Boston Flora

Month: October 2009

  • Thursday, October 29, 12:30 – 2:00 pm – Pumpkin Party at the Boston Public Market

    • This Thursday, experience two of fall’s best offerings direct from local farms: pumpkins and hot apple cider. Stop by the Market from 12:30-2 pm to let your creative juices flow and decorate a pumpkin from market regular, Keown Orchards. While you’re there, warm your senses with a sample of hot cider.
      Boston Public Market extended to Nov. 24
      All participants and market guests will receive a complimentary Greenway tote bag to carry home your masterpiece or market purchases. Pumpkin artists are welcome to take their creations with them. Any unclaimed pumpkins will be displayed for the day and composted later at an area farm.
      When: Thursday, October 29th,
      12:30 pm-2:00 pm
      Where: Dewey Square Plaza  Cost: Free

  • Tuesday, November 17, 10 am – 12 noon – Pollinator-Friendly Landscaping

    As New England’s landscape becomes increasingly developed, backyards are becoming a “final frontier” in providing essential habitat for at-risk pollinator species that play an integral role in the health of our environment. On Tuesday, November 17, beginning at 10 am, Garden Coach and Habitat Naturalist Ellen Sousa will explain how to help sustain and restore pollinator populations in your own back yard, regardless of its size or location. Learn to choose the best plants to help feed and shelter pollinators, and some best practices for encouraging biodiversity in your backyard.

    Ellen Sousa is a writer, educator and garden coach living in Massachusetts’ Worcester Hills on Turkey Hill Brook Farm, a small farm registered with the NWF as a Certified Wildlife Habitat. She has a certificate in Native Plant Horticulture & Design from New England Wild Flower Society, a BA in English from Clark University, and is certified as a Master Habitat Naturalist from Windstar Wildlife Institute. She writes regularly about habitat gardening for magazines such as Massachusetts Wildlife, BackHome, Mother Earth News and Birds & Blooms Extra. Visit her web site and New England habitat landscaping blog at THBFarm.com. The lecture will be held at Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, Massachusetts on Tuesday, November 17, from 10 am – noon.  Fee is $15 for Tower Hill members, $18 for non-members.  To register, log on to www.towerhillbg.org.

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  • Saturday, November 7, 10 am – 12 noon – Impressionist in the Garden

    Gardening became a popular pastime in nineteenth-century France when exotic plants began arriving in quantity and rapid advances were made in hybridizing.  At the same time, vast renovations to its boulevards and parks turned Paris into an urban garden. The Impressionist painters recognized and appreciated the new interest in horticulture and hastened to picture it, as this lecture at the Berkshire Botanical Garden in West Stockbridge will show, as a sign of their modernity.  Colta Ives is Curator Emeritus of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York where she has prepared exhibitions on Manet, Degas, Gauguin, Bonnard, and Van Gogh (see catalog cover below).  She has cultivated a woodland garden in Monterey, Massachusetts for more than thirty years and holds an M.S. in Landscape Design from Columbia University.  She is currently designing gardens in the Berkshires, Westchester County, and New York City. The date is Saturday, November 7, from 10 – noon, and the cost for BBG members is $16, non-members $21.  For more information, log on to www.berkshirebotanical.org.

    http://rgr-static1.tangentlabs.co.uk/media/9780300107203/vincent-van-gogh-the-drawings.jpg

  • Monday, November 16, 10:00 am – Maintaining Your Landscape – Naturally

    The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts presents a Horticulture Morning on Monday, November 16, beginning at 10 a.m. at The Espousal Center, 554 Lexington Street, North Waltham, Massachusetts (off Route I-95/128, Exit 27A Totten Pond Road).  Cathy Felton, Current Native Plants Chairman and organic garden expert, will speak on Maintaining Your Landscape – Naturally, using native and dry condition plants in the garden.  A donation of $5, payable at the door, is suggested.  To call for information on cancellations due to snow or storm, call 781-391-0261.  You may also contact Betsy Williams (betsy@betsywilliams.com) or Rita DeLollis (rdelollis@aol.com) for more information on Horticulture Mornings.

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  • Tuesday, October 27, 7:00 – 8:30 pm – Improving The Older Garden

    One of the country’s top gardening professionals, Janet Macunovich, is coming to Wellesley this month.  If you’re looking for inspiration and practical, how-to advice on improving the look of your garden or landscape, you’ll want to come hear what Ms. Macunovich has to say.

    On Tuesday, October 27, the Massachusetts Master Gardener Association will present Ms. Macunovich’s talk on ‘Improving the Older Garden’.  It will be held at Elm Bank, the headquarters of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, in Wellesley.

    Ms. Macunovich is a noted professional gardener, author and educator recognized for her engaging how-to presentations, innovative hands-on workshops and down-to-earth writing and speaking style.  Her goal is to help people get more out of gardening and to better enjoy their landscapes.  To that end, she takes the mystery out of gardening and garden design. She replaces it with practicality and fun.

    Since 1990, Ms. Macunovich has written nine books and hundreds of how-to articles.  She uses experiences from her own gardens, clients’ gardens and a 5,000 square foot garden she designed and maintains at the Detroit Zoo where she is a 21-year veteran of that park’s Adopt-A-Garden program.  She has taught at Cranbrook House and Garden Auxiliary, Detroit Garden Center, Perennial Plant Association, and Matthaei Botanical Gardens.  Through sage observation and a deep well of experience, Ms. Macunovich offers gardening and landscaping advice that represents a specific, realistic approach for anyone who enjoys tending a garden.

    Her education in horticulture includes extensive coursework through botanical gardens, professional associations and universities. She is an Advanced Master Gardener through Michigan State University, and owner-operator since 1981 of the garden design and maintenance company Perennial Favorites. In Michigan, where she lives, she is known as “the lady with the flower house, the one with no lawn.”

    The entrance to Elm Bank is located at 900 Washington Street (Route 16), Wellesley, one mile west of Wellesley College.  Ms. Macunovich’s talk will begin at 7 p.m.  Admission is $25 and advanced registration is requested.  You can email your request to sonjajohanson@comcast.net.This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it The Massachusetts Master Gardener Association, Inc. is a non-profit educational organization whose mission is to share knowledge and experience with the public through outreach programs in education, horticulture and gardening; to provide the Master Gardening Training Program to interested members of the public; and to provide graduates of the Master Gardener Training Program with educational and practical opportunities to extend their knowledge and interests in gardening and related topics. For more information, please contact Betty Sanders at 508-359-9453.

    http://www.fopcon.org/images/event_images/Macunovich_plant.jpg

  • Sunday, November 15, 3:00 – 5:00 pm – Victorian Flower Arranging with Donna Morrissey


    Victorian Flower Arranging with Donna Morrissey

    Presented by The Gibson House

    Sunday, November 15

    3:00 – 5:00 pm

    The College Club, 44 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston

    Assorted fine teas, iced tea, mint lemonade, petite tea sandwiches,

    fresh fruit, mini scones, tea breads and tea cookies will be served.

    Tickets are $65.00**

    Seating is limited.  Reservations are required.

    RSVP: 617-267-6338 or email info@thegibsonhouse.org.


    Donna Morrissey is a Master Flower Show Judge and former Chairman for Judges Council of National Garden Clubs.

    She is a Senior Associate of the Museum of Fine Arts and a Floral Designer and Design Instructor at the MFA.

    Donna is a member of the Garden Club of the Back Bay and the Wareham Garden Club. She is a popular presenter of Floral Design Programs and Workshops and has her own floral design business, Chestnut Hill Celebrations.

    The Gibson House Museum is the only museum in Back Bay, preserved as it was lived in by three generations of the Gibson family (1859-1954). The house opened as a museum in 1957, and tells the story of daily life in the Back Bay during the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth centuries.  The Museum also displays its collection of Victorian and Edwardian decorative arts.
    The Gibson House Museum is located at 137 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02116. For more information, log on to www.thegibsonhouse.org.
    **The Gibson House is a Massachusetts not-for-profit corporation. All but $23.00 of the cost of your ticket is tax deductible.

    http://www.pattern-diva.com/victorian_flower_arrangement.jpg

  • Thursday, November 12, 4 – 8 pm – Ladies’ Night Out

    Come to Russell’s Garden Center in Wayland, Massachusetts on Thursday, November 12, from 4 – 8 pm, and enjoy Ladies’ Night, the annual event everyone looks forward to.  For more information, log on to www.russellsgardencenter.com.

  • Sunday, November 1, 2:00 pm – An Infinite Variety of Fruit

    Garden History Consultant Christie Higginbottom’s illustrated program at Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, Massachusetts on Sunday, November 1 beginning at 2 pm will explore the role played by apples at the table and on the farm landscape in the past, and will look at the revival of interest today.  The program is free with admission to the Museum.  For more information, log on to www.fruitlands.org.

    http://www.globalmr.com/images/Omaha/Desserts/Caramel_Apple_Tartlets.jpg

  • Thursday, November 5, 7:00 – 9:00 pm – Pruning: When, Why, and How

    Confused about when and how to prune your trees and shrubs?  Chuck Sherzi, Certified Arborist and Horticulturist, will help you sort that out.  Chuck will cover pruning practices, tools, and techniques.  He has taught classes and workshops at the Landscape Institute and the Arnold Arboretum.  This program, on Thursday, November 5, beginning at 7 pm, will take place at the Medford Public Library, 111 High Street, Medford, Massachusetts, and is sponsored by the Medford Garden Club.  The program is free and open to the public.  For more information, email sbcummer@msn.com.

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  • Saturdays, October 31 and November 21, 9:00 am – 2:00 pm – City of Boston Hazardous Waste Drop Off Days

    Get rid of the paint, the aerosol cans, the chemicals, the works, on either Saturday, October 31 at the UMass Boston Boston Harbor Campus, 100 Morrissey Blvd. or on November 21 at the Boston Public Works Yard, 315 Gardner Street in West Roxbury.  Log on to www.cityofboston.gov/publicworks/recycling/hazardouswaste.asp for directions and a full list of items accepted. No televisions or computers, please, and bring proof of residency with you.

    This just in  from our friend Penny Cherubino at www.bostonzest.com.  The directions on the City’s web site are wrong (ah, the government!), but Penny has posted the correct information at : http://www.bostonzest.com/2009/10/boston-hazardous-waste-collection-days-fall-2009.html

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