Monet’s Garden

Writing a novel consists of a lot of sitting at a desk, pacing the office floor, looking inside yourself.  So when my latest women’s fiction Beach Colors hit the shelves, a friend and I hit the NYC botanical gardens.

The NYBG is located in the Bronx and covers 250 acres.

Our trip this day was to the Enid Haupt Conservatory which currently houses an exhibit called Monet’s Garden.  The conservatory is the nation’s largest Victorian style glasshouse. It was designed by the leading greenhouse company of the time, Lord and Burnham Co and was modeled after the Palm House at the Royal botanic Garden at Kew (London) and the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park which housed the Great Exhibition of 1851. The Haupt Conservatory opened in 1902.

It might seem like a non sequitur thing do on a release date, but since Beach Colors is about a fashion designer, known for her stark cutting edge designs, who returns to the shore to rediscover the joy or color, a trip to a painter’s garden seemed perfectly reasonable.

So it was off to Monet’s Garden to enjoy the French impressionist’s interpretation of color through his other passion, gardening. The original Monet’s garden is in Giverny, France.

The exhibit fills the Enid A. Haupt conservatory, and the colors are so vibrant that I  couldn’t find words to describe them, but I did take some photos.  It was quite busy with people stopping to talk along the narrow paths, artists camped out on stools with their easels and sketch books. Everyone leaning closer and closer to get a better view or read the names of the flowers.

The mood was one of wonder and joy.

The first surprise was a plant that held everyone spellbound, tall and soft with willowy arms that might have adorned a creature from Pixar.  It turned out to be Verbascum.

My favorites were the delphiniums.  So many blues and pinks.

And speaking of pinks, check out these hollyhocks and snap dragons.

And this was just the beginning of an explosion of colors, texture and scents. Later we took the trolley to the Mertz Library and saw pictures and paintings of the original Monet Garden.

It was a lovely day, calm and beautiful.

The exhibit runs through October 21.  And November 19 through the middle of January the conservatory is home to model train exhibit which runs through a vast New York City made entirely of natural materials.

Whether experiencing a special exhibit or just wandering the gardens, I always feel rejuvenated, inspired and  thankful each time I enter the magical world of the New York Botanical Gardens.