Flowery symbols secretly planted at Jamaica Pond may again bloom this spring, according to the “Guerrilla Gardner” who last year cultivated a peace symbol of daffodils there.
“Spring is on the way, and who knows what might pop up this year!” said the anonymous planter in an email to the Gazette signed only, “your local Guerrilla Gardener.”
Jamaica Pond Park users delighted last April to the surprise peace symbol, which was paired with a yin-yang symbol of tulips that did not bloom so well. The flowery symbols were planted on a steep embankment along Pinebank Field near Perkins Street and the Jamaicaway. The Boston Parks & Recreation Department chose to let the unauthorized plantings remain untouched.
At the time, an anonymous person using the email address of a Cambridge landscaping company contacted the Gazette, implying they were behind the plantings, but did not respond to questions. In recent weeks, the “Guerrilla Gardener” made a belated reply to the Gazette from the same email address.
“The plantings are a gift to the community, ephemeral art, as it were,” the “Guerrilla Gardener” wrote. “It seemed a lot of people enjoyed it, and several kids stopped to help plant the bulbs in the fall. It was/is intended to be an anonymous gift—“bulb graffiti”—with no harm done and some joy in the process.”
The peace symbol of daffodils blooming last April in Jamaica Pond Park. (Gazette File Photo by John Ruch)