A feast for the eyes in the Gardner Museum’s holiday courtyard

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is carrying on a tradition created by its founder with the "Holiday Garden."

According to the museum's head horticulturalist Erika Rumbley, Gardner worked with talented gardeners in the early 1900s to create festive displays in her courtyard. Now large  succulent aloe plants, velvety foliage, flowering jade trees and crimson amaryllis are filling the lush space with seasonal cheer.

“We’ve made these nests out of these fresh evergreen branches, partially cut from local farms, that have amaryllis rising up out of them,” Rumbley said. “Creating those special moments inside the collage of the garden is a real joy.”

Mrs. Gardener’s courtyard was inspired by conservatories that amassed plants from all over the globe. The plants were kept in greenhouses so they could live in northern climates like Boston. Rumbley and her team nurture the museum’s massive “living collection” and rotate the museum's courtyard installations 10 times a year.

In the winter months, Rumbley said Bostonians’ eyes are calibrated to the grays, browns and greens of the landscape. But when they step inside the courtyard they meet a colorful palette of rich greens and vibrant blooms. “Even before I worked at the Gardner, this is what made me fall in love with the place,” Rumbley said. “It’s that saturated color that feels like medicine in the winter.”

The museum’s container garden features dozens of plant species. “I think the joy of working in this space is that we're working inside this historic frame that doesn't change,” Rumbley said, “but we're working to produce something fresh so that you're seeing something you've never seen before.”

According to Gardner lore, the museum’s jade plants can be traced back to the founder’s time. “The jades we are working with today are propagated from jades that she had in her greenhouses over 120 years ago,” Rumbley said. “Some of the oldest individuals in the collection have these massive trunks — more than 10 inches across — and have been living with us for over 60 years.”

Jades are said to hold auspicious energy that heralds good fortune. "Jade is one of those plants that's carried meaning and symbolism with it for a lot of different cultures through history,” Rumbley said, “It’s often associated with prosperity, and I love the idea that the jade is kind of the founding structure of this installation that carries us into the new year.”

For Rumbley, one of the most special things about the Gardner’s courtyard is that it rewards a kind of wandering attention that allows visitors to absorb the visuals around them. “We don't get to do that very much in our lives,” she said, “So it brings me a lot of joy when I see people making their way through the palace — either in groups or on their own — and just kind of dropping into the detail of what catches their eye.”

Much like the museum's galleries, Rumbley said the courtyard is densely layered. “It's this really intricate collage, which means you can just follow your senses through the space and find the combinations that draw you in.”

The courtyard’s garden is meant to be viewed from all angles. Look down from the second floor balconies and Rumbley said, “you can see the star shapes of the aloes — or you could focus on the corners of the ground floor where there tend to be scented orchids.”

Wherever and however visitors encounter these flowers and plants, Rumbley hopes they find a sense of peace and connection during the holiday season and throughout the coming new year.

“Anytime you come to the Gardner,” Rumbley said, “you're going to see something new."

The “Holiday Garden” is on display through the first week of January, after which the Gardner’s courtyard shifts to “Midwinter Tropics.”