Les Jardins de Sericourt, a garden in the north east of France

Visit Jardin de Sericourt

The Jardins de Sericourt is in Sericourt between Amiens and Bethune in the Pas de Calais department.

The Jardin de Sericourt is one of France's top gardens. It was winner of the "Best Park in France 2005 prize". It also won the 2012 'Garden of the Year' prize awarded by garden journalists (AJJH). The Jardins de Sericourt is one of France's listed 'Jardin Remarquable'. If you are in the area be sure not to miss a trip to the garden.

Explore the Jardins de Sericourt

This large garden, which covers 4 hectares, has a series of garden "rooms" and alleys linking different areas. A lot of the structure is given with clipped box and there is one particularly beautiful alley which passes through box clipped into cones and spirals and balls all along the route.

There are more than twenty distinct areas in the garden and particularly inspirational is the 'warrior garden' designed to commemorate the nearby WW1 battlefields. Armies of different species of Chamaecyparis face each other and bomb craters are recreated in ivy.

Near to here are a number of 'warrior masks' inspired by the statues on Easter Island. If you are visiting with children I think they will be particularly interested in this part of the garden.

The "rose cathedral", a massive rose tunnel is a highlight but also the use of climbing roses to cover large trees in the garden is a treat . In 2017 a collection of Japanese roses was added to the garden.

The geometric garden is a kind of parterre filled with hemerocallus, asters and other perennials and is particularly beautiful in the autumn. In the canopy of the trees are some incredibly large hostas. One of my favourite plants I must admit and a pleasure to see growing with such abandon.

As well as the various gardens of topiaries and clipped hedges there are plenty of flowing borders planted with a wide range of trees, shrubs and perennials to add colour and movement to the gardens.

It always cheers me up to find there is a garden centre attached to a beautiful garden so that I can buy some of the plants that have inspired me and take them back to try and recreate some of the planting combinations or layouts I have seen. Here there is a very good "pepiniere" (garden centre), so good that it and the garden have featured in magazines in the UK, Holland and Italy!

There is also a tea room with indoor and outdoor space and a small gift shop.

The Jardins de Sericourt garden guide

The garden is open the 11 April to the 3 November. The gardens are closed on Mondays all year round and closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays as well in April, September and October. They are open afternoons only on Sundays and bank holidays (15.00-19.00) . Other days they are open from 10.00 to 19.00.

Garden visits cost 9,50 euros for adults, 4.50 euros for 6 to 16s. Visits are free to under 6s.

This garden is situated to the West of Lille, south of Dunkerque.

Address: Les Jardins de Sericourt, 62270 Séricourt

Gardens to visit nearby

You are lucky visiting this part of France because there are two more excellent gardens in striking distance. Another large garden with lots to see and admire is the Jardins de Maizicourt to the south and, one of my personal favourites, the Jardin des Lianes to the east.

You can find more local travel ideas in the North East France guide,