General admission for children 17 years and under is always free

John Lowell Gardner Chrysanthemum Installation

On view: September-November

00:00 / 4:35

The Audio Walk was produced by Sandy Goldberg of sgscripts.

[ERIKA RUMBLEY] Hi, I’m Erika Rumbley, Director of Horticulture at the Gardner. I’m so glad you’re here to see our chrysanthemum installation. As the days shorten during the autumn, our mums get the longer nights they need to flower - bringing vivid color into the courtyard.

For me, this is one of our most playful installations- with a kaleidoscope of color and elaborate forms. Which ones are your favorites? Over centuries, growers have created and named more than 20,000 types of mums. Here at the Gardner, we grow a few dozen varieties, pruned into three distinct forms. One is a mounded shrub that may look familiar. The second has longer branches with mid-sized blooms. But I think that the single stem chrysanthemums are the stars of the show. Each single bloom – sitting on top of a 3-to-5-foot plant – is about the size of your head. To achieve this, we practice a Japanese pruning tradition known as Ogiku. Every week, as the mums grow, we prune off side branches so they put all their energy into a single, colossal flower. That’s how we get these exaggerated, over-the-top mums. Isabella and her father-in-law used the same pruning techniques for their award-winning mums. We named this traditional autumn show for Isabella’s great-grandnephew, John Lowell Gardner, to honor his lifetime of dedication to the Museum, as well as his love of the Courtyard, which he saw as the heart of this place.

And this courtyard installation is just one of about ten different ones we do every year.

The tall tree ferns around the four corners of the mosaic are some of the few elements that are here all year long. They’re not moveable anymore because they’ve rooted themselves in the soil below the building. These types of trees love water. They crave it so much that they broke through their pots searching for more moisture underground. If you look for the bulging part on each tree trunk, that’s the point in their growth where the trees broke through their pots.

Nearly every other plant changes with every installation. There are always key characters: plants that have a line back to ones that Isabella loved. These include ferns and palms, azaleas, chrysanthemums, and, of course, orchids.

Move around to find a good viewing spot for you. I have a few favorite spots of my own. One is facing the fountain head-on. You can see the fountain along the wall of the courtyard best by moving around the courtyard, to the area between the two columns that have lions on the bottom. On the right and left sides of the fountain you’ll see this stark symmetry of color and texture and scale all framed by the height of the space. Another favorite view is from any corner of the courtyard. That’s where you’ll find plants that break the symmetry – maybe a one-off orchid that just opened this morning. And from the upper floors you’ll be able to see the star shaped forms of the tree ferns, and the overall geometry of the plant placements.

When we’re caring for the living collection, we think not just about the health of the plants, but about everyone. So, we use organic methods, and that includes weekly releases of a mite that eats other mites.

Horticulturists work in this space every morning, 365 days a year! As we leave, we sweep the gravel paths so there are no footprints. For me, it’s a fantasy of an almost impossibly exuberant garden, somehow magically untouched by human hands.

Every time you come, the courtyard – and you – will be different. Open yourself to each experience.

Dozens of varieties of chrysanthemums appear in the Courtyard starting in late September. Throughout the fall season, new colors and species of chrysanthemums and fall foliage plants make an appearance in the Courtyard Garden. This display has a lot of history behind it, as Isabella grew many chrysanthemum varieties on her Brookline estate, Green Hill. A pink-tinged chrysanthemum variety was named for Isabella.

Please note that the Courtyard displays are part of a living collection and as such the actual flowers may be different than what is described on our website.

Chrysanthemum courtyard display at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

A primrose Mt. Shasta, which is pale yellow, very large, has loosely incurving blooms and looks like butter.

A Lili Gallon, which has irregular incurve class (purple + white), large showy reflexing bloom of unusual color combination. Very long deep wine purple florets that curl to show stunning reverse color of silver.

Samson, which is a deep red and very tall.

Chrysanthemum from the courtyard display at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Photo by Sean Dungan, 2013.

Irregular Incurve "Primrose Mt. Shasta"

Chrysanthemum "Lili Gallon"

Chrysanthemum "Samson"

Chrysanthemum "Moira". Photo by Siena Scarff, 2012.

Each spring, our dedicated horticulturalists begin tending heirloom varieties of chrysanthemums in a Japanese technique called okigu. The Gardner Museum is one of just a small handful of institutions in the United States using this time-honored tradition; other practitioners include The New York Botanical Garden and The Botanic Garden of Smith College’s Lyman Conservatory, among others.

The process begins in late spring when over 300 chrysanthemum cuttings are potted for the first time at our South Shore Greenhouse. The horticulture team maintains the single-stem plants inside the greenhouse to safely grow tall away from the unpredictable weather of spring in Massachusetts. At the same time, the heartier bushes and sprays are grown outdoors.

Each week, the team is meticulously pruning, training, and fertilizing the plants. Around mid-summer, the plants are cut down to be twelve inches tall in a practice called “topping,” which helps ensure the chrysanthemums are uniform in height for their installation in the Courtyard. With months of prudent pinching and disbudding throughout the growing season, the technique will produce one colossal blossom atop a single stem over four feet tall.

By the fall equinox, each of the chrysanthemums has produced a bud, meaning their long-awaited Courtyard debut is mere weeks away!

THE GROWING PROCESS

Someone watering the mums in the Courtyard of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Chrysanthemum bushes and sprays are grown outdoors at the Museum's South Shore Greenhouse

Single-stem chrysanthemums grown indoors at the South Shore greenhouse to safely grow tall away from the unpredictable weather of spring in Massachusetts.

The tiny, pincushion-like white bloom, named after famed regional horticulturist Allen Haskell, are grown in the Museum's outdoor greenhouse. According to Museum legend, Haskell gave the Gardner its first cuttings of this hardy mum.

Watering Mums in Courtyard

This display has a lot of history behind it, as Isabella grew many chrysanthemum varieties on her Brookline estate, Green Hill, and won awards at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s Autumn Show. A pink-tinged chrysanthemum variety was even named after Isabella.

Native to East Asia and northeastern Europe, this flowering herb was believed to hold the power of life has been cultivated for medicine in China for over three thousand years. Chrysanthemums arrived in Japan in the eighth century. Cultivation of the flower was initially only permitted in the gardens of emperors and nobility.

Gardner horticulturists trained with a Japanese Chrysanthemum Master in the ogiku technique many decades ago. Since then, the practice has been passed down through the department’s generations through both oral history and hands-on observation. To learn more about the rich history of chrysanthemums at the Museum, read this blog by horticulturist Jenny Pore:

A close up of a flower with line line petals.

On the Blog

Chrysanthemum Impressions: A Spotlight on our Beautiful Blooms

IN THE COLLECTION

DENNIS MILLER BUNKER

Chrysanthemums, 1888

JAPANESE, KANO SCHOOL

Sliding Doors (Fusamas): Chrysanthemums and Bamboo, 17th century

CHINESE

Informal Coat (Ch'ao Kua) with Chrysanthemum Sprays, about 1850-1900

About John Lowell Gardner

John “Jack” L. Gardner was the great-grandnephew of Isabella Stewart Gardner and Chairman Emeritus of the Gardner Museum’s Board of Trustees.

Jack was a beloved member and guiding force for the Gardner community. He was an integral part of the board leadership for over 50 years, and his vision, advocacy, and generosity created much of what makes the Gardner Museum the vibrant cultural institution we know today. Not only did he work to preserve Isabella’s unparalleled collection, but he also helped propel the Museum into a modern era with his support for initiatives such as the construction of the New Wing. Jack’s legacy will remain a celebrated part of the Gardner Museum's history and evolution.

Following his death in January 2021, a small group of Jack’s fellow Board members, friends, and colleagues established an endowment fund to name the John Lowell Gardner Chrysanthemum Installation in perpetuity. This naming of the annual fall horticulture installation honors Jack’s lifetime of dedication to the Gardner, as well as his love of the Courtyard, which he saw as the heart of the Museum.

The Museum offers four special floral installations each year: chrysanthemums in the fall, nasturtiums in the spring, bellflowers in the summer, and the Holiday Courtyard in the winter. While the Courtyard is in bloom all year long, with nine transformations each year, these four installations celebrate iconic flowers with deep, historical roots at the Gardner, and whose height, color, and shape bring whimsy to the space to the delight of all visitors.