Imperial Lilies-of-the-Valley Basket (see below)

Humans have gardened for centuries out of necessity and more recently for visual pleasure. But garden scenes and images of plant life have figured in decoration since the beginning of time. One need look no further than the first floor of New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) to see that this is true. There, among the Egyptian, Greek, African and European sculptures and decorative art, I found enough images of flowers and natural scenes to brighten even the rainiest of days. Continue reading →