E-Mail This Article to a Friend Where the blooms are Savoring spring in the midst of winter BY GENEVIEVE RAJEWSKI

New England novices might think that January and February, with their sizable snowfalls and freezing temperatures, are the worst-weather months. But you don’t need to live in Boston very long to realize that March is the most demoralizing month, when the continuing chill and damp undermine the hope inspired by longer daylight hours.

Although the date may seem to signal spring’s impending arrival, black ice still wreaks havoc with the morning commute, frozen signals delay the T, and blizzards remain a possibility into April. Fortunately, there are ways to stir feelings of spring. Just head to where you can find a bounty of flora and balmy temperatures year-round.

Nothing heralds the arrival of spring like slogging through the slushy, endless parking lot of the Bayside Exposition Center to enter the balmy, mulch-scented paradise known as the New England Spring Flower Show ($7–$20). Each year, more than 150,000 visitors lose themselves in the show’s nearly six acres of exhibits, which feature spring flowers, unusual trees, and elaborate scenes. This year, the show takes place from March 13 to 21.

Full of palms, orchids, and seasonal flowers, the sun-dappled courtyard at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum ($5–$11) whisks winter-weary urban dwellers away to a Mediterranean refuge. Beneath a glass ceiling and surrounded by pink-streaked walls, the courtyard showcases hundreds of flowering plants amid Greco-Roman sculpture.

In Waltham, you’ll find the Lyman Estate (donation suggested), one of the oldest continually operating greenhouses in the country. The estate is home to several antique glass greenhouses rich with warm, humid air and countless orchids, flowering plants, grape vines, camellias, and more. After whiling away an hour or two in this cultured spring, you may well be tempted to take home one of the orchids, miniature citrus trees, ferns, and flowering plants available for sale. If you’re willing to drive a bit further from the city, speed past wintry landscapes to Tower Hill Botanic Garden ($5–$8). Tower Hill’s 4000-square-foot Orangerie shelters fragrant blooming citrus trees, other winter-peaking plants, and fountains.

At the Harvard Museum of Natural History ($5–$7.50; free on Wednesdays from 3 to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 9 a.m. to noon), you’ll find more than 3000 Victorian-era glass flowers created by German glassmakers Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka. Some stalks hold buds, others are in full bloom, and many show wilted blossoms. Whether phlox, carnivorous pitcher plant, or iris, each captures a fleeting moment in time.

Sometimes, of course, Boston’s freezing temperatures and endless wet make the thought of venturing outdoors — even for some therapeutic blooms and balmy indoor climes — intolerable. Lush’s petal-rich bath products allow you to indulge in warmth and flowers no matter what the weather. The Tisty Tosty bath bomb ($4.95) contains seven real rosebuds that float to the bath’s surface as the rose-scented bomb dissolves in warm water. Meanwhile, Lush’s Softy Ballistic bath bomb ($4.85) packs real rose petals and the exotic and calming fragrances of ylang-ylang, lavender, and rose. Lack a bathtub? Opt for floral-scented teas from Tealuxe, such as Victorian Rose ($5/50 grams), a China black tea naturally flavored with rose petals.

Where to Find It:

• Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, (617) 495-3045; www.hmnh.harvard.edu.

• Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 280 The Fenway, Boston, (617) 566-1401; www.gardnermuseum.org.

• Lush, 166 Newbury Street, Boston, (617) 375-5874; www.lush.com.

• Lyman Estate, 185 Lyman Street, Waltham, (781) 891-1985.

• New England Spring Flower Show, Bayside Expo Center, Columbia Point, Boston, (866) 468-7619; www.masshort.org.

• Tealuxe, 108 Newbury Street, Boston, (617) 927-0400; www.tealuxe.com.

• Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive, Boylston, MA, (508) 869-6111; www.towerhillbg.org.