Each summer, beginning when they were young, Reine-Marie and Armand Gamache visit Manoir Bellechasse, the beautiful, grand lodge built over a century ago on the shores of Lake Massawippi. Surrounded by mountains and forests – and gardens! – the lodge is a luxury, secluded destination for lovers of nature and good food.
“They knew if they looked in that same ledger they’d find their signatures, once a year, stretching back to a June day more than thirty years ago when young Armand had saved his money and brought Reine-Marie here. For one night. In the tiniest of rooms at the very back of the splendid old Manoir. Without a view of the mountains or the lake or the perennial gardens lush with fresh peonies and firstbloom roses. He’d saved for months, wanting that visit to be special. Wanting Reine-Marie to know how much he loved her, how precious she was to him.” – A Rule Against Murder
Some flowers that might be found in Manoir Bellecasse’s manicured grounds include:
Peonies: While the number of peony species is unclear, this flowering plant is extremely popular in ornamental arrangements. The peony has a rich and long history in Eastern cultures and is the floral symbol of China.
Lilies: Mostly native to the Northern Hemisphere, the lily flowers in a bountiful spectrum of colors. Beware: certain types of lilies can be extremely dangerous for cats!
Honeysuckle: Known to attract Hummingbirds, especially in North America, Honeysuckle can be aromatic and is named for the nectar that they cultivate in their flowers. The plant has come to symbolize nostalgia and love.
Tell us about a memorable garden you’ve visited on your travels.
29 replies on “The Gardens of Three Pines: The Gardens of Manoir Bellechasse”
My parents went to a family owned Hotel every year for their anniversary. The hotel, on the Rideau River halfway between Ottawa and Kingston, has massive gorgeous flower beds. It sounds very similar to Manoir Bellechase!
I live in Stony Plain, Alberta, and a Director with the volunteer charitable organization, Light Up Your Life Tri-Community Palliative/Hospice Care Society supporting the needs of palliative/hospice care in our area. In 2018, to celebrate our 25th anniversary we created with our community partners, the “Light Up Your Life Hospice Garden”. Over four phases it has grown into a beautiful, peaceful and reflective space to which all the hospice rooms have a view. Our garden recently became home to a “Wind Phone”. If you don’t know what that is, please take the time to search it’s origin story. The inscription on the bench next to the wind phone reads,
“Listen to the Wind … It Talks – Listen to the Silence…It Speaks – Listen to Your Heart…It Knows”
I love your Gamache series!
I live in NH USA
The Coastal Maine Botanical Garden in Boothbay ME is amazing, complete with Thomas Dambo’s trolls!
I can’t wait for Miss Wolcott ‘s Ghost!
I live in a small townhouse in the middle of a city. My backyard is the size of a pocket handkerchief. Several years ago, I tore up all the grass and planted an exotic peony bush, a rose bush with cerise-coloured blooms (breathtaking colour), dahlias, zinnias, a prickly pear cactus with extraordinary yellow rose-like flowers (and it survives Ontario, Canada winters). Oh yes, and a Lenten Rose bush also! Other annuals and perennials fill in every square inch of my handkerchief, sheltered and overlooked by a shapely dwarf lilac in a back corner. And did I mention there is a cement fountain in the middle with swirls around it that remind me of closed angel wings? This
is my ‘Cathedral Close’, my floral sanctuary which plays host to me almost every summer morning as I sit with my Bible, journal and coffee.
It sounds lovely !
I’ve visited many lovely gardens in my life, such as Longwood Gardens, Golden Gate Park, and many more, plus I’ve been to Butchart Gardens in every season of the year, but closest to my heart is the Rose Test Garden at Washington Park in my hometown of Portland, Oregon. It’s filled with masses of roses of every possible color in a lush, green setting with a spectacular view of the city below and Mount Hood on the horizon. Happily, I can still ramble through it even though I now need a mobility scooter to do it.
I too love the Rose Test Garden in Portland. Every time we visit our son there – we HAVE to go there. I love to be surrounded by the beautiful blooms, enjoy the views and the gift shop sells wonderful gifts. I also enjoy the Japanese Gardens in Portland (opposite the Rose Gardens) and in Golden Gate Park SF. My dream is to visit Manoir Bellechasse
and sit & dream in the peace of the gardens.
I love roses, I’m a June baby. I’ve been to many but my favorite is the Helen S Kamen rose garden in Elizabeth Park in West Hartford, CT. I love the fragrance of old fashioned roses and a visit at just the right time will take your breath away. The arbors are spectacular.
I live a 5 minute walk from Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, CA. The entire park is a garden, with blue herons and red tailed hawks. The most splendid part of the park is the garden within the garden: the arboretum. I think that every plant and flower in the world is on display there. There is also a scent garden. I took both my sons there when they were babies. And when they were in Nursery School, we would go to the arboretum every Wednesday with the whole class. The gardeners liked to turn on the sprinklers for the kids on hot days. Once we performed a Nursery School version of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in one of the little dells in the arboretum. The beautiful, Victorian Conservatory of Flowers is close by. I used to love going there while I was growing up. I still love it. All kinds of flowers there, including bug catching cannibals; huge vines with leaves the size of a closet; fountains and all kinds of other wonderful and strange plants and flowers. The Conservatory once was host to a gigantic, horrible smelling flower. Just one huge blossom that had a really bad scent. Thank goodness it was only visiting the Conservatory, because that flower could be smelled outside of, and all the way around the building. . I can’t remember the name of it; but the neighbors didn’t exactly love it! There is also the Shakespeare Garden, which has all of the flowers that Shakespeare mentioned in his plays. And sometimes theater companies will perform there.
The flower with the awful odor sounds like it might be the Corpse Flower, so-called because of its odor.
I forgot to say I’ve visited the Golden Gate gardens; they are lovely!
Growing up in Wilmington Delaware, I spent many Sunday afternoons with my family at nearby Longwood Gardens, a former duPont estate and then, still now, a place with gorgeous outdoor spaces and greenhouses full of every plant imaginable. I can still recall the fragrance of those greenhouses.
My husband and I were fortunate to be able to visit Buchart Gardens in Vancouver. It was raining on and off the entire time we were there, but it was still stunning to see all the intensely beautiful areas in these gardens.
Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania are always lovely too.
9 years ago my husband and I celebrated forty years together at Hovey Manor, which is the actual basis, I believe, of Manor Bellechasse. We also visited many of the local sites which were often the inspiration for Louise Penny’s books.
Although I visited in 1981, the Japanese garden at UBC in Vancouver still sits in my mind as a place of peace, beauty, and contemplation. Manoir Bellechasse seems to be similarly intended.
It is, in fact, the inspiration, William. See this link: https://www.gamacheseries.com/a-rule-against-murder-real-place/
I have been fortunate to work for nine years at the Naples Botanical Garden in Florida, which has a registered collection of Plumeria (aka Frangipani). It’s a thrill to watch them come into bloom in the spring with their great variety of colors and fragrances.
I recently visited my brother in Dubuque, Iowa and his wife and I spent hours in the gorgeous Dubuque Botanical Gardens. The flowers were magnificent and the ponds and waterfalls gave it a magical environment to just sit and soak it all in.
When I was young (late teens), I had an opportunity to visit New Zealand. In Queenstown, there is a beautiful garden that is open to the public with flowers from everywhere throughout every season. When I went (this was my first trip, but not my last), it was just coming into Spring and the tulips were in their splendor. Breathtaking.
Tulip Festival — every spring in the Skagit Valley, Washington, USA.
Many of the commercial growers have display gardens open to the public.
And the world is awash in color………..
The Elizabethan Gardens on Roanoke Island in North Carolina are always a treat to visit. They offer formal plantings that would have been at home at the royal residences of Elizabeth I, as well as beautiful natural landscapes of coastal North Carolina that showcase native plantings and live oaks. In December, the Gardens are decorated for the holidays during the WinterLights celebration: glorious!
My husband and I love Butchart Gardens in Victoria, BC, Canada. We’ve been there at high summer and late fall and both times the acres of gardens were lovely.
I’ve been there a few times as well. My sister- in-law, Mary lives in Victoria, BC which is also filled with cherry blossoms and more beautiful gardens.
These are beautiful flowers. Just wish I could grow honeysuckle.
Be careful what you wish for! Honeysuckle is invasive and will take over whatever space you put it in. It does have a wonderful aroma and, as children, we would suck the nectar out of the blooms. But it is greedy and takes over all the space.
My mother loved visiting gardens anywhere and everywhere we traveled. I didn’t appreciate the gardens when I was young, but now I carry on the tradition. Botanical gardens, municipal gardens, water gardens , even early or late in their season. One of my favorites is the Jardin de la Nouvelle France. Charming, intimate, wild, and quiet, when I’m lucky enough to visit Paris I always stop in and just breathe.
I love to visit the Jardins de Metis in any season. In June the peonies were beginning as were the Himalayan blue poppies. Such an amazing garden and legacy of Elsie Reford.
Every May, my grandparents would take us to Ottawa, Ontario Canada to see the tulips. Acres and acres of gorgeous blooms, magnificent in the colors and the varieties. It wasn’t until many years later that I understood the significance of those beauties to the history of the great country just across the mighty St. Lawrence River from our home in Ogdensburg, NY. During WWII, the Dutch royal family sheltered in Ottawa, and when Queen Juliana gave birth there, the Civic Hospital was declared temporarily as an international territory so that baby Princess Margaret would keep her Dutch royal citizenship. It was Canadian troops which led the campaign to liberate the Netherlands from Nazi forces. Tulips have always held a special place in my heart.