Exploring the Beauty of a Wildflower Nursery in Southern France

Driving through the rolling hills with the pyrénées snow capped mountains in the background towards Saint Lizier, the landscape with dotted castles became more beautiful as I got closer to Les Sauvages Pepiniers, one of the only native wildflower nurseries in France. I pulled up and saw fields of beautiful flowers swaying in the sun. The owner, Aline, came out of the greenhouse with dirt on her hands and welcomed me in. I walked into the warm green house and saw rows and rows of budding seeds emerging. I have always had a passion for wildflowers I explained to her.

She agreed and told me more of what inspired her passion for native wildflowers, "I started this pépinière (nursery) in 2017 after working in traditional botany before. The more I gardened, the more I saw the significance of gardening with native flowers. Aesthetic is just culturally defined. Why do we need to bring in tropical plants?"

We went on to discuss the beauty of local wildflowers and how they interact with the nature around them. They have evolved in these regions and provide food to the insects and the birds who eat the insects. It is our point of connection and interaction with nature to cultivate local wildflowers.

"Something about a flower can touch a person's soul," she explained as she pointed to her heart and I looked around and felt what she was saying. If it is a native flower, it is a flower that actually interacts with the nature around it, so we can become connected to nature again by growing native plants.

We walked through and looked at the rows of tiny seedlings emerging. "How do you harvest the seeds? Could I come along sometime?" I asked. "My friends have asked me too but it is a very solitary process. I have the places I go to harvest wildflowers and each time I see new things as I scan the meadow for seeds ready to be harvested. Each time I may find a new species and only some of the flowers are allowed to be harvested."

As we continued walking out of the nursery, she showed me the flowers that had grown enough to be placed outside in the sun. "I would like to buy some for my balcony. It faces south," I explained. "This one is beautiful and there are lots of seeds you can harvest at the end of the season." It had tall blue beautiful flowers. "When you see the seed pods dry and they are yellowish, you can pick them before they fall and store them in a envelope in 4-6 degrees celsius in the dark for a year and some seeds are good to plant for up to three years."

Another beautiful flower only opened when the sun shined on it and is called "Asphodelus fistholus." She gave it to me as a gift so I could see the flowers once they opened as the clouds had covered the sun. We picked out two more flowers because I only had ten euros with me but just with that I already had the feeling of my own little wildflower oasis. Some wildflowers are super pollinators, all the insects are attracted to them and others only feed one particular insect.

I took my flowers and brought them home looking forward to coming back for more to fill my balcony with them.