There’s no better introduction to the “Gardens of Three Pines” than Miss Jane Neal’s. Jane, a retired schoolteacher, is famously the first murder victim in Louise’s beloved and bestselling series. Her garden provides a window into the type of person she was – and the community of Three Pines where she lived.
“‘One more question,’ said Gamache at the door, the bag of muffins in one hand and the door handle in the other. ‘You mentioned the Charles de Mills rose.’
‘Jane’s favorite. He’s not just any rose, Chief Inspector. He’s considered by rosarians to be one of the finest in the world. An old garden rose. Only blooms once a season but with a show that’s spectacular. And then it’s gone.’” – Still Life
Jane was known for her particular fondness for “old garden roses,” which she tended with expert care, and her favorite, the Charles de Mills rose. Beyond the roses, her garden was a riot of color and variety, featuring:
- Hollyhocks: Of the Alcea genus, hollyhock is generally found in Asia and Europe. The Streambank Wild Hollyhock is native to North America.
- Sweet Bergamot (Monarda): A mint that is indigenous to North America. The Native Americans used its medicinal qualities to cure stomach ailments, among other ailments.
- Charles de Mills Rose: An Old Garden Rose, first introduced in 1786, the Charles de Mills rose is known for its vibrant purple and crimson hues. The Charles de Mills was inducted into the Old Rose Hall of Fame in 2015.
Tell us about your garden?
87 replies on “The Gardens of Three Pines: Miss Jane Neal’s Garden”
A friend gave my first Louise Penny book. I have read everyone now. I love when something special is added. My Alaskan greenhouses have all my veggies growing and my flower beds have native perennials. Thanks for this addition!
Lovely
This is a nice feature – a reminder of pleasant passages. It would be nicer though, with pictures of the plants described. Thanks 🙂
My garden started with some peonies and irises from my grandmother’s garden. I have expanded with lots of lilies (Asian, Oriental and Day lilies). Also have bleeding hearts. a peony tree, two Rose of Sharon (one white and one lavender) , 2 azalea bushes and a red rhododendron. Plus some lupines (purple, pink and white that have been slowing spreading among the daisies, Black-eyed Susans, yarrow, Queen Anne’s lace and penstemon. Probably more I tend to forgot the names of some that pop.
Love to see pix of your garden! 😃
My grandmother in Ohio was an amazing gardener, but what made the biggest impression on me was the hollyhocks. She would make little dolls for me, when I was very young, out of two blossoms, one was the body, with the petals being a big skirt and the other a bonnet, somehow attached to the stem like a head wearing a hat. Wish I could include a picture!
My friends and I did this too in Southwest Pennsylvania. So much fun. You made a small hole in the top of the flower skirt and stuck in the short .stem of the bud for the head. We would have a row of dolls. Waltz of the flowers? I just saw that I may be able to grow hollyhocks here in central Florida. Now where to find seeds.
I’ve had good luck ordering seeds not usually carried in garden stores from this company. This should take you to the page on hollyhocks.
https://www.edenbrothers.com/collections/hollyhock_seed
My Mom taught me this, too, and my friends and I would have wedding parties with all the differently colored Dollie’s. I still show this to any little girl who comes to my house when hollyhocks are blooming. We also made jewelry by weaving clover stems together. Life was (still is) good!
I’m continually moving the plants as the tress here on our Oak Hill are stealing my sun! Ssill have great success with bleeding heart, Lenten rose , iris and peonies that the deer with let me grow. I especially love the herb garden our front that encourages new recipes.
What a lovely idea. I live in Cumbria UK and so have no hummingbirds( which I love). My garden is new as we recently moved house and are creating from scratch. I’m hoping Louise will sign my special Still Life edition when I listen to her at Chatsworth in September
Love to see pix of your garden! 😃
You had me with the hollyhock. My garden contains many plants about which I am sentimental, hollyhock among my favorites.
I enjoy my garden more than almost anything. I started gardening at age 10 with a single-row flower bed; my paternal grandmother was a gardener, so it must be in my genes. Zinnias are still my favorite. My current garden includes gingers – butterfly, shell, pine-cone, and crepe; roses – old fragrant ones and a Peggy Martin & a Lady Banks, hydrangeas, red banana plants, curcumas, and Turk’s cap (red). I also have oaks, crepe myrtles, a Japanese magnolia and a Sweet Bay magnolia. Honeysuckle and Mexican Flame vine have found their way in, too. I’m going with fewer annuals in favor of heat-and-drought-tolerant perennials; we have either too much or too little rain here in south Louisiana.
I am a former Chicago girl living in Wyoming, in the Black Hills. My husband is actually the main gardener in our family, but I love my deck pots and whiskey barrels full of flowers. Every year I do a different color scheme, this year it’s purple, but I always have a barrel full of geraniums. The challenge here wasn’t so much what would or wouldn’t grow, it was what the deer would not eat and how high a fence to put around the big garden!
I just love reading all the comments made about their gardens. I have a garden north of Toronto in Canada. This year to my great surprise my yucca plant that I bought about 20 plus years ago,is blooming. I never knew they also can bloom. It is beautiful to see the white flowers coming out.
your yucca blossoms are edible.
I live in S. Calif. and hispanics tell me their nannas would dip the flowers in egg then bread crumbs and deep fry them.
have never been brave enough to make them but enjoy the flowers.
let me know if you try it!
We live in Tecumseh, the far south west of Ontario, the banana belt of Canada. There are yuccas all around here in flower every year.
My Italian neighbor does the same thing with zucchini flowers– delicious!
I am in coastal North Carolina: too hot for peonies and roses are too prone to black spot in heat and high humidity, so I turned to a bee garden of coneflowers, bee balm, mexican sunflowers, day lilies, black-eyed susans, asters and dahlias. They all seem to handle the heat and humidity. Lots of bees, butterflies and hummingbirds seem to enjoy it. I wish I could grow peonies here, however, pansies bloom from fall through winter and well into spring and I love having the yellow, blue and purple pansies blooming throughout the winter.
Love all the posts about gardens When my grandmother passed I dug out all her irises before the house sold and planted them all around her headstone What was left I planted around my house over 20 yrs and still have those beautiful irises
My garden as a child . My father’s prized dahlias, peonies, cosmos, four o’clocks (my job to gather the seeds), lilacs, roses and my all time favorite..hollyhocks. Here in the heat and drought of Florida most of what I like is a no go. Knockout roses , crape myrtle, azalea and day lilies mostly thrive. Shrubs and grasses.do well. The gardens in your memories will never fade or die.
Would be 100% better if accompanied with a picture of the featured flower or plant.
My thought exactly!
There’s an image at the top of this post.
I’m a vegetable gardener, primarily, who tends toward love affairs with heirloom tomatoes. Big ones, little ones, sweet ones and yellow ones. My Roma’s this year resemble those in Vito Corleone’s garden. May my 2026 sauce taste as sublime as his. Cin cin!
My garden is what the deer leave me.
Butterfly, hummingbird and bees adore my beautiful hummingbird bushes mixed in the garden with cone flowers, painted daisies, lavender, butterfly weed and lots of Monarda.
I garden with vegetables, fruits and native plants on my 2 acres in Southeast Pennsylvania. I listen to the Gamache books via Audible as I weed. It slows me down, but I love every minute of it.
… Outstanding!
I adore Still Life! I have three copies, one autographed by my favorite author, Ms Louise Penny! And I have read and re-read it, because it is the foundation of Three Pines (where I visited last summer!) and Inspector Gamache and his Team, family and friends. As for gardens like Jean Neal’s, I only have those in my imagination. We live in Tucson, Arizona, in the winter where nothing grows but cacti, and we do have those. Water is a very precious resource so no plants that require watering are encouraged. And we live on a very large, not new, sailboat in Rhode Island in the summer, so no gardens here either. That is why reading in Still Life about Jean Neal’s glorious gardens is such a treat! One CAN have beautiful gardens through books! Thank You, Ms Penny, for Jean Neal’s gardens!
So wonderful that you enjoy visualizing a beautiful garden through these books! I love in Kingman, AZ & yes it’s hot, very windy these years &water is scarce. But I grow a few potted vegetables such as Swiss chard, basil, tomatoes & chives. It’s not easy but I love my greens! I also have a few lovely bush type potted plants that produce flowers. I’m always watering morning & night.
My garden is mainly purple and white coneflowers and sunflowers with a butterfly bush.
I identify with Gamaches and the contentment they find in their garden. Gardening is a life long pleasure learned from my mother. We recently retired and moved to a condo. Leaving the gardens I had developed and tended for 30 years was like losing a close friend or family member. But as with any other transition, I’ve adapted. Small spaces forced me to prioritize and make more deliberate choices. I’m still making mistakes and learning, but the flower boxes are overflowing with colorful annuals and the borders are full of perennials that give me a parade of blossoms. I still must share with the deer, rabbits, chipmunks, and squirrels. Seems all God’s creatures enjoy gardens!
I tend a garden of 5 raised beds on the third floor senior apartments where I live. Currently we are growing lemons, clementine, tomatoes, strawberries, mint, borage, lemongrass, organo, cosmos, coreopsis, succulents, lavender, rosemary, sage, lemon balm, thyme, yarrow, echinacea, lemon cucumbers, roses and zucchini. It’s my Sanctuary, plus a wonderful way to meet my neighbors.