HISTORY in Bloom

CRAFTED MORE THAN A CENTURY AGO, Harvard’s Glass Flowers still elicit gasps of disbelief from viewers. There’s a stem of scarlet bee balm (Monarda didyma) so realistic it looks like it might actually smell of citrus and oregano if rubbed hard enough; a branch of mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) that a florist could convincingly place side-by-side with fresh blooms; and a tiger orchid (Rossioglossum grande), pollinated by glass bees whose wings seem to whir.

Artists Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka’s approximately 4,300 other botanical models also stun. From 1887 until Leopold’s death in 1895, the father and son glassworkers devoted their lives to reverse engineering the world’s flora and reconstructing them in glass at their studio and garden near Dresden, Germany.

After Leopold’s death, Rudolf continued to make glass models for Harvard until 1936. The Blaschka methods, inherited through several generations of glassworkers, allowed