An exhibition drawn from
the collections of
The LuEsther T. Mertz
Library
Curated by
Susan Fraser
Marie Long
Stephen Sinon
On view November 15-February 16, 2002
Gardener, if you listen, listen well:
Plant for your winter pleasure, when
the months dishearten;
Plant to find a fragile note touched
from the brittle violin of frost.
Vita Sackville-West
The Garden
Fruits
and Flowers of Winter features items drawn from the Mertz Library’s rare
books, folios, archival materials, manuscripts, and original artwork, exploring
the pageantry of winter’s beauty.
In 1712, Joseph Addison, an English essayist wrote in his a daily paper, The Spectator, an article introducing the concept of the all-green winter garden whose “trees only as never cast their leaves.” Addison contrived a winter garden saying, “there is something unspeakably cheerful in a spot of ground which is cover’d with trees that smile amidst all the rigour of winter, and give us a view of the most gay season . . .”
The exhibition features
more than 60 splendid works of botanical illustration that brighten and
illuminate the season. Seventeenth-century items illustrate advances in
hothouse construction, enabling the growth of fruits and flowers indoors
in winter. Exotic plants collected for local and foreign trade during this
period of exploration enriched the collections of botanical gardens and
private horticulturists. A rare post revolutionary era New York City plantsman’s
account ledger provides a glimpse of the number of exotic ornamentals from
Europe and Asia, recently brought into the trade, and being kept the winter
for a fee.
 |
 |
 |
 |
| The Story of Winter | Citrus & Orangeries | Hothouses&Greenhouses | Winter in Early New York City |
 |
 |
 |
| Contriving A Winter Garden | Walking in a Winter Garden | Florists and Nurseries |