Boston Flora

Friday, April 26, 12:00 noon – 1:15 pm Eastern – Butterflies and Moths: Winged Wonders, Online

Butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) are one of the most abundant groups of insects—one in every ten animals on the planet is a butterfly or moth. What are the secrets of their extraordinary success?

In a lively Smithsonian Associates Zoom presentation accompanied by stunning images, Emmy Award–winning wildlife documentary filmmaker Steve Nicholls presents some of the latest scientific discoveries as he explores the world of butterflies and moths to find out why they’ve been so successful. Along the way, discover the world’s deadliest caterpillars, a moth with a tongue over a foot long, a caterpillar that looks exactly like a venomous snake, and a butterfly that shares its world with polar bears at one extreme and penguins at the other.

Learn about moths whose wing scales have better sound-absorbing qualities than anything we can construct to hide from the sonar of hunting bats. Others have long tail streamers with sound-reflecting surfaces at their tips to give bats a false target. Yet others scream at bats to jam their sonar completely. It seems there’s no end to the tricks that evolution has come up with as it turned the Lepidoptera into one of the most successful of all insect groups.

The event takes place Friday, April 26 at noon, and is $20 for Smithsonian Associates members, $25 for nonmembers. Register at https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/tickets/butterflies-and-moths (Below: an io moth, photo Steve Nicholls)

Friday, May 3, 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Cape Ann Blossoms Preview Party

Join the Cape Ann Museum, 27 Pleasant Street in Gloucester, on May 3 from 6 – 9 for its signature event of the season, Cape Ann Blossoms. The festive evening will showcase inventive floral displays crafted by North Shore floral designers and artisans. The exhibition will be on view from Saturday, May 4 through Sunday, May 5 at the Museum, from 10 – 5. For tickets and more information visit https://www.capeannmuseum.org/event/cape-ann-blossoms-in-the-galleries-8/

Tuesday, April 30, 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm Eastern – Garden Therapy Webinar

The Framingham Garden Club presents a Zoom program on April 30 on what garden therapy is and how an organization can begin its own program. Learn how to:

• Set up a program in your community to teach floral, herbal, or other arrangements to people with medical, physical, cognitive or social needs

• Expand club member’s knowledge of floral design by teaching others

• Create a positive learning experience for others in your community using the power of flowers.

Free to members of any Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts Clubs. Register at https://www.gcfm.org/events-1/garden-therapy-webinar-hosted-by-gcfm-1

Tuesday, May 7, 5:00 am – 6:30 am Eastern (but recorded) – Early Mughal Gardens

This five week online course from the Gardens Trust will be suitable for anyone curious about gardens and their stories – whether absolute beginners or those with some garden history knowledge. Running from April 14 – May 14, the course aims to help participants recognize important eras, themes and styles in mainly British garden history from the earliest times to today, grasp something of the social, economic, political and international contexts in which gardens have been created and find greater pleasure in visiting historic gardens. You can sign up for whole series or dip into individual talks. There will be opportunities to discuss issues with speakers after each talk, and short reading lists for further exploration.

Week Four on May 7 is Early Mughal Gardens with Ratish Nanca. Babur (1483-1530), founder of the Mughal dynasty, considered Samarqand (Uzbekistan) his rightful kingdom and ruled from Kabul for almost two decades. Gardens in this part of Central Asia were the predominant places for both court-life and entertainment. Babur and his successors also ruled Hindustan (northern India) from the early 16th century for over 300 years. Similar gardens were not easily possible in the heat of Hindustan, plus Indian rivers were ‘sea-like’ and did not resemble the streams that were channelized through Afghan and Central Asian gardens. So Babur set about building char-baghs (four-part gardens) on a pattern familiar to him. His successors, principally, Akbar, Jahangir and Shahjahan enthusiastically followed suit.The Mughal Garden traditions of flowing water, raised pathways, geometric layouts and enclosed gardens were consistent across Kashmir, Kabul, Lahore, Agra and elsewhere in the Mughal empire. Recent work by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture has also revealed that similar traditions were followed by the Qutb Shahi Sultans at Golconda in southern India.

Ratish Nanda, Conservation Architect, is India CEO for the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. He heads the interdisciplinary AKTC teams presently undertaking the two major urban conservation projects in India: the Nizamuddin Urban Renewal Initiative, Delhi and the Qutb Shahi Heritage Park Conservation in Hyderabad. For AKTC, he was earlier responsible for the Baghe Babur restoration (2002-2006), in Kabul, Afghanistan and the garden restoration of Humayun’s Tomb (1999-2003). His major publications include Delhi, the Built Heritage: A listing, released by the Prime Minister of India (INTAC, 1999); Delhi: Red Fort to Raisina (Roli Books, 2012); Conservation of Historic Graveyards (Scotland) (Historic Scotland, 2001) and Rethinking Conservation: Humayun’s Tomb (Mapin, 2015).

For tickets, visit www.eventbrite.co.uk Ticket holders can join each session live or view a recording for up to 2 weeks afterwards. £8 each or all 5 for £35 (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 5 for £26.25) Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days (and again a few hours) prior to the start of the first talk (If you do not receive this link please contact us), and a link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 2 weeks.

Thursday, May 2, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Eastern – Noguchi’s Gardens Landscape as Sculpture, Online

The artist and landscape architect Isamu Noguchi’s (1904–1988) interests and production spanned an exceptionally broad terrain from furniture and lamps to courtyards and gardens. Although his gardens include several of the twentieth century’s most iconic landscape designs, Noguchi nonetheless occupies a place removed from the normal practice of landscape architecture. As an artist, he relied more on intuition than on objective analysis, and he shaped his landscapes as sculpture, with space as their primary vehicle.

In his comprehensive and richly illustrated study of Noguchi’s gardens, noted landscape historian Marc Treib describes and critiques projects that date from Noguchi’s early, unrealized projects for playgrounds and monuments to a large park in Sapporo, Japan, whose construction was completed only posthumously. The story begins with the discussion of Noguchi sculpture that relate in some way to actual landscapes, then moves to the dance set designs for Martha Graham, finally entering the realm of actual landscapes with his gardens for the Reader’s Digest offices in Tokyo.

Marc Treib, Professor of Architecture Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, is a historian and critic of architecture and landscape architecture who has published on a wide variety of modern and historical subjects in the United States, Japan, and Scandinavia. His most recent books include The Landscapes of Modern Architecture: Wright, Mies, Neutra, Aalto, Barragán; The Aesthetics of Contemporary Planting Design; Serious Fun: The Landscapes of Claude Cormier; The Shape of the Land: Topography and Landscape Architecture; and most recently, Poodling: On the Just Shaping of Shrubbery.

This May 2 webinar is sponsored by the Garden Conservancy and is $5 for members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.gardenconservancy.org/education/education-events/virtual-talk-landscape-as-sculpture A recording of this webinar will be sent to all registrants a few days after the event. We encourage you to register, even if you cannot attend the live webinar.

Thursday, April 25, 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm – A Legacy of the Ocean: Exploring the Past, Present, and Future of Ocean Protection and Restoration

Renowned explorer and filmmaker Philippe Cousteau will examine the evolution of the ocean conservation movement and explore how new strategies can shift our thinking about safeguarding our blue planet. Joined by two extraordinary youth leaders from EarthEcho International’s Youth Leadership Council who are defining the future of the movement, Cousteau will share experiences from his decades of ocean exploration and exciting new developments and innovations that challenge us to evolve beyond sustainability so we can restore our ocean planet to its natural state of abundance.

This New England Aquarium Lecture Series event on April 25 is free to the public and presented in partnership with the Lowell Institute. Advance registration is required.Please note: Virtual registration closes at 2:00 p.m. on April 25. The address is 1 Central Wharf in Boston. Phone 617-973-5200.

Wednesday, April 24, 6:30 pm – Plastics in the Marine Environment

The Cohasset Garden Club is sponsoring a free public conservation meeting on Wednesday, April 24 beginning at 6:30 pm at the Lightkeeper’s Residence in Cohasset featuring Jessica Donahue, Research Associate, Sea Education Association. For 35 years, Sea Education Association (SEA) has been compiling the world’s largest dataset about plastics in the marine environment, including documenting the microplastics that float at the ocean’s surface. Learn about this global problem, why it matters, and the most promising approaches to tackle it.

Wednesday, May 1, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm Eastern – People’s Parks: Great Designers, Online

The People’s Parks are one of the finest legacies of the Victorian age. Designed and bequeathed to the masses as part of a movement encouraging green spaces and recreation, the public park came to symbolize one of the greatest contributions of the era.

Opened in increasing numbers in the industrious nineteenth century, by the end of the twentieth century many of our parks had become sadly neglected. But today they remain outdoor places for everyone to enjoy, acting as children’s play areas, sports grounds and even concert venues and have grown in popularity since the global pandemic. But what do we really know about them? The Gardens Trust is sponsoring a series of six weekly online lectures with Paul Rabbitts on Wednesdays from April 17 – May 22.

Buy a ticket is for the entire course of 6 sessions. or you may purchase a ticket for individual sessions, costing £8. [Gardens Trust members may purchase tickets at £31.50 for the series or £6 each talk]. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/peoples-parks-tickets-852833737667

Capability Brown, Humphry Repton, William Kent, great landscape gardeners we love and admire. They have designed some of the most impressive landscapes we can still enjoy to this day. Yet most of us will use our local park at some stage. There are 27,000 of them across the UK, and we take them for granted. They are designed landscapes and have emanated from the hands of such people as Joseph Paxton, JC Loudon, John Nash. Yet what about the great municipal designers, nurserymen, parks superintendents, landscape architects such as Sexby, Pettigrew, Sandys-Winsch, Vertegans, Mawson, Marnock, Milner, Kemp and Gibson – so many important parks delivered at their hands – from Birkenhead Park to Saltwell Park in Gateshead, Eaton Park in Norwich to West Park in Wolverhampton – these were great parks delivered to us by great designers.

Saturday, May 11, 10:00 am – Green Animals Plant Sale

Welcome Spring! We’ll soon be working in our gardens, and what better place to get wonderful new plants and gardening tips for your home or garden than the annual Green Animals Plant Sale, sponsored by The Preservation Society of Newport County. Head on over to Green Animals at 380 Corys Lane, Portsmouth, Rhode Island on Saturday, May 11 for some great deals on Mother’s Day gifts, topiary, bedding plants, hanging baskets, perennials and more. The sale starts at 10 a.m.–get there early for the best selection! For more details, log on to www.newportmansions.org, or call 401-683-1267. Green Animals is not open for tours on Friday, May 10, in preparation for the sale. Admission is free for plant sale only, but visitors will need a ticket or Preservation Society membership to tour the topiary garden. This event will happen rain or shine.

Saturday, April 27, 8:15 am – 4:00 pm – 2024 In Bloom In Massachusetts

On Saturday, April 27, 2024, Antioch University New England will return to Wright-Locke Farm for In Bloom in Massachusetts. Wright-Locke is an intriguing operating farm, backed up against a big chunk of conservation land, right-in-the-middle-of-the-north-of-Boston suburbs; but easy to access from downtown. With the collaboration of the Boston Outdoor Preschool Network, there is an excellent program line-up for this event.

The morning keynote will be given by Ashley Brailsford, Founder of Unearthing Joy in Nashville, Tennessee. Creating nature-based curriculum and programs that center diverse cultural perspectives can be challenging, but is necessary for transforming outdoor spaces into inclusive places. This keynote will share practical strategies and examples from programs that center the stories and roles of Black, Indigenous and Other People of the Global Majority in nature education. Ashley Brailsford, PhD is an early childhood educator and nature enthusiast who launched Unearthing Joy to guide the development of culturally-centered, nature-based programming for families, community groups and organizations that center the stories and contributions of Indigenous, Black and other people of the global majority. Her experiences in teaching, professorship, curriculum development and leadership in education coupled with time spent as an outdoor guide informs her programming and development process to transform outdoor spaces into inclusive places that honor culture, explore justice and unearth joy.

There are also a number of fascinating workshops and panels focusing on early childhood education and nature. Complete information may be found HERE. $125.