13. Jurassic Plantes
Welcome to Jurassic Plants, a garden dreamed up by two friends passionate about nature and dinosaurs. Stepping into this garden, visitors become explorers and viewers of a full-size plant film. The monumental doorway that opens up isn’t just an entrance; it is a journey through time, a cinematographic portal that ejects us out of the garden we know and into a forgotten world. Inspired by the famous film Jurassic Park, the doorway thrusts us into a set where the soil changes, the familiar earth is replaced by volcanic stone, sounds are transformed, and the rustling of the leaves leads us into an unknown ancient world. This doorway is the only thing separating us from a veritable state of time shock!
In this garden, the real stars are the plants, which have survived since the days of the dinosaurs. Tree ferns form an enveloping canopy, effectively creating a cocoon in which time stands still. Primitively shaped cycas, gingko bilobas, horsetails… they’re all witnesses of history – proof that nature didn’t wait for the dinosaurs before conquering the Earth. This lush garden pays tribute to plants, the actors of the living world, presented here as celebrities on their verdant film set.
In this intimate jungle, metal dinosaur silhouettes evoke our fascination with the past and the power of fantasy. The light acts as a project, revealing moving shadows and golden reflections. Every step becomes a scene, and every corner a shot. While the age of the dinosaurs may have ended in the blink of an eye, plants continue to write history.
This creation encourages us to feel the garden as a set where nature invents new scenes every day. Here, time opens up, tears itself apart, and merges. The past becomes the present. Cinema becomes the living world.
DESIGNERS
A trained communicator, Romain Maire grew up surrounded by plants, from his grandfather's vegetable garden to his grandmother's flowerpots. He has always had a keen interest in plants, but it was his mother's veranda full of tropical plants that finally "contaminated" him. His passion soon led him to the great family of tropical orchids, to which he has devoted himself for over fifteen years. Passionate about nomenclature and botany, he published his first book in 2021 with Éditions Ulmer, with the aim of making orchid cultivation accessible to everybody. His love of travel has enabled him to observe tropical orchids in their natural environment, from Mexico to Southeast Asia, experiences that provided the inspiration for his guide to carefree cultivation of orchids, published by Ulmer in 2024. His various encounters, including with Corentin Pfeiffer, helped develop a passion for gardening and potted compositions, which came to fruition in 2018. He is driven by a search for the perfect balance between line, shape and texture.
Coming from the world of luxury tourism, Corentin Pfeiffer made a 180-degree turn and trained at the Paris School of Florists with a view to starting a new life. As passionate about flowers as he is about plants in general, he specialises in botanical styling, indoors and outdoors alike. Trained by a “Best Craftsman of France” (MOF), he was soon spotted on Instagram, where he shares his passion on a daily basis with a community of nearly 50,000 followers. He went on to be noticed by the Larousse publishing house, who commissioned him to write a very personal book on the garden, "Des pots, des plantes et un beau jardin", issued in March 2021. Between garden and flower arrangements, his heart soon chose the garden, a field he has now been working in for many years. His need for contact with the earth is what drives him and he thrives on combining colours, graphics, textures and decorations. Foliage plays a key role in his creations. The Jurassic Gardens are among his signature gardens as a botanical stylist and landscape designer; in particular, he has helped democratise the use of tree ferns by producing educational videos on their cultivation.
