How the Horticulture team maintained the magic

Manon Hazebroucq, landscape project leader, shares with us the Horticulture teams’ work during the temporary closure of Disneyland Paris.

“Our division is in charge of maintaining the grass, controlling the vegetation, and in the case of our temporary closure, transitioning from winter to spring during a pivotal period in March. We were going to start the rotations but when we learnt about our closure, we contacted our producers to put them on standby. Spring is the best time of year and no one has taken advantage of it, no one has seen the beauty of the bulbs that have bloomed. I chose these 90,000 bulbs and I didn’t even see them bloom!

Controlling weeds is colossal work; some are as tall as men. Tomato plants have grown in our plant beds. That said, three months of growth did good for our box trees, which we usually prune regularly to keep their shape.

This spring ranked as the second hottest spring in 20 years. It only rained 10mm in two months (compared to 105mm on average). Usually, we use the water from our wastewater treatment plant, but without guests to take showers or flush the toilet, we had to optimize the watering. One of our accomplishments was maintaining Disneyland Golf thanks to a borehole.

The confinement allowed me to become aware of the role of women and men in the shadows: the cleanliness teams. When everything is going well and everything is clean, nothing is noticed. But without them, dust and birds settle in … and nature takes back its rights!”

Discover more with Manon in the video below:

Kinai
Disney and me, it's a long love story. I fell into it as a child and never got out. From movies to theme parks, through the history of the Walt Disney Company, to comic books, everything fascinates me.