Are your garden accessories a source of shame? It’s possible.
Plastic gnomes, pink flamingos, and, even worse, MAGA signs are only the beginning. Surely you’ve heard about the scourge of knockoff Versailles planters among the hedgerows of East Hampton and the David Austin rose gardens of Nantucket? Sold everywhere from Wayfair to Restoration Hardware, they’re as common as counterfeit Birkin bags—and equally embarrassing.
The original Versailles tree-box design was devised by André Le Nôtre, the chief gardener for Louis XIV, back in 1670. His easily transportable oak containers coddled the Sun King’s persnickety orange trees, which required greenhousing in the winter. More than 350 years later, there are still around 1,500 of them housing lemon, oleander, palm, and pomegranate trees at the Château de Versailles.
The Versailles planters’ aesthetic signatures include a square or rectangular cast-iron structure, side panels that open to allow for easy access to the plant, and a bronze emblem that reads, nec pluribus impar, the personal emblem of Louis XIV, which translates roughly as “None his equal.” (A little grand, but remember the source.)
They have only one manufacturer: Jardins du Roi Soleil, the Château’s official supplier for the past 150 years. Made entirely by hand from French oak, which is air-dried for three years before being finished in a kiln, fewer than 350 are produced for public consumption each year. They come in eight sizes and 12 colors; a subtly faded Versailles green is probably the place to start. Each planter is customized; one can add wheels, interior trays, irrigation systems, and even electricity.
All this comes with a willingness to sweat out the waiting list and a price tag of around $7,500 for a 31-inch model. But if you want to duplicate the look of Bernard Arnault’s patio, this is the cost of doing business—his homes are lousy with these things. Delphine Arnault, his daughter (she’s the C.E.O. of Christian Dior), recently ordered the largest one the company has ever built for her home in Paris. They will also be familiar to regulars at Le Bristol and the Hôtel de Crillon, which use them to flank their front doors.
Jardins du Roi Soleil has recently launched in the United States, bringing their French flair for eye-wateringly expensive garden accoutrements to billionaires on the other side of the Atlantic. (Mere millionaires can pick up a branded paperweight for a cool $315.) But it helps if you consider these things to be investments. After all, they’re guaranteed to last for at least 100 years, so it’s probably a good idea to make a note of that for your heirs. And, come to think of it, your heirs’ heirs as well.
Ashley Baker is a Deputy Editor at AIR MAIL and a co-host of the Morning Meeting podcast
