Claude Monet’s garden - what is this plant?

[Blogdog]

Came across this amazing photo of Claude Monet’s garden taken in 1921 on Twitter (link to the thread here: Babelcolour).

What is the purple-leaved plant growing up the tripods on the left?

Well I'm stumped, but I suspect it is a tender climber of some sort grown as an annual. It looks like several things but none of them have leaves that colour.

It might not even be in cultivation any more.

It has big purple vine shaped leaves like a Vitis (grapevine) but then it also has big orange flowers …

Still, thr plant app evangelists will be along soon

The flowers look a bit like Morning Glory but their colour and the leaf colour is wrong. Hopefully some of the experts will have a view!

Could they be a variety of sweet pea?

Or a dahlia!

The photo is likely colourised so it's probably not the right colours.

I'd guess it hasn't been colourised as I believe he typically doesn't do this - I follow him on Twitter. I think as a rule he just tidies up the photos that he adds on there. Would be interested to find out what it is too!

Looks like it could be a black-leafed, trailing variety of nasturtium, trained to climb. But the image isn't clear enough to be sure.

Here's another pic
www.wsj.com/articles/step-inside-monets-garden-1479494367
Whatever the climber is it seems to be climbing up strings

Probably a grape vine.

I like Babelcolour's posts as well, OP. I wondered for a minute if they might even be some variety of runner beans with bronze foliage, as I believe he did have a very big vegetable garden too, but I can’t quite convince myself that’s what they are.

There's a website that lists the plants he grew and ipomoea is on there - morning glory. So you could be right. There are definitely varieties that have foliage that colour, but I’m not sure about the bright red flowers. Could be a now-defunct variety…or maybe the colour in the photo isn’t quite right?

If you look at contemporary photos of the garden, there are nasturtiums climbing up those obelisks today.

I also think it is a climbing nasturtium. When viewed en face in the photo the leaves have a round shape. Climbing nasturtiums ( capucines grimpantes) are listed on the Giverny plant list.

There is a purple leaf form of ipomea. My eyes/screen make it difficult for me to see but the purple leaf variety of 'morning glory' would be a possible bearing in mind previous comments about being 'ipomea'-like. If memory serves me correctly Monty Don was planting them (annuals) in the big pots in the jewel garden a couple of weeks ago.

Colour photography in the the form of an “autochrome” became available in about 1920. Colour film for the mass market came in in the 1960s. Monet died in 1926. It is possible that the photo was hand coloured at the-time. They fact they use Nasturtiums now suggests the trustees may have access to other evidence eg planting plans.

Most of the leaves appear pointed, which would rule out Nasturtiums, but a few leaves bottom left do appear round, so it’s possible that the apparent pointedness is an artefact of folding.

Not Ipomea, they get their flower colour from the range of pigments that give colours from pink through purple to blue, not that orangey red in the picture.

Definitely not runner bean or sweet pea as those flowers are clearly not in sprays, and they’re far too big for the tiny flowers of a grape vine. I’m not aware of any dahlias which climb, or even which would be big enough to be tied up to an obelisk.

If it is a nasturtium it could be empress of India which has very dark leaves and a bright scarlet flower. It’s the one I always grow, though mine don’t look as magnificent as that.

possibly beans

Not with those large orange red flowers

Well I'm not a particularly knowledgeable gardener, but film and film stock I do know about! It looks like the image has been colourised and had a digital clean up, so the colours in all likelihood will have an element of creative license by the restorer. For identification I'd go more on the leaf shape than the colours.