At first glance, the scene looks familiar. Carefully stacked boxes of ornaments, ribbons, and trimmings fill every empty inch of open space in the period rooms in the Mansion. The flurry of activity crescendos as the opening night of Holiday LIGHTS looms.

However, a closer look reveals some changes starting with the overall theme – Sweet Holiday Dreams.

“This year’s theme reinterprets the Mansion’s holiday décor as a series of enchanting vignettes inspired by classic stories, songs, and traditions,” said Laura Dowling, the former Chief Floral Designer at the White House and the mastermind behind the project. “The idea is that Christmas comes alive in dreams. From music to movies, there is this connection between the holiday and dreams.”

After creating, designing, and installing last year’s stunning décor in the Cheekwood Mansion, Dowling said it was a year-long planning process to devise the new theme, color palettes for each room and envision different decorations for each space. She was inspired by visions of sugarplums, candy-colored hues, and chestnuts roasting over an open fire. 

A discerning eye may recognize individual ornaments or ribbons used in last year’s display but will also notice each has been repurposed in a new way.

“My goal was to use all of the ornaments, ribbons, and topiaries from last year and reimagine them in different spaces throughout the Mansion to create an entirely new look and theme,” said Dowling. “It shows it is possible to use a base collection of décor embellished with a few new elements to create fresh and inspiring designs year after year.”

Whether it is vibrant bursts of color in the Drawing Room inspired by Dolly Parton’s “Hard Candy Christmas” or the whimsical pink and purple trees in the Loggia that pay tribute to the Sugarplum Fairy in The Nutcracker, each space comes alive with vintage-style ornaments, festive bouquets, colorful ribbons, and striking topiaries, wreaths, trees, and garlands – all created with Dowling’s signature touch, infused with her love of history, Paris, and the French garden-style.

Robbie Honey decorates a tree in the Mansion.

A designer decorates a tree in the Mansion.

Volunteers work on a wreath during Holiday LIGHTS Craft Days.

Transforming more than 10 spaces at the Cheekwood Mansion is just the latest impressive accomplishment on Dowling’s resume. Having served as Chief Floral Designer at the White House from 2009-2015, she managed the floral design for thousands of private and official White House parties, receptions, and state dinners as well as large-scale installations for the Fourth of July, Halloween, and the iconic White House Christmas. She is also an author of five books and is a regular speaker at national, regional, and local horticulture associations, garden clubs, and museums.

The opportunity to collaborate with Dowling brought many familiar faces back to Cheekwood – even if they had to travel across the world to make it happen.

“I did want to come back, but wasn’t going to due to a schedule conflict,” said Robbie Honey, author and renowned floral designer, who traveled from Cape Town, South Africa, to Nashville. “Laura got in contact and said, ‘Can we make this happen? Let’s make this happen,’ and I jumped at it. It is great to be a part of the team.” 

The dream team of florists who brought Dowling’s designs to life was smaller this year, which Dowling said added cohesion and expedited the design process.

“The people who are here are all world-class designers who bring their own touch and ideas to the project,” said Dowling.

While the number of designers working in the Mansion may have decreased, the number of volunteers helping in the studios in the nearby Frist Learning Center more than made up the difference.

For about three weeks, a group of extraordinary volunteers of all ages and levels of artistic ability contributed their time to participate in “Holiday LIGHTS Craft Days.” They were tasked with completing a series of small projects that ended up having a big impact on the overall installation and design. With painstaking precision and hours of dedication, the volunteers took a combination of craft paper, tissue squares, masking tape, and glitter and turned it into about three dozen decorative balls that would later appear on the trees throughout the Mansion. Others dipped 40,000 handmade paper florets in glitter to help create four beautiful geometric snowflake wreaths for the Loggia doors.

“It’s really a testament to how you can take simple things and transform them into something beautiful,” said Dowling.

Many volunteers ended up staying long past their scheduled shifts lending their time and talent to help bring Laura’s vision to life.  

“We had so much fun,” said Joan Cheek, a longstanding Cheekwood board member, supporter, and volunteer. “Sometimes we just opened boxes of ornaments and added wires, so they were ready to hang. Whatever the designers needed, we were ready to help.”

Everyone who played a role in transforming the Mansion into a winter wonderland agrees they can’t wait for guests to come to Cheekwood to see the finished product.

“I think what Laura does so well is using what we had before and transforming it and creating something new and extraordinary,” said Honey. “You will be able to recognize elements if you look closely. Otherwise, you will think it is all new. I hope it inspires a sense of wonder and joy.”

“It’s a privilege to work here and bring creativity, beauty, and inspiration to visitors at Cheekwood,” said Dowling.

Guests are welcome to tour the Mansion during the day or in the evening during Holiday LIGHTS. Holiday LIGHTS opens on November 21 and runs until January 4, 2026.

Featured image and image above: Shawn Huckins, courtesy of Shawn Huckins Studio.

Cloth can both conceal and reveal — draped to cover, worn boldly as a statement, or pulled aside to unveil a surprise. Painter Shawn Huckins uses textiles to explore ideas about identity and blending worlds in INTERVENTIONS: Shawn Huckins, on view at Cheekwood through October 26. Launched in 2021, the INTERVENTIONS series invites artists to engage with the Cheekwood Mansion’s historic interiors through their own creative lens.

Seven of Huckins’ paintings are integrated into the historic period rooms of the Mansion, threading a compelling connection between past and present. Each piece draws inspiration from Cheekwood’s permanent collection and its 55-acre estate, inviting visitors to explore history through a modern lens.

Rooted in classical imagery, Huckins’ paintings blend into the Mansion’s surroundings, but a closer look reveals unexpected details.

In the Drawing Room, you’ll find Huckins’ contemporary painting Portrait in Metallic Chrome Fabric (Henry Fitzroy after Kneller), inspired by a 17th-century portrait from Cheekwood’s permanent collection. Huckins painted Fitzroy, a military commander, with a silver fabric obscuring part of his face. The juxtaposition of traditional portraiture and flowing metallic fabric creates an interesting peek-a-boo effect.

Shawn Huckins (American, b. 1984), Portrait in Metallic Chrome Fabric (Henry Fitzroy after Kneller), 2025, Oil and acrylic on canvas. On loan from the artist.

Godfrey Kneller (English, 1646–1723), Henry Fitzroy (1663–1690), First Duke of Grafton, c.1685, Oil on canvas, Gift of Mr. Thomas Levis. 1961.17.

Though everything is painted in INTERVENTIONS, Huckins has used real 3D textiles in his art. “In my last series, I incorporated yarn into the paintings. I made these latch-hook rugs and attached them to the canvas. It was difficult and it made me sneeze a lot, but it was fun,” he says with a laugh.

Playfulness and humor are hallmarks of Huckins’ work, but deeper messages lie within the layers — personal expressions of wrestling with his own insecurities and inner critic. He hopes viewers take away something optimistic.

“The paintings are about identity, so I hope people realize their own self-worth and that there’s beauty all around,” Huckins says. “We’re living in some hard times right now, so just to see the simple things in life — like a tree between two curtains — can be beautiful.”

In the Q&A below, Huckins shares more about his craft and the inspiration behind his INTERVENTIONS exhibition at Cheekwood.

Tennessee and Lapis Lazuli Blue Curtain by Shawn Huckins at Cheekwood. Photography by Diana Rosales.

 

Can you tell us a little bit about your background as an artist?

 

How did you get into this realistic style of painting?

My family, they’re a bunch of carpenters and architects, so everything is detail-oriented and that kind of rubbed off on me. It’s been ingrained in me to be precise in my craft. I tried to do abstract work in the past. My professors in school were like, “Shawn, just loosen up a little bit, you gotta relax.” And I’m like, “I’ll try, but I can’t” [laughs].

 

What inspired you to start blending classical artworks with modern, contemporary elements?

When I was in school I didn’t take any figure painting courses. When I graduated, I wanted to teach myself how to paint portraits and learn the flesh colors, so I would copy old masters by tracing them to teach myself how to paint.

In the studio I had a piece of tracing paper that had “LOL” on it, and one of my test studies went below the tracing paper, and I saw that contrast between the new and the old. The text series was born from that, combining historical with contemporary things.

 

What themes did you explore in the seven works you created for INTERVENTIONS, and how do they connect to the Cheekwood Estate?

Within the seven paintings, there are two series. One series is called Dirty Laundry, which is the portraits wrapped in fabric and revealed, and that explores the complexities of identity, the self, insecurities, hiding, all those things.

The second series is my new Curtain series, which combines curtains or draperies with landscapes. And that deals with blending two worlds together, a dreamlike state with reality and where those two crossroads meet.

Great Smoky Mountains During Sunrise and Red Curtain by Shawn Huckins at Cheekwood. Photography by Sam Angel.

 

The Curtain series suggests that something’s behind the curtain. What’s behind the curtain and why does that appeal to you?

In the newer work, behind the curtains are mostly made-up landscapes that I’ve conjured up. My partner and I recently built a house in Peterborough, and our bedroom faces the east. We have these long curtains and every morning we see the most beautiful sunrises over Temple Mountain. One morning there was a slit in the curtain. It wasn’t fully closed, and the bursting colors came through the curtains. It was beautiful, it was fairy-tale like, very dreamlike. And I was thinking to myself, “I’m so lucky to be here and to have the opportunity to own this land and just see this every morning.”

So, the Curtain series was kind of born from that visual and expands from that.

 

Do you have a personal favorite piece in this exhibition?

Great Smoky Mountains During Sunrise and Red Curtain is inspired by a previous painting of mine. The other painting has a blue curtain and in the middle is a view of Mount Monadnock, a mountain where I’m from. I see it from my house; it’s a beautiful thing to see. This painting is part of the Curtain series; it blends two worlds together. With this painting, I swapped out Mount Monadnock with the Great Smoky Mountains to honor Tennessee, where I’m showing at Cheekwood. I wanted to honor the state that we’re in and the Mansion.

The sunrise is a wildfire smoky haze because where I’m from in New Hampshire, lots of wildfire smoke from Canada has been drifting down. It’s horrible, but we have these beautiful sunrises and sunsets. I also think it’s neat that New Hampshire and Tennessee are connected by the Appalachian Mountain range.

 

Is there a reason why the curtain is red in that painting?

I saw bits of red in the carpet and in the fabric of the chairs in the Mansion Library, so I thought that it would go well with the wood tones. It fits perfectly.

Shawn Huckins (American, b. 1984), Various Floral and Plaid Fabrics: Young Girl Holding a Basket of Fruit (after Drouais), 2023, Oil and acrylic on canvas. On loan from the artist.

Various Floral and Plaid Fabrics: Young Girl Holding a Basket of Fruit (after Drouais) by Shawn Hawkins at Cheekwood. Photography by Diana Rosales.

 

The fabric is obscuring the face of the figure in Various Floral and Plaid Fabrics: Young Girl Holding a Basket of Fruit (after Drouais), which is common in your work. What inspired that painting?

That painting is part my Dirty Laundry series, which was inspired by Covid. We were all locked in our houses, we were all questioning our life choices, who we are as people. I was questioning myself as an artist; I started questioning my own identity. What I did is I took historical portraits I’ve been working with for 10-plus years, and instead of putting text over them, which I’m known for, I used draped cloth around the faces to hide their identity to symbolize hiding their insecurities, their desires. The whole series was born from my insecurities as a person.

 

What is the most fun you’ve ever had while making art?

We just built a house and along with that house, we built a studio, too. My entire career I’d been working in a tiny spare bedroom. Now I have a big boy studio so I have room to sprawl out and I can work on more ambitious projects. It’s been really fun the last year and a half, where I can just really focus on making some good work and not be confined by a tiny space.

 

Do you have a favorite spot in the gardens or has anything caught your eye outdoors at Cheekwood?

The installation by James Turrell, Blue Pesher, is beautiful. I found that space is really calming and meditative – it’s very peaceful in there.

 

If your art had an odor, what would it smell like?

If you mean a literal odor, such as oil paint, or solvents, that’s what they smell like. But if you mean a metaphorical smell based on imagery, I would say fresh, cold morning air with a breeze of musty basement smell. Maybe a hint of wildfire smoke….

Featured image: Narcissus by Tamara Kostianovsky at Cheekwood. Photo by Leo Sano.

Cheekwood’s 2025 Martin Shallenberger Artist-in-Residence explores analogies between nature and the human body through mixed-media sculptural installations constructed with repurposed textiles.

The name “Narcissus” has origins in both botany and human nature: it’s the scientific name for the daffodil genus, and the name of a figure of vanity in Greek mythology, a man who fell in love with his own image reflected to him in a pool of water.

To create Narcissus the sculpture, Kostianovsky began by photographing dead trees in the forest. When she found a tree she liked, she built a true-to-scale sculptural tree form from plywood and armature wire. Next, she glued a high-resolution photograph of the origin tree to the face of her formed tree and traced the lines from the real tree onto her sculpture. Then she used a curved sewing needle to build a fabric surface with vibrantly colored strips of clothing and linens.

“It’s not that I’m making up the knots of the tree – I’m actually following the pattern that exists in nature,” Kostianovsky says.

Read on as Kostianovsky shares more ideas behind her exhibition at Cheekwood, her creative processes, and how an internship with a plastic surgeon led to her discovery of a fascinating world beneath the surface.

Artist-in-Residence: Tamara Kostianovsky is on view at Cheekwood through June 15.

Tamara Kostianovsky, Photographed by JC Cancedda. Courtesy of SLAG&RX Gallery and the artist.

How did you discover your passion of working with repurposed textiles?

You were a surgical intern when you were younger. How did this inspire your artwork?

What led you to create Narcissus?

Because it’s such a large artwork and you first worked with a smaller-scale model to plan it out, did it turn out how you imagined or did it kind of transform as you worked?

Sunrise by Tamara Kostianovsky at Cheekwood. Photo by Leo Sano.

What were you thinking about while making Sunrise, and how did you approach it physically?

Where did you source these specific pieces of fabric that you used?

Tell us a little about your piece at Cheekwood titled No Shadows in the Sky.

No Shadows in the Sky by Tamara Kostianovsky at Cheekwood. Photo by Leo Sano.

Are there any memories from your childhood in Argentina that appear in your work?

If your art had an odor, what would it smell like?

Featured Image: A carrot with personality.

Hello readers!

My name is Natasha, and I’m the Garden Educator at Cheekwood. My work here involves managing a raised bed vegetable garden (the Cheekwood GROWS Garden) and leading educational programming in this space. In this monthly blog series, I explore cultivated edible plants and our relationships with them in Middle Tennessee.

Carrots (Daucus carota) are a sign of spring throughout much of the United States. They are a slow-growing cool season vegetable, somewhat tolerant of frost and less fond of temperatures above 80° F. For growers in our region, that means there are two short windows for planting. Sow carrot seeds in August for a winter harvest, making sure to protect the plants with frost cloth once temperatures start to dip below freezing. Plant in March for a late spring harvest, keeping in mind that soil temperatures need to be at least 40° F for the seeds to germinate.

As their delicate foliage suggests, carrots can be fussy. They prefer finely sifted soil free of rocks or clumps of clay and can take up to 14 days to germinate. The seeds are so tiny that it is difficult to plant them at the correct spacing, meaning that thinning is usually required once or twice during the growing process.

Perhaps the hardest part of growing carrots is the wait time – the roots can take almost three months to fully enlarge! But eventually, they will begin to poke up out of the ground, a signal that it’s time to harvest. These enlarged roots are called taproots, an evolutionary adaptation allowing plants to push deep into the soil to collect and store water and nutrients. If you were to leave a carrot in the ground, it would continue to store energy in its taproot until the following year, when the plant would use the stored energy to put out lacy white flowers, and the root would turn tough and inedible.

Carrots in an early stage of growth.

A wild, flowering carrot, also known as Queen Anne’s Lace.

This fragrance is emblematic of the carrot’s taxonomic family, called Apiaceae. Among this family’s members are culinary herbs that all boast delicate, distinctive scents: cilantro, parsley dill, fennel, and cumin. It’s therefore unsurprising that the first people to intentionally grow Daucus carota did not use the roots as a direct food source but instead harvested the delicately scented leaves and seeds for culinary seasoning and medicinal use. This initial carrot root cultivation took place in present-day Iran and Afghanistan, a region that remains a center of carrot diversity to this day.

It wasn’t until the 10th century that growers began selecting carrot plants with enlarged, colorful roots. The first carrots were purple and yellow, more akin to the rainbow carrots you might see at a farmer’s market than the orange ones on grocery store shelves. Orange carrots did not hit the scene until the 17th century, when Dutch farmers encountered a genetic mutation that caused carrot roots to produce higher quantities of carotenoids: chemical compounds that give many plants an orange hue. These orange carrots were sweeter than their counterparts and quickly gained popularity around the world.

The carrot’s arrival in North America is hard to pinpoint, but it’s clear that it was brought here by colonizers seeking to replicate European agricultural systems. Today, carrots are the fourth most-consumed vegetable in the United States, and their popularity is largely due to the innovation of a Californian farmer. For much of the 20th century, carrot farmers struggled to keep up with the trend towards large-scale mechanized agriculture. Americans increasingly expected aesthetic perfection in grocery stores, and carrots were inherently imperfect. By the 1980s, farmers were discarding more carrots than they were selling due to visual imperfections.

Springtime carrot tops.

Frustrated by this dilemma, farmer Mike Yurosek developed the “baby carrot,” using an industrial potato peeler to shave imperfect carrots down into snack-sized nubs. These were an instant hit, at once solving a waste problem, improving profits for farmers, and turning carrots into convenience food. Carrot consumption doubled within the following decade, and the crop earned its place in the agro-industrial complex. Today, two companies control over 60 percent of commercial carrot production in the U.S.

The nice thing about growing carrots in a home garden is that you don’t have to chop up your imperfect roots or contribute to our commercialized food system. Small seed companies offer endless variety when it comes to color, size, and shape, and I get my seeds from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange to access varieties especially suited to the South and support small farmers growing heirloom seeds. When you’re ready to harvest, see below for a carrot recipe that incorporates multiple parts of the plant as well as some of its Apiaceae relatives.

Roasted Carrots with Carrot Top Tahini Sauce

For the roasted carrots:

• 2 lb medium-sized carrots
• 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp ground cumin or lightly crushed cumin seeds
• 1/4 cup maple syrup or honey
• Salt to taste

For the carrot top tahini sauce:

• Juice and zest of 2 lemons
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 cups carrot tops, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup dill, parsley, or cilantro, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup tahini
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• Salt to taste

Instructions:

For the roasted carrots:

1. Preheat oven to 425° F and line a sheet tray with parchment paper.
2. Trim off carrot tops, cut carrots into thirds, then halve them lengthwise. Peeling is not necessary.
3. In a large bowl, combine carrots, olive oil, cumin, maple syrup, and salt.
4. Spread carrots onto sheet tray, making sure to space them evenly apart.
5. Roast carrots in the oven for 30 minutes, or until fork tender and slightly caramelized.

For the carrot top tahini sauce:

1. Combine lemon juice and zest, garlic, carrot tops, herbs, and olive oil in a blender. Blend until smooth, adding cold water as necessary to help the ingredients combine.
2. Pour mixture into a medium bowl and add tahini. Whisk until fully incorporated, then season with salt to taste.
3. Drizzle sauce over roasted carrots and enjoy!

Featured Image: Frosty purple-hued cabbage.

Hello readers!

My name is Natasha, and I’m the Garden Educator at Cheekwood. My work here involves managing a raised bed vegetable garden (the Cheekwood GROWS Garden) and leading educational programming in this space. In this monthly blog series, I explore cultivated edible plants and our relationships with them in Middle Tennessee.

You may know Brassica oleracea by many names. Collard greens, broccoli, kale, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi – all these vegetables are of the same species, despite how different they appear. They thrive in cool weather and will survive light frosts with no protection necessary, which makes them great choices for an early spring vegetable garden.

When found in the wild, B. oleracea is known as wild cabbage. Its original home is the Mediterranean, where it grows along coastal limestone cliffs. To survive this harsh environment, B. oleracea stores lots of water and nutrients within its thick, waxy leaves, like a succulent. In its second year of growth, it uses that nutrient storage to produce bright yellow flowers and reproduce.

The nutrient density of wild cabbage was likely attractive to the people who first chose to eat and grow the plant. Who exactly these people were is difficult to trace. What is certain is that many farmers, across regions and cultures, selectively bred B. oleracea over thousands of years to produce an extraordinary variety of vegetables. While this is not an uncommon practice in agriculture (both beets and chard come from the species Beta vulgaris), B. oleracea provides the most striking example of the power of artificial selection. From this single plant we have developed many vegetables that are cultivars (cultivated varieties) highlighting different parts of the plant:

• Collards and kale – bred by farmers for their leaves
• Broccoli and cauliflower – these are large inflorescences (the flowering parts of the plant)
• Cabbage – a massive terminal bud
• Brussels sprouts – a collection of lateral buds (this is why they look like tiny cabbages)
• Kohlrabi – a very swollen stem

Springtime curly kale.

December harvest of collards, kale, and bok choy (a different brassica species, B. napa).

Collard greens also have a history of subsistence agriculture. Enslaved people laboring on plantations in the South relied on the food they grew in their vegetable gardens for survival. In addition to having little time or resources with which to grow this food, they were limited to growing a select few crops, collards being one of them. By braising collards with ham hocks, they brought the West African culinary tradition of stewed greens to the South and created a life-sustaining dish that remains a soul food staple to this day.

And then we have kale, relatively unknown in the United States until the 2010s, when it rocketed to stardom as a “superfood” touted by nutritionists, celebrities, and recipe bloggers alike for its many health benefits. The USDA reported that from 2007 to 2012, the number of farms growing kale increased from 1,000 to 2,500. Much of this growth happened in the South – today Georgia is second only to California in kale production.

Cross-striped caterpillars enjoying some collard greens.

But behind the expensive smoothies, salads, and grain bowls is a vegetable that, just like cabbage and collards, has historically fed rural communities. In Scotland, kale was once so widely consumed that the Scots word “kail” became synonymous with dinner. And yes, kale is a healthy vegetable with high concentrations of vitamins and protein. But other cultivars of B. oleracea don’t fall far behind in that regard. Where are all the cauliflower smoothies?

If you’re hoping to grow B. oleracea crops this spring, I recommend planting seeds outdoors as soon as your soil is workable (i.e., not frozen). Alternatively, you could start seedlings indoors in February and transplant them outdoors in March. Our cool season is short, and out of these veggies only collards are particularly heat tolerant. I like to cover brassica crops with protective netting until they are fully grown. This prevents small critters from gobbling the emerging seedlings, and protects growing plants from cabbage moths, who will lay eggs on the underside of brassica leaves that quickly turn into hungry caterpillars. Happy gardening!

Kale Pesto

All B. oleracea crops contain chemical compounds called glucosinolates, which hang out inside the plant’s cells until a pathogen, insect, or herbivore attacks. As soon as the cells are damaged, glucosinolates undergo a chemical reaction and turn into mustard oils. These pungent compounds are unpleasant and sometimes toxic to many insects that would otherwise eat brassicas.

By blending kale into a pesto, you are causing this chemical reaction to occur a million times over, all at once. Dramatic! But don’t worry  – in this recipe, the acidic lemon juice and rich parmesan cheese balance out the mustard oil bitterness of the kale.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups kale, roughly chopped
• 3 cloves garlic
• 3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 cup walnuts
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 2/3 cup olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Add all ingredients except olive oil to a food processor and blend until thoroughly combined.
2. Slowly add olive oil through the chute of the food processor while continuing to blend.
3. Adjust for seasoning, then serve with your favorite pasta or protein.

Featured Image: Close-up of a marigold in full bloom.

A swallowtail butterfly lands on a marigold.

Hello readers!

My name is Natasha, and I’m the Garden Educator at Cheekwood. My work here involves managing a raised bed vegetable garden (the Cheekwood GROWS Garden) and leading educational programming in this space. In this monthly blog series, I explore cultivated edible plants and our relationships with them in Middle Tennessee.

In Tennessee, marigolds are prolific and easy-to-grow annuals that put on a show all summer long. They are purported to keep pests out of a vegetable garden and are a favorite of butterflies and bees. While certainly not frost tolerant, they will happily bloom well into the fall and reseed for the following year. Just like many culinary herbs, they are edible yet conveniently undesirable to garden foragers such as deer and rabbits. The petals can be used to make herbal tea or tossed in a salad to add some zing.

There are around 50 species of marigold in the Tagetes genus, all of which are native to Central and South America. The showiest is Tagetes erecta, known most aptly by the common name Mexican marigold. I grow these in the raised beds of the Cheekwood GROWS Garden, where without fail they bend and snap under the weight of their own giant blooms and seem to fight against every attempt I make to stake them upright. I don’t mind, though, because their bright orange petals and intense, citrusy aroma are captivating, and it wouldn’t feel like summer without them.

Marigolds are orange because they contain high concentrations of carotenoids, a type of pigment that is also responsible for the vibrant colors of carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, and deciduous leaves in the fall. Carotenoids are ubiquitous and essential in the world of plants; they help them survive high UV levels, attract pollinators, and complete photosynthesis.

The flower’s captivating scent comes from a complex cocktail of chemical compounds called monoterpenes (one of these monoterpenes is limonene, which can also be found in citrus fruits!). Strongly scented monoterpenes allow marigolds to deter predators – this is why gardeners will often plant marigolds among vegetables as a means of pest control.

A marigold about to bloom.

In the case of the Mexican marigold, carotenoids and monoterpenes have an effect unrelated to biological function: Humans have valued and cultivated the brightly colored and scented flowers for hundreds of years. This is not an uncommon phenomenon – all cultivated plants have some sort of aesthetic, medicinal, or nutritional value – but Mexican marigolds have gained cultural importance around the globe, and I think that this is a lovely unintended consequence.

Tagetes erecta were cultivated by the Aztecs as well as the Mesoamerican civilizations that preceded them. In the Nahuatl language, the word for this flower is cempoalxóchitl, meaning “flower of 20 petals”– likely a reference to the plant’s ability to produce an abundance of intricate blooms. The Aztecs selectively bred cempoalxóchitl to develop large flower heads and vibrant colors, and used them extensively in medicine, celebrations, and rituals.

In the 16th century, Spanish colonizers took marigold seeds from the Aztecs back to Spain, and so began the plant’s globalization. They became popular ornamentals in gardens throughout much of Europe and quickly naturalized in North Africa. For this reason, British botanists mistakenly identified marigolds as indigenous to Africa, and the common name “African marigold” has stuck around among English speakers to this day¹. Among European Christians, they became symbols of the Virgin Mary, giving us the name marigold (Mary’s gold). Spanish and Portuguese traders brought seeds to the Indian subcontinent, where marigolds quickly became a sacred flower integral to weddings, funerals, and festivals such as Diwali.

Today, cempoalxóchitl flowers play an important role back in their homeland of Mexico during El DÍa de los Muertos, a holiday honoring the lives of the departed and rejoicing in the temporary return of their spirits. The festivities take place at the beginning of November – notably around the same time as Diwali – and marigolds adorn the ofrendas (memorial altars) put together by families to celebrate loved ones. The flowers’ strong scent is believed to guide departed souls from the afterlife to the world of the living. This tradition can be traced back to pre-Hispanic times, when Aztecs used marigolds to honor Mictēcacihuātl, their deity of death, who guided spirits to and from the underworld.

Cheekwood’s 25th El Día de los Muertos festival will take place on November 2 and 3. In preparation for this event, I have been collecting and drying marigold blooms for the past few months and will be facilitating a seed saving activity from 10 AM – 2 PM on both days in the Cheekwood GROWS Garden. I invite you to visit and save some cempoalxóchitl seeds for your garden next year!

Collecting marigold blooms for seed saving.

Experimenting with marigold as a natural dye.

Painting with Marigolds

I’m no expert when it comes to natural dyes, but I love to experiment. The vibrant pigments in marigolds make them relatively easy to transfer to paper or fabric! You can do this in a few different ways:

1. Crush some fresh petals, either with your hands or using a mortar and pestle. Once the petals have broken down and your hands (or the pestle) have turned orange, you’re ready to paint! Rubbing the crushed petals on watercolor paper will produce a bright yellow pigment flecked with orange.
2. Stuff a mason jar to the brim with fresh petals. Boil some water and pour over petals to cover. Let rest for at least 10 minutes (but feel free to wait longer). Strain the petals out of the liquid and use like ink or watercolor. This method produces a less vibrant, but equally lovely, deep yellow shade.