For sure, the typical plants in a cloister garden are beautiful. But they are more than just a pretty face. In the traditional cloister, plants do double duty - providing outdoor beauty as well as food, medicine, or altar decoration.
On this autumn day at the cloister garden at the Cathedral of St. Martin in Utrecht, the Netherlands, we see typical examples of plants in the cloister garden: purple cone flower, daisy, cosmos, rosemary, sage, and mint. Though not at their summer peak, they are still going strong. The slight loss of color in their petals and the few spent branches point to the beginning of the end of the season.