little lemon tree in a pot and my wife is now wanting to have her own orangerie... alas there is no place for one. Nice series of shots to tell the story!

William Kendall said...

Such a pretty area, Ciel!

PerthDailyPhoto said...

What a wonderful 'avenue' approach to the sculpture Ciel.. attractive, aromatic AND edible, couldn't get more perfect! This is my idea of proper stylish :)

EG CameraGirl said...

What a lot of work! But so worth it!