Bélanger’s modifications to Blaikie’s plans were probably an annoyance to Blaikie,
he had criticized Bélanger’s gardens for some of
the same characteristics but the collaboration of Bélanger’s artifice and Blaikie’s
plant materials resulted in an English style park rich in open spaces,
rivers, rocky outcrops, cascades and varied plantings, and the occasional
Abby ruin. Some of the original
design can still be seen today.
Blaikie also seems to have won in that many sources
attribute the original gardens to him.
It may be his nurseries that won him fame; he used part of the
gardens to raise new plants. Plant
materials from his gardens were a favorite gift and a status symbol of the
time. However, the fact
that he kept diaries that were later published, and Belanger did not,
gives him the historical
last word.
Following the changing fortunes of war, the property
was owned by Napoleon and then again by d’Artoise. Later, in 1835, the property was
purchased by Lord Seymore, Marchion
of Hertford, who made changes to the buildings and almost doubled the size
of the gardens. It stayed in the
family for a couple of generations, when, threatened with its subdivision,
the whole estate was purchased by the city of Paris in 1905.
It was only after Bagatelle became a public park of
Paris that the rose gardens, for which it is known today, were added. Forestier,
administrator of the Paris
public parks and defender of Bagatelle, was aided
by Jules Gravereaux, father of L’Hay les Roses, in the design and selection of roses
for the park. Forestier’s
design brought in new elements, one of which was the desire to use a
garden for education in botany and the art of gardens. Although it was solidly designed on
geometric principles, it brought together something new for Paris, the use
of annuals with the varied forms of perennials, strongly influenced by the
artistry of Monet and Gertrude Jekyl.