BOSTON, MA.- Can’t shake that winter chill? There’s no need to head for southern climes when you can escape to the Gardner Museum. Over the course of three Saturdays from January through March the Landscape Visions Lecture Series will transport you out of the snow and slush and into lush, exotic garden paradises; throw into the mix the Gardner’s courtyard – our own garden paradise, always in bloom – and you might forget it’s winter!

The series kicks off on January 24th with Babur and his Gardens, delving straight into the sumptuous world of the Mughal Empire. STEPHEN F. DALE, author of The Garden of the Eight Paradises, serves as tour guide for this journey into the world of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire who built gardens wherever he settled, from Samarkand to Afghanistan to India. Excerpts from Babur’s own poetry and autobiography, rich with descriptions of the gardens and nature he loved, inform the lecture.

On Saturday, February 21st we return to the Mughal gardens with JAMES L. WESCOAT, MIT, who takes us inside recent excavations in Rajasthan that have revealed elaborate water systems, fountains, and pleasure gardens. Wescoat examines the design and innovation of Mughal Gardens and explores how ancient techniques can shed new light on water conservation in the context of a desert garden.

Finally, on Saturday, March 21st we’re off on another adventure with ANNA PAVORD who will share her journey in search of the origins of plant identities. Author of The Naming of Names and The Tulip, Pavord leads us down the paths of explorers and scientists to illustrate how the culture of Islam preserved and extended the ancient knowledge of plants through the Renaissance.