photo: Gardner Museum courtesy Siena Scarff
Sometime, you have to visit the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston … in April … just to see the hanging nasturtiums. The flowers dominate an entire wall in the central courtyard, filled in early spring with daffodils, hyacinths, orchids, azaleas, and orange and lemon colored Clivia minata. Quite a sight.
The lemon clivia came from the collection of the late Allen Haskell, whose son now runs the Haskell Nursery in New Bedford, MA, famous for its rare and unusual plants.
Museum director Anne Hawley says the annual hanging nasturtiums "herald the start of spring in the city." During her lifetime, Isabella herself often hung the flowers to mark the opening of the museum the week just before Easter.
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