map of Boston Public Garden the inspiration for BLUEHILL Fragrances Metrogarden via collection.leventhalmap.org
“Here’s to dear old Boston,
The home of the bean and the cod,
Where Lowells speak only to Cabots,
And Cabots speak only to G-d.” ~ Toast given by John Collins Bossidy in 1910 at Holy Cross College
John Singleton Copley portrait of Founding Father Samuel Adams wikipedia
This libation doggerel offered at a 1910 gathering of Holy Cross alumni may be long in the tooth, but it remains somewhat accurate. Boston is a Grande Dame if ever there was one – a fact I’m unlikely to forget, since my move here in 1972 to Boston’s Beacon Hill introduced me to a whole new world of proud Daughters of the American Revolution and frumpily elegant women of a certain age who wore stout shoes and pulled out their dusty-milk-bottle diamonds for special occasions only. Pearls were omnipresent, de rigueur. Being New York born, Boston Brahmins both fascinated and repulsed me: I don’t do entitled well, anywhere. In those early bitter New England winters, I found myself hauling stubborn matriarchs down those steep icy streets and sidewalks so infamously ill-maintained; I was afraid that they’d tumble and break their fragile venerable bones (I’d do it again today in a heartbeat). I grew to be wryly fond of Brahmins in spite of myself and came to love our city, wealthy in history and greenery.
Ida roses in the Public Gardens
Which brings us to gardens? Absolutely – urban ones secreted behind elaborate wrought-iron fences and gates, brick walls and deceitful shrubbery, away from prying eyes. Or alternatively, the very public Public Gardens with its quaint Swan Boats – part of Boston’s Emerald Necklace chain of parks and green spaces designed by Frederick Olmsted: both intersect at the foot of Beacon Hill’s Charles Street.
Perfumer Sandy Carr in her kitchen via Dave Habeeb
Perfumer Sandy Carr of BLUEHILLS Fragrances has painted us a loving aquarelle of gardens which may be viewed by invitation only or photographic essay (for the most part), barring the occasional windowbox or door wreath – as well the verdant open space beloved by locals and visitors alike. You spy them on foot when you explore Beacon Hill with its precipitous, poorly marked one-way streets and infinitely stately cul-de-sacs (The Beacon Hill Garden Club offers a one-day Annual Tour of the Hidden Gardens of Beacon Hill: this year it’s on Thursday, May 21st from 9-5. That’s so quirky and so Bostonian.). Sandy’s olfactory portrait grants us a peek inside an urban refuge filled with rays of sunlight and blissful shade. The beauty of Metrogarden, quite simply, is this: you don’t have to be moneyed or privileged to avail yourself of horticultural respite. It’s yours for the asking – and it is as lovely as it is original.
Ida’s sons as young boys photo by Ida
What constitutes a Metrogarden? In our former neighborhood one must conjure the leafy, grassy aspect while not neglecting flowers. Europeans visiting our fair city remark upon plentiful parks and trees: lindens, maples, locusts, oaks all line the avenues and side streets; clinging vines, ivies, ferns flourish where sun is scarce. In BLUEHILL Fragrances Metrogarden cheery citruses welcome with their clarion burst of lemon, multi-faceted petitgrain and brisk bergamot touches. I sense the immediate affinity which petitgrain seems to have for narcissus, an intimate dance. Narcissus is particularly complex here because its floralcy exhibits an animalic, horsey facet and also lends a verdant hue.
Photo by Ida
That narcissus adores vetiver; together they sing of green. Iris is the sun as violet is the shadow; in concert they impart a charming floral/sylvan coolness which is grateful for buttery sandalwood and the dollop of Peru balsam, the latter’s ambery balsamic tones tinged with wood and cinnamon. Of course there are roses! We are not as temperate as other zones, but roses are abundant in our hidden and public gardens and one can smell them upon the summer breezes (sea breeze or land breeze) without any effort. Obliging rose never disappoints, especially such a gorgeous one as this.
stock photo
You want the first spritz to last forever because it makes you giddy with pleasure – orange, pink, red, blue, green, violet! You smell such colors, each and all, fervidly until they meld seamlessly into a sheen of floral/woody shantung silk. Don’t just read the notes, for goodness’ sake; paper doesn’t work either, only flesh will do. Metrogarden requires skin in order to bloom. I am rarely a ‘two-spritzer’, but in this case I will because my senses crave it and I want to experience that grand first flush, as all greedy noses do.
2020 may be brand new still, but BLUEHILL Fragrances Metrogarden has already distinguished itself as a unique beauty with classical bone structure and a marvelous surprise.
Notes: lemon, petitgrain, bergamot, iris, violet, rose, narcissus, sandalwood, Peru balsam, vetiver, crystalline musk
My bottle was a gift from the perfumer – many thanks, Sandy! I treasure it. My nose is my own…
~ Ida Meister, Senior Editor and Natural Perfumery Editor
BLUEHILL Fragrances Metrogarden by Ida
Thanks to the generosity of Sandy Carr of BLUEHILL Fragrances, we are offering one 50 ml flacon of Metrogarden for one registered reader in the USA ONLY. You can register here. Please leave a comment regarding what appealed to you about Ida’s review and if there is a public garden near where you live. Draw closes 2/17/2020
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