“Tis said, in summer’s evening hour
Flashes the golden-colour’d flower. —Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The first week of April in the hills of Western Massachusetts can be a frustrating time when spring is trying real hard to get going but wintery won’t let go. It is the perfect time to drive to balmier Boston to visit the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum for the annual show of nasturtiums. Long strands of brilliant orange blooms and distinctive green circular leaves dangle from third story balconies with pink stuccoed walls of the indoor courtyard as a backdrop. Each quadrant of the garden is graced with an elegant tree fern, rising up on a slender trunk while the nasturtiums cascade down.
The collection of ancient art and architecture is an ideal compliment to the floral display. Stone lions stare from doorways and arched windows. Saints and sinners, royals and peasants, are steps away in this personal collection of artworks, on view through room after room. A portrait of Isabella Stewart Gardner painted by John Singer Sargent holds court from a corner of one room.
As you walk along the corridors of the three stories you always return to the walkway surrounding the courtyard. From above you can see the surprisingly small terra cotta pots holding the plants. You can also peer through strands of nasturtiums to their counterparts across the way.
The simplicity of the orange and green against the pink and the four tree ferns rising up while the nasturtiums hang down is stunning. The classical setting and interspersed ancient art add to the beauty. It is a perfect celebration of spring and Isabella’s birthday and a spectacular use of one of my favorite flowers.
April 2023
Read "Nasturtiums" from January 2022