For mystery and intrigue look no further than the perennial bed outside your door. There’s a chance that the sunny border contains some dark secrets – cheerful looking plants hiding dangerous tendencies grow among flowers whose relatives are positively murderous. Tales of encounters with deadly botanicals have been a part of history and literature for centuries – consider Socarates . . . Shakespeare . . . and Harry Potter.

Beatrice, the title character from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1844 story, Rappaccini’s Daughter, tended her father’s walled garden of potent specimens. Her intimate contact with the subjects of his medicinal research proved disastrous. Hawthorne’s descriptions of Beatrice’s garden detailed the flowers, the crumbling statuary and fountains and the general decay, but left out specific plant identifications. Imagining possible plantings, my initial sketches feature such possibilities as Castor Bean, Foxglove, Datura and Henbane.