The Monet Garden in the front yard has a different story. First one must understand Monet’s theories of gardening from an artist’s perspective and then one must choose those plants from Monet’s design which will prosper in a Southern garden. I used Vivian Russell’s Monet’s Garden, Charles Prost’s The Garden of Monet, and Derek Fell’s Monet’s Garden as resource materials. I began to understand the garden as a palette upon which Monet practiced his color theories, combining red-green-silver, blue-pink-white, yellow-violet, and orange-blue. He preferred single flowers (flowers with a single row of petals) because of their translucence when backlit and their reflective properties when front lit. The play of light upon the garden determined where a plant was planted. Cool colors appeared where the sun rose and hot colors appeared in the sunset borders. According to Derek Fell, "The most common wayside plants in his garden were white oxeye daisies, crimson corn poppies, yellow flat iris, and wispy oat grasses. He called these plants, ‘the soul of the garden.’ The Oxeye daisies and oat grasses added to the shimmer, and the appearance of diminutive corn poppies and wavy yellow flat irises were like fluttering butterflies."

Poppies and Bachelor’s Buttons

Marcel Proust wrote: "If one day I can see Claude Monet's gardens, I feel that I will see, in a garden of nuances and colors, more than flowers, I will see a garden which seems to be less a traditional floral garden and more of a colorists garden, for example some flowers arranged in an ensemble that is not quite like nature, since they have been planted in such a way that those which blossom at the same time have nuances that harmonize in a pink or blue range; and that the artists intention, so powerfully manifested has dematerialized in some way, all that is not color.  Earth flowers and also water flowers, these delicate water lilies that the master has depicted in sublime paintings of which this garden (a true transposition of art, more than a model for paintings, a painting already executed within nature which is illuminated under the eye of a great artist) is like a first and living sketch." (Les Eblouissements by the Countess de Noailles, Figaro, June 15, 1902)

I studied the books and made a chart of the different plants Monet used for the different seasons in his garden.

Germination actually began only two weeks after planting, but the plants were so tiny they were hard to photograph. 
Truly one cannot tell the difference in the plants with only two leaves.  They must have at least four for differentiation. 

Poppies	California Poppies	Oxeye Daisies	Nigella (Looks VERY much like Larkspur and Daisy Queen Anne's Lace)	Rose Mallow	Lunaria
Clary Sage (has kind of a fuzzy mint leaf)

Lunaria is the first to blossom. These beautiful fragile spires are Lunaria.  The tiny blooms resemble Easter eggs.  As you can see we now have a great stand of "greens."  Gardeners will recognize the poppies of all different types.  (February 28, 2000)

As you can see, all of our efforts have produced something beautiful.  All the watering during the drought, the weeding, the shifting around so that plants would have room to grow have come together.  And we've only just begun!!!!

This is what makes gardening worthwhile. Here you see poppies, bachelor’s buttons, Queen Anne's Lace, and violas.  Our lunaria continues to bloom. Unfortunately, we have had some very hard rains that have beaten down some of our beautiful flowers.  We should have thinned our poppies more drastically so that air could circulate a bit more near the roots.  Some that were sown in another bed actually got the dreaded "root rot" and had to be pulled up. 

This picture reminds one that "a thing of beauty is a joy forever."  Some of these exquisite blooms resemble peonies, while others have a single row of translucent petals.  Those were Monet's favorites.  He loved to capture the light reflecting through them

The Southern Monet garden has been gorgeous with outstanding poppies.  By April 22 they were turning to seed. The garden was then in transition from Spring to Fall.  I pulled out many of the poppies and replaced them with cleome, touch-me-nots, and cosmos.  Sunflowers will soon be planted as well.  One patch of poppies, sown late, was just coming into bloom.  This was a good lesson in staggered planning.

Gathering seeds is one of gardening’s greatest pleasures, especially with poppies. I spread my seed upon newspapers on an old screen in the rafters of my greenhouse so that they will dry. I then collect the seeds in paper bags and look forward to repeating the planting process and sharing my seeds!