Each summer, more than 200 park supporters gather to celebrate summer in the city and our beautiful, historic parks at The Friends of the Public Garden’s Summer Party! This two-hour cocktail party gives our guests the opportunity to enjoy drinks and hors d’oeuvre while raising funds for The Friends of the Public Garden’s continued maintenance of Boston’s #threeparks.
This year’s Summer Party will be held on Wednesday, June 17 at the Garden at King’s Chapel Parish from 6-8 PM. Entrance is at 55 Branch Street. Support your parks as we usher in the summer season in a plush outdoor hidden garden. Come dressed in your best Garden Chic attire! Register for the event at https://secure.qgiv.com/event/summerparty/ Individual tickets $100.
Use your journal to capture the delicate beauty of early June at a Hollister House workshop on June 6 from 10 – 3:30. Combining pen and watercolor, we will create impressions of the beautiful flowering trees and shrubs abundant in the Hollister House gardens. We’ll start with a lesson in the barn on journaling tips and techniques, followed by a slow meander through the gardens to observe and note different buds and flowers, adding to our journals along the way. Your instructor will provide plenty of drawing and watercolor tips, both inside the barn and outside in this beautiful garden setting. All skill levels are welcome, and beginners are encouraged to join!
Bring a bag lunch. Water and snacks provided.
Required Materials: Journal and pen. You may bring your own or purchase a set for $35 when you register. We suggest a Micron 01 or 02 pen. Please click on the registration page for details and a full list of recommended materials.
Betsy Rogers-Knox is a botanical artist with a fascination for the full lifecycle of plants and the ecosystems they inhabit. She holds a Certificate in Botanical Illustration from The New York Botanical Garden and her work has been exhibited widely across the U.S. and internationally, including the ASBA International Exhibitions, NYBG Triennials, and the RHS Botanical Art Exhibit in London, where her paintings of Beckley Bog earned the Judges’ Special Award for their educational and ecological value. Betsy’s illustrations are held in the permanent collections of the RHS Lindley Library and the Hunt Institute.
In this three-day Massachusetts Horticultural Society workshop on June 9, 11, & 12 from 10 – 2 with award-winning botanical artist, Alice Rosa, students will learn how to approach botanical subjects using colored pencils. We will begin with observation and drawing, focusing on how to study a plant and translate its structure onto paper. From there, we will work through the process of adding color, studying color layering and building it gradually while paying attention to subtle shifts in tone and hue. The course is designed to be an accessible introduction, allowing students to experiment, slow down, and become familiar with the medium. Some experience with drawing and the basics of botanical art will be helpful, though no prior experience with colored pencil is required.
Alice Rosa is a Fellow of the Society of Botanical Artists in London and a Professional Member of the Copley Society of Art in Boston, MA. She graduated with distinction from the Distance Learning Diploma Course of the Society of Botanical Artists. She is a studio artist at the Umbrella Arts Center in Concord, MA.
Alice was born and raised in Italy. She has a degree in foreign languages and literature from the University of Verona. She also holds a degree in art conservation from IVBC in Venice, where she specialized in the restoration of polychrome wood sculptures and paintings on panel. She currently lives in Concord, Massachusetts.
Four beautiful gardens in the Mondadnock Region of New Hampshire will be on display Sunday, June 7 from 10 – 4 courtesy of The Garden Conservancy. Preregistration is required. Admission to each garden is $5 for Conservancy members, $10 for nonmembers.
The May Place gardens of Bill and Eileen Elliott are in Hancock, New Hampshire. Two compulsive plant collectors have been making gardens on a wooded hillside clearing for forty-five years. They continue to do all of the planning, landscaping, planting and maintenance themselves.
Gardening offers ample challenges and satisfaction as the garden continues to expand, change, die back, thrive, disappoint, and exhilarate. Within the green wall of mature woodland is a two-acre clearing which contains a mix of trees, shrubs, perennials, biennials, annuals, herbs and vegetables. (Picture below courtesy of Yankee Magazine)
A 200-yard path through the woods leads to shade and container gardens near the house.
Also in Hancock is Skatutakee Farm. The gardens surround Hancock’s first house, built in 1778 by the town clerk, Jonathan Bennett. The farmhouse plantings are informal and blend into surrounding fields and woods.
On each side of the old front door are beds reminiscent of Colonial gardens, flanked by plantings of old roses and nepeta. Behind the 1970 kitchen wing is a 48-foot-long
koi pond designed by landscape architect Diane McGuire and planted with lotuses, irises, and water lilies.
McGuire also laid out the perennial bed and woodland border planted with witch hazel, azaleas, snakeroot, and Rodgersia.
The AIA-award-winning screened porch was designed by Dan Scully. A pair of 200-year-old granite Korean rams graze on the back lawn.
Walking beyond the borders, one comes to a bog garden surrounded by marsh marigolds, skunk cabbage, and sedges. A trail of cardinal flowers brightens the wetland beyond. In the field below the terraced potager are two beds planted heavily in pollinators for late arrival of Monarch butterflies.
In Peterborough is the garden of Betsy and Michael Gordon. This small garden in the village was designed by a plantsman to be an extension of the house. The house and garden are situated on a hill and the garden is terraced on three levels. The upper level was designed to be enjoyed from the street. The middle level is laid out formally using yew hedges and a century-old granite wall foundation to create a garden room. The lowest level, an informal woodland garden, has both eastern North American and eastern Asian shade-loving plants. The garden was planted with a mixture of unusual trees, shrubs, perennials, grasses, annuals, and bulbs. Plants were selected primarily for interesting form, foliage, and texture. The garden is chronicled on Instagram @thegardenerseye. Register at https://www.gardenconservancy.org/garden-directory/open-days/garden-of-michael-betsy-gordon
Continuing on to Dublin is the Japanese Garden. The Japanese garden project began after the owner had worked for over 15 years to build a small traditional Japanese house on property in Dublin. The garden and pond were added so that visitors could experience that same quiet feeling outside the house as they did inside.
Take a walking tour of gardens in Stonington Borough, Connecticut on Friday or Saturday, June 12 & 13, sponsored by the Stonington Garden Club. The Stonington Garden Club is inviting the public to explore private gardens in Stonington Borough during its “Gardens by the Sea”.
The tour, which was last held in 2022, is expected to attract more than 2,000 visitors from across New England, according to a community announcement.
This year marks the club’s 15th tour and its centennial. The event will feature 9-10 private gardens, including waterfront vistas, formal terraced rooms, and pocket gardens designed in various styles. The tour also will showcase several ribbon gardens.
Many gardens will have an on-site educator, such as a master gardener, horticulturist or landscape designer, to share insights and answer questions. “Plein air” artists will be painting in selected gardens. All gardens are within walking distance, and free parking will be available. Tickets for the event are $50 online until June 7, and $65 on the day of the tour. The tickets are valid for both days and are nonrefundable. The tour will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. rain or shine. Buy now at https://www.stoningtongardenclub.org/garden-tour
In addition to the garden tour, there will be a tented marketplace on Wadawanuck Square featuring a variety of vendors offering garden-inspired items, clothing, jewelry and home decor. Several community partners will be on hand to answer questions about regenerative gardening techniques, conservation, plant health, composting and volunteer opportunities.
This Garden Museum event is the second in a series of talks run in partnership with Beth Chatto’s Gardens. Join us to explore the friendship between Beth Chatto and the painter and plantsman Cedric Morris – two pioneering figures who shaped the course of British gardening.
A horticultural protégé of Cedric Morris, the gardener and writer Beth Chatto credited Benton End with opening her eyes to what a garden could be. On Morris’s advice, she moved house to open her Colchester nursery on a site with better soil conditions, and later became one of the most influential gardeners of her generation.
Julia Boulton (CEO, Beth Chatto’s), Åsa Gregers-Warg (Head Gardener, Beth Chatto’s), Matt Collins (Head Gardener, Garden Museum) and Beatrice Prosser-Snelling (Project Director, Benton End House and Gardens) will join in conversation to tell the story of how Benton End – the historic Suffolk home and garden of Cedric Morris – relates to that of Beth Chatto’s Gardens. Expect a discussion between two places bound by friendship, a shared plant philosophy, and an enduring influence on the way we think about plants, gardens, and the natural world.
This event coincides with Benton End: A Paradise of Pollen and Paint, an exhibition that will explore the artistic and horticultural influence of Benton End, the Suffolk home, garden and art school led by artist plantsman Sir Cedric Morris and his life partner, artist Arthur Lett-Haines.
Come enjoy visiting eight private gardens—as well as Little Compton’s natural beauty with stonewalls and lovely ocean vistas.
Hosted by the Little Compton Garden Club, this self-guided tour of eight private gardens in coastal Little Compton offers a rare opportunity for garden lovers. The date is Saturday, June 27th, rain or shine. You’ll enjoy not only the variety of gardens but also the town’s scenic beauty, with stonewalls to the sea and ocean views.
The tour celebrates the long tradition of the Little Compton Garden Club’s giving back to the community. Your ticket purchase makes it possible for the club to fund a wide range of environmental, conservation, and education programs, as well as town beautification projects.
Tickets to the June 27 event can be purchased in advance ($45) or on the day of the event ($55) at the map pick-up area at St. Andrew’s Church, 11 Willow Ave., Little Compton. You may purchase on Eventbrite HERE
Join Cole Campbell, Production Horticulturist at Native Plant Trust, at Garden in the Woods to learn about how to care for your native plant seedlings. The June 13 and June 14 workshops will focus on how to successfully pot up seedlings and set them up for success as they grow in their first season. This is a follow up from the winter workshop, Introduction: Native Seed Sowing. $50 for either session. Register at https://www.nativeplanttrust.org/events/native-seedling-care-1/ or https://www.nativeplanttrust.org/events/native-seedling-care-2/
The Massachusetts Horticultural Society will host the 2026 New England Rose Show at The Gardens at Elm Bank on Saturday, June 20. Enjoy speakers, a rose sale, a flower crown station, and themed displays. The show is included with Garden Admission – free for MHS members, $14 for adults, $5 for kids 3 – 17, 2 and under free. For more information visit https://www.masshort.org/rose-show
The annual South Coast Harvest Festival will take place at the Westport Fairgrounds Friday, September 25 from 3 – 8, Saturday, September 26 from 10 – 8, and Sunday, September 27 from 10 – 6. Tickets will be available at the gate all three days of the event and are cash only. There will be an onsite ATM. This is a rain or shine event. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for kids 5 – 12, and free for children under 5. There is ample free parking, but no pets are allowed, except for service animals. For more information visit https://southcoastharvestfestival.com/home
