A TOUCH OF FROST
The wintry weather transforms this Luxembourg garden into a sparkling wonderland
Hidden from the road by tall hedges and surrounded by vineyards and rolling hills, Jojo Bentz’s fairy-tale garden in Luxembourg is designed to surprise and delight all those who enter. And with over 1,000 visitors each year, she has quite a task on her hands. The garden that started for Jojo as a hobby over 18 years ago is now the setting for annual wine-tasting days at her family’s winery, Domaine Claude Bentz, run by her husband Claude and daughter Carole. It is also a private space for her and her family, a sanctuary next to her modern home at the winery’s headquarters in Remich on the banks of the river Moselle.
Inspired by visits to gardens in Belgium and
France, and ideas gleaned from books and magazines, Jojo set about creating a landscape sculpted from clipped hedging, with fantastical topiary and ironwork sculptures made to her own designs by local blacksmiths. The one-hectare plot was a field when she first took up the challenge, initially planting fruits and vegetables close to the house to feed her family. But as her confidence grew, Jojo evolved the space into something quite different. She planted yew (Taxus baccata) and box (buxus) hedges to create formal beds that she filled with flowers, herbs and fruit trees. Box also frames deciduous trees, while heart-shaped topiary lends a romantic touch, especially during winter when frost transforms the garden into a sparkling wonderland. Jojo has also wrapped the whole plot with hornbeam hedges (Carpinus betulus) that protect it from the icy winds that race through this part of Luxembourg.
The next area that Jojo created features the outdoor bowling alley, with its wooden floor, hedge walls topped with box balls and giant-sized skittle topiaries. Designed to bring the family together for a game or two, Jojo’s sense of fun is evident here and in the playful sculptures throughout the garden. When asked where she gets her ideas, she says, ‘I don’t really know. I just see something in a magazine or on TV and it sparks a picture in my mind. If I can make a topiary of it, I try it out in the garden or design a sculpture.’
Behind the winery, Jojo created an ironwork pavilion surrounded by beds of mop-headed Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’, their huge white blooms evolving into coppery dried flower heads in winter. Approached through a hornbeam allée, this secluded area provides a setting for intimate parties.
Jojo has three young grandchildren and they, along with the many other children that visit the garden, have not been forgotten in her designs. Domes made from hornbeam offer hideaways where they can camp while their parents sample the wine; a log cottage sculpture with tiny tables and chairs and a scarecrow motif provide other places to play.
Jojo has an architect’s eye for structure and form and her elegant planting schemes look like they have been designed by a professional. Yet she has no formal training and has learned about the plants as she has gone along. In winter, she has created colourful highlights with crab apples, rose hips and jasmine set among the skeletal trees, evergreen hedges and topiary that play the lead roles at this time of year. In spring, tulips and other bulbs decorate the beds, while flowering perennials, shrubs and fruit trees provide interest in summer.
Incredibly, Jojo also does most of the maintenance herself. ‘I have one gardener who helps me with the heavy work, but apart from that I do everything else myself. As soon as spring comes, I am outside clipping and training, whenever the weather permits.’ Visitors who come to sip wine among the trees and topiary would be astounded to know that this magical garden is the work of just one woman.
GARDEN GUIDE
ORIENTATION The main garden faces southwest but all areas receive sun during the summer.
SOIL TYPE Rich clay soil. SPECIAL FEATURES
Topiary and sculpture garden; bowling alley and natural skittle sculpture garden; children’s garden.
GARDEN DESIGN Jojo Bentz, Domaine Claude Bentz winery,
00 352 23 69 92 16, bentz.lu. OPENING TIMES The garden is open to the public in May and September during wine-tasting days and by appointment. Contact info@bentz.lu.