Delphinium: Vivid Blues
Posted in Around the Garden, Exhibitions on May 9 2012, by Matt Newman
Claude Monet may have defined his career as a painter with the iconic irises and water lilies that sprung from his palette, but his garden at Giverny offered a menagerie of color and shape that reached far beyond his most common canvas subjects. And it does to this day: over a century later, a crack staff of gardeners still tends the dazzling variety of plants that makes up the Impressionist’s living legacy. This includes a collection of vibrant indigo flowers well-known to home gardeners, cattle ranchers, and one of the 20th century’s greatest creatives.
As May makes its case for cheerful spring weather, a prime example of the Impressionist’s varied tastes blooms at the NYBG‘s Nolen Glasshouses, awaiting the opening of Monet’s Garden. And if ever an eponymous color did its namesake proud, it would be that of “delphinium blue.” There are other hues in the plant’s repertoire, of course–lavender, white, red–but each understated alternate might seem almost banal in comparison.