LuEsther Mertz Library, NYBG, Fruits and Flowers of Winter
The Mertz Library, a part of the New York Botanical Garden website, has constructed an online exhibit that offers a timely subject: Winter Fruits and Flowers.
"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 is one of the sections offered by the exhibit:
"One day, when Proserpina, daughter of Ceres, the goddess of agriculture, was gathering flowers in the fields, she was abducted by Pluto, god of the underworld, and carried off to his kingdom. Ceres was consumed with grief and in anger she scorched the earth, preventing grain from growing and the earth from producing fruit. Forced to intervene, Jupiter negotiated a compromise that provided Proserpina had not eaten anything while in the underworld she would be set free. Pluto however had offered Proserpina part of a pomegranate, which she accepted. The Fates would not allow Proserpina to be fully released, but a settlement was agreed upon by which she would spend part of the year with Pluto in the underworld (winter) and part of the year with her mother Ceres (summer). When Proserpina is with Pluto the earth is barren and cold and when she returns to her mother, Ceres pours forth the blessings of spring to welcome her beloved daughter home."
Other sections of the Winter Exhibit include: Citrus and Orangeries, Hothouses and Greenhouses, Winter in Early New York City, Contriving a Winter Garden, A Walk Through In the Garden and Nursery and Florists Offerings, all beautifully illustrated and a marvelous way to pass a winter that may bring few flowers.
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