Edible flower garden and bioclimatic greenhouse

The edible flower garden : a garden to taste !

The edible flower garden opens onto the beautiful surrounding countryside. In the distance, Chinon and its medieval fortress can be seen.

Why is there an edible flower garden within the grounds of Le Rivau? At La Table des Fées and Le Jardin Secret, the estate’s restaurants, the chef draws inspiration from edible flowers so that the menus and dishes follow nature’s lead. To satisfy our visitors desire to enrich their taste buds and to whet their appetite, we felt it was important to showcase beautiful flowers that are also good to eat. Throughout the season, our visitors can discover the charm and taste of agastache, sage, nigella, tagetes, daylilies, curry grass, calendula, zinnias and many others.

The herb table allows visitors to picnic in this flower-filled garden while ‘picking’ a little chives or tarragon to enhance their snack.

Along the way, our visitors will discover the bioclimatic greenhouse.

The bioclimatic greenhouse

At the Domaine du Rivau, we are mindful of environmental issues and seek out drought-resistant plants and alternatives to fossil fuels and conventional heating. That is why this greenhouse was designed to be heated solely by the sun’s rays during cold winter periods. It faces south and is protected from cold winds to the east by a stone wall, allowing it to store heat during the day and release it at night. Semi-underground and therefore less affected by winter cold and excessive summer heat, it is ideal for overwintering frost-sensitive plants and, on sunny days, for displaying Rivau’s collection of succulents.

Inspiration for our visitors : the succulent collection

On rainy days (but not only), our visitors are invited to discover our collection of succulents, a simple decor that can be reproduced at home : a fascinating world of plants with rosettes ranging from dark purple to immaculate white that anyone can grow in front of a window and bring some greenery into everyday life…

All different and all exotic in appearance, these are some of the plants in the collection : Aloe vera, Beschorneria, Callisia repens Pink Lady, Cephalocereus senilis, Ceropegia, Cotyledon orbiculata, Disocactus ramulosus, Echeveria, Echinopsis tubiflora, x Gasteraloe, Graptopetalum paraguayense, Haworthia fasciata, Hylotelephium sieboldii, Opuntia microdasys, Phedimus spurius, Sedum kamtschaticum, x Pachyveria, Petrosedum rupestre, Orpin des rochers, Polaskia chichipe, Portulacaria.

The appeal of succulents is that they can be grown indoors, require little care, store water in their fleshy leaves rather than their roots, adapt to all kinds of containers (such as the kokedama pots available at the Rivau shop) and form living, artistic tapestries.