Boston Flora

  • Thursday, November 5, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Eastern – The Living Plant Museum, Online

    Join The American Horticultural Society and renowned houseplant educator and influencer Paige Tailyn Johnson online on November 5 for The Living Plant Museum, a fascinating look at the history of plants and the ways caring for them can enrich our own lives. Discover how our relationships with plants can support personal growth while deepening our appreciation for the living world around us. $15 AHS members/$20 non-members. Register at https://ahsgardening.org/ahs-live-the-living-plant-museum/

    President’s Council members: Receive complimentary registration, along with a special gift and an update from Suzanne B. Laporte, President & CEO, featuring the latest news from AHS and River Farm. RSVP to Allyson Liu at aliu@ahsgardening.org or 703-768-5704 x140.

  • Saturday, November 21 – Sunday, January 3, 4:00 pm – 10:00 pm – Night Lights 2026

    Tickets are now on sale! Night Lights is an annual celebration held at The New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill in Boylston, MA just outside of Worcester. Night Lights is an inclusive, secular event where visitors of all backgrounds can celebrate winter, light, and nature together. Amidst a quarter million lights, enjoy a delightful evening with popular favorites such as s’mores, seasonal drinks, a model train, holiday shopping, and fun photo opportunities for the whole family!

    NIGHT LIGHTS Daily, 4 pm to 10 pm
    Celebrate the season with enchanting landscapes, fun experiences, and thousands of lights. Enjoy seasonal fare and spirits, visit our Garden Shop for unique gift ideas, or give the gift of four-season membership. Pre-purchased timed-entry special event tickets are required for entry after 4pm.

    Night Lights ticket prices for Tower Hill members and nonmembers range from depending on age and date. Nonmembers pay slightly more. Reserve at https://nebg.org/nightlights/

  • Wednesday, November 4, 6:45 pm – 8:15 pm Eastern – Virunga National Park, Online

    The mist-enshrouded peaks of the Virunga Mountains are part of one of Africa’s earliest protected natural areas. Known for an active chain of volcanoes, Virunga National Park is home to the endangered mountain gorilla and more than 300 other faunal and floral species. Historian Justin M. Jacobs shows how together with the adjacent lands of Volcanoes National Park, made famous by the fieldwork of zoologist Dian Fossey, Virunga provides a tense yet majestic backdrop for the competing demands of economic development and ecological preservation. The Smithsonian Associates online presentation takes place November 4 beginning at 6:45 pm, and is $25 for Smithsonian members, $35 for nonmembers. Register at https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/programs/virunga-national-park

  • Tuesday, October 27, 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm Eastern – Reading the Landscape, Online

    Douglas Hoerr, FASLA, approaches landscape architecture as an act of exceptional craftsmanship, one that begins not with a signature style, but with a careful reading of place. As the founding partner of Hoerr Schaudt, he has shaped some of the country’s most celebrated residential gardens, civic landscapes, and cultural institutions for more than four decades through a design philosophy rooted in horticultural expertise, contextual thinking, and a profound respect for the unique opportunities each site presents.

    Hoerr will demonstrate how extraordinary design often emerges from the most unexpected canvases. Drawing from projects including the multi-award-winning New England Farm, a painterly vision of 1700s Arcadia on Narragansett Bay; a former parking lot transformed into an ICAA Acanthus Award-winning garden in Columbus; the restoration of a long-lost Russell Page garden in St. Louis; the reimagined median of Michigan Avenue’s Magnificent Mile that inspired nationwide urban greening; and the revitalization of Graceland Cemetery into an everyday cultural destination, Hoerr will reveal how careful observation, horticultural expertise, and cultural context result in transcending landscapes that last the test of time.

    The New York Botanical Garden hosts this webinar on October 27 from 6:30 – 7:30 Eastern. Non member price $41. Register at NYBG website HERE.

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  • Tuesday, November 3, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Eastern – The Jungle Garden: Preserving a Tropical Landscape, Online

    Join the Garden Conservancy and Rochelle Wolberg, Executive Director of McKee Botanical Garden in Florida, for an inspiring look at one of America’s most remarkable historic gardens as it celebrates dual milestone anniversaries: the Centennial Celebration of its Living Collections and the 25th anniversary of its reopening. The webinar takes place November 3 at 2 pm Eastern.

    Nestled in Florida’s subtropical landscape, McKee Botanical Garden has captivated visitors for generations with its lush, jungle-like setting, extraordinary plant collections, and unique blend of horticulture, history, and art. Yet its continued existence is itself a remarkable story. Once facing an uncertain future, McKee was rescued through the dedication of community advocates who worked tirelessly to restore and reimagine this beloved garden for future generations.

    In this special presentation, Rochelle will share the garden’s fascinating history, from its origins as a celebrated Florida attraction to its dramatic preservation and transformation into a nationally recognized botanical garden. She will also discuss McKee’s evolution over the past quarter- century, its recent recognition with the Garden Conservancy’s Greene Prize for Excellence in American Gardening and the vision guiding its future. The webinar will also highlight McKee Botanical Garden’s newly published book, The Jungle Garden: Preserving a Tropical Landscape, with photography by Ngoc Minh Ngo. You can purchase the book, The Jungle Garden: Preserving a Tropical Landscape by McKee Botanical Garden, here. The book and admission to webinar are separate purchases. To register for the webinar, visit https://www.gardenconservancy.org/events/web26-the-jungle-garden-preserving-a-tropical-landscape-webinar-only

  • Sunday, November 8, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm – Starting & Maintaining Your Perpetual Journal

    Join renowned botanical artist and newly published author, Lara Call Gastinger as you learn basic skills for drawing outside and keeping a field sketching journal, such as a perpetual journal. We will explore and draw in the gardens after learning how to break down the complexity of a plant, use a pen, add watercolor, and make important observations. Lara will introduce basic skills for starting and maintaining your own perpetual journal. She will explain how pages are set up and discuss techniques that she uses to create her nature observations. All of these are practices she shares in her new book, A Perpetual Journal Practice.

    This Massachusetts Horticultural Society class will take place at the Garden at Elm Bank on Sunday, November 8 from 9:30 – 12:30, and is $95 for MHS members, $115 for nonmembers, Register HERE.

  • Tuesday, October 27 – Thursday, October 29, 12:00 noon – 3:00 pm Eastern – Virtual Firefly Symposium 2026: Science, Conservation, & Education, Online

    Join The Xerces Society October 27 – 29 for a free, three-day virtual symposium on firefly research and conservation in the United States and Canada! Each day of the symposium will consist of five to six presentations, and opportunities for networking and discussion.

    Presentation topics include firefly biology, community science, conservation and management, firefly tourism, and educational programming.

    This event is intended for everyone interested in fireflies and their conservation in the US and Canada, including conservation practitioners, agency biologists, environmental educators, community scientists, academic researchers, and firefly enthusiasts.

    OCT 27 to OCT 29
    9:00 AM – 12:00 PM PT
    10:00 AM – 1:00 PM MT
    11:00 AM – 2:00 PM CT
    12:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET

    The event is free! You can register and view the schedule at https://xerces.org/events/

    Closed Captioning will be available during this webinar. The webinar will be recorded and available on our YouTube channel https://xerces.org/youtube

    This symposium and the Firefly Atlas are supported by the BAND Foundation.

  • Wednesday, November 4, 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm – No-Till Growing for Community Gardeners

    In this free November 4 workshop open to the public, farmer Rachael Walton will give an overview of Gaining Ground’s no-till growing practices and will address how no-till principles and methods can be utilized by community gardeners. The program takes place from 4 – 5:30 at Gaining Ground, 341 Virginia Road in Concord.

    Rachael Walton is the Farm Co-Assistant Manager at Gaining Ground in Concord, Massachusetts. She has been farming professionally for more than six years. Rachael grew up in Arizona but has lived in Concord since middle school, and feels very lucky to have moved to a place with such a vibrant farming community — which helped her discover her love for farming early on. While gaining her degree in Agroecology at the University of Vermont, she spent her summers working on farms in Concord and learning about local food systems. An avid community gardener herself, Rachael is inspired and driven by the belief that our food systems can and must be both environmentally sustainable and also equitable and just for every person involved. When she isn’t farming, Rachael loves to hike, read, crochet, and bake lots and lots of sourdough bread.

    Register at www.middlesexconservationdistrict.org

  • Friday, October 23, 3:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Living Connections: The Arnold Arboretum and Korea

    On Friday, October 23, members of the Arnold Arboretum get a special sneak preview of the new exhibit in the Hunnewell Building, titled Living Connections: The Arnold Arboretum and Korea. For more than a century, the Arnold Arboretum has been connected to Korea through plants, exploration, and scientific exchange. The exhibit brings together rare archival images, living collections, plant records, and contemporary partnerships to explore Korea’s botanical heritage and the evolving relationship between the Arboretum and Korean institutions.

    Join us for this special member preview event to view the exhibit, enjoy refreshments, and mingle with staff experts. No need to register, just stop by! Not sure of your member status? Visit https://arboretum.harvard.edu/support/

    Accessibility: The Hunnewell Building is wheelchair accessible.

    This members-only program is geared towards adults. Inclement weather policy: This is a rain or shine event. This exhibition is sponsored in part by Leslie and Peter Ciampi.

  • Tuesday, November 3, 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm Eastern – Plant, Places, Growth, Decay, Online

    This November 3 Garden Museum session, available online and recorded, brings together artists and collectives who each have a profound relationship with place and environment. Alex Hartley makes ambitious land art that destabilizes our ideas of wilderness and utopia; Tania Kovats works across sculpture and installation to explore geological time and bodies of water; Troika examine how technology reshapes our understanding of the natural world; and Kultivator — an art practice and experimental farm on the Swedish island of Öland — investigate our relationship with the landscapes that feed us. Critic and curator Ben Tufnell joins as respondent. £10 Livestream. Register HERE.