Le Vasterival, Botanical garden in Varengeville-sur-Mer, France.

Le Vasterival is a private botanical garden in Sainte-Marguerite-sur-Mer, in the Vasterival valley. It covers 12 hectares, partly flat and partly sloping, with groves separated by mown lawns and mixed borders. It holds over 7,000 species and varieties, chosen for their adaptation to the site and for year-round interest.

Princess Greta Sturdza, born Grete Kvaal in Oslo in 1915, laid out the garden from 1957 in the grounds of the former house of composer Albert Roussel, which she occupied from 1955 to 2009. She was vice-president of the Royal Horticultural Society and president of the International Dendrology Society. She and her husband, Prince Georges Michel Sturdza, are buried in the new cemetery of Sainte-Marguerite-sur-Mer.

The garden reflects how one person's vision of collecting plants from around the world took physical shape over decades. You can sense the collector's eye in every section, where trees and flowers from different continents grow side by side.

Le Vasterival is a private garden in the valleuse du Vasterival at Sainte-Marguerite-sur-Mer, and visits are reserved for groups, so arrangements must be made before coming. The 12 hectares lie partly flat and partly sloping, with groves cut by mown lawns and mixed borders. Allow time to walk the whole circuit.

Princess Greta Sturdza, who created the garden from 1957, lies buried with her husband Prince Georges Michel Sturdza in the new cemetery of Sainte-Marguerite-sur-Mer, on the route de Saint-Martin at Le Bas Blanc-Mesnil. Visitors walking the grounds rarely know that the garden's founder rests a short distance away.