The Medieval Garden Enclosed

Launched on July 1, 2008, The Medieval Garden Enclosed immediately established a loyal following: 182 posts, 528,582 visits, and readers from 199 countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe were recorded through December 2013. This blog will continue to serve as a valuable resource for interpreting the gardens at The Cloisters and exploring the multiple roles, legends, uses, and interpretations of plants in the Middle Ages. All of the posts on??The Medieval Garden Enclosed will remain available for reference. The blog’s success proves just how inquisitive readers are about plants and their context within medieval life and art.

I am very pleased to announce that today we’ve launched a new blog called In Season. As the title suggests, the reimagined blog will continue to address a garden audience, but it will also include conversations about timely events, projects, and activities at The Cloisters. Although at least half of the weekly posts will continue to focus on medieval plants and gardens, authors will also address topics related to their research on the Museum’s collection, conservation projects, educational programs, and other activities. We look forward to engaging a new audience while continuing to provide a forum for interpreting our unique and specialized plant collection.

We invite readers old and new to comment on In Season posts. Our goal is to encourage conversation and to make the many activities at The Cloisters accessible to all our visitors, both onsite and online.

???Christina Alphonso

Dear friends,

I’m leaving The Cloisters and New York City for a country life, and want to say farewell and thank you to the many thousands of visitors around the world who found their way to The Medieval Garden Enclosed over the course of the last five years and five months. Your engagement, encouragement, comments, observations, and contributions have sustained and enriched this very preliminary exploration of the medieval plant world. To those of you who wrote to say that it brought you joy, I want to say that it brought the same to me. I hope you’ll continue to visit The Cloisters Museum & Gardens, virtually and actually.

Please do look for future posts, as my colleagues carry on???a post on the medieval significance of the hazelnuts included in our holiday decorations will be coming up soon.

???Deirdre