To Bring Van Gogh to Life, They Just Needed Sunflowers

New York Times

20-05-2025

The New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx had just about everything it needed for an exhibition of real and sculptural sunflowers.
It had the inspiration: Vincent van Gogh, the Dutch artist who spent time in Arles, a region in the south of France whose sunflower fields are legendary in part because of his depiction of them.
It had the artist: Cyril Lancelin, a French artist based in Lyon who visited the Arles sunflower fields as a child.
And it had the location: its Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, which could host the indoor floral displays, and an adjacent lawn that could showcase the remainder of the 18,000 plants that organizers had in mind.
The garden just needed the sunflowers.
Sunflowers naturally bloom later in June and throughout the summer, as days get longer and temperatures increase, said Brian Sullivan, the garden's vice president of glasshouses and landscape. But the garden wanted to start its show in May.
The organizers met this challenge by researching which sunflowers might bloom earlier and be more tolerant of the cooler temperatures of late April, when they would be planted outdoors. They discovered the ProCut sunflower series, developed for the cut-flower trade, which requires sunflowers that are easy to germinate and flower year-round.
Mr. Sullivan said these sunflowers 'proved perfectly suited to be grown and flower outdoors in the Bronx in late spring.'
The show opens to the public on Saturday and runs through October, but a sneak peek behind the scenes offered a glimpse of the complex planning behind the exhibition that will be known as 'Van Gogh's Flowers.'
The 18,000 plants on display include over 300 species and cultivars, or plants cultivated by breeders. Almost all of them — 95 percent — have been or will be grown by seed or seedling, a process that began last summer in the Nolen Greenhouses, which are usually closed to the public.
The garden's horticulture team had to calculate how long it will take for the seeds to germinate and grow big enough to be transported to the conservatory or its lawn and survive once they're on display. The team must also make plans to grow extra plants with the changing seasons and to replace any that fade or die. The plants on display outdoors need to be able to grow in New York's summer climate, which tends to be hot, humid and rainy.
The garden will replace delphiniums and carnations on display in the conservatory in late spring with begonias and zinnias in the summer, and chrysanthemums and asters in the fall. Mr. Sullivan suggested that only plant enthusiasts would notice these changes, 'since the color scheme should feel the same.'
Sunflowers, of course, thrive in direct, actual sunlight — their name in French is 'tournesol,' which means 'turning to the sun.' All of the sunflowers are being grown from seed in the greenhouses to be transplanted outside to the conservatory lawn.
There will be 32 types of sunflowers, ranging from the four-foot-tall, classic, yellow Provence Summer to the 10-foot-tall Mammoth, with 12-inch golden flowers. The perennial Maximilian sunflower, which is native to United States prairies, will flower as the summer progresses.
One of the horticulture team's favorites is Vincent's Choice, with yellow ray petals surrounding a dark center.
The real sunflowers will be joined on the lawn by Mr. Lancelin's sunflower art installation, with sculptures ranging from five to 15 feet tall.
Mr. Sullivan said the garden's horticulture and exhibitions teams researched van Gogh's letters, in which he said the artist made many references to plants that were 'great for interpretation.'
'We work to try to flesh out these stories, try to tell them through plants,' he said.
He said the garden planned its major exhibitions several years in advance, with its horticultural, exhibitions and programming, and other teams collaborating on their themes. Joanna Groarke, the garden's vice president of exhibitions and programming, said in an email that organizers had wanted to feature van Gogh for a long time.
They were drawn to his art, 'from landscapes depicting fields of wheat, country gardens and city parks to vibrant floral still lifes,' she said.
One somewhat quirky use of flowers in the exhibition is in the conservatory. There are soft pink larkspur and light green Bells of Ireland planted beneath and nearby a metalwork depiction of Van Gogh's 1890 painting of roses, which is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The metalwork is by Amie Jacobsen.
According to the garden, in 1890, Van Gogh gathered an 'avalanche' of pink Provence roses from the garden where he lived to create a soft pink-green contrast. Today, the pink pigment Van Gogh used in his painting has largely faded away and the flowers appear white. However, Ms. Jacobsen's blossoms are beautifully stippled shades of pink and white, now surrounded by the colorful living flowers.