Bring your kite or make one in the park, “rent” a bike (at no cost), play games, and have a spring picnic at the Franklin Park Kite & Bike Festival, to be held Saturday, May 14, from 1 – 4 at The Playstead. An event for all ages, all activities are free. For directions, email rsvp@franklinparkcoalition.org. Cell phone contact number on the day of the event is 617-908-4002.
Three enticing gardens open their gates to the New England Wild Flower Society for a late spring visit in the Sunapee Valley region of New Hampshire. Glenn Irick, landscape designer, leads a tour of “Happy Landings†a magnificent bucolic property surrounding an 1830s colonial style house, with sweeping pastoral views of wetlands, woodlands and Mt. Kearsarge. Eclectic gardens include foundation plantings, pool, and outer gardens with rhododendrons, mountain laurels, viburnums, dogwoods, spirea, clethra, and blueberry, to name a few. Large magnolias, an old craggy apple near the pool, and mature sugar maples at the original front door are all noteworthy specimens. Varietal diversity and spectacular views are strong factors on this lovely site.
The abundance of showy native woodland species naturally occurring at the Hewitt property in New London are the inspiration for this award-winning garden with its winding stone-lined paths and distinctive alpine habitats. At least 20 species listed as threatened, endangered or of special concern may be seen. A northeast-facing slope is home to a rockery with dwarf and miniature conifers, dwarf northern mountain rhododendron, 5 species of low-growing willows and other rock garden plants. All garden and field work is done exclusively by the owners. Bring a picnic lunch to enjoy on the property.
At the last garden, extensive native plantings along the long wooded driveway connect to a cutting garden of 6 raised beds and a large shade garden with Actaea, Anemone nemorosa ‘Vindiflora’ (pictured below,) Anemonella, Thalictroides, Dicentra, Disporum, Dodecatheon meadia, Jeffersonia, Polygonatum ‘Variegatum’, Tiarella, and Trillium. This leads to a small shade garden of dwarf perennials near the terrace before you encounter more native plants along the lakeshore. Each area is interspersed with several large, whimsical frog sculptures. This event, taking place Saturday, June 4 from 10:30 – 3:30, will be led by Thelma Hewett and will cost $55 for NEWFS members, and $62 for non-members. Sign up at www.newfs.org.
The Garden Club of Buzzards Bay will hold its annual plant sale at 783 Dartmouth Street in South Dartmouth on Saturday, May 14, from 9 – noon. Admission and parking are free. Favorite plants on sale will include extraordinary geraniums, heirloom tomatoes, herbs, dahlias, unusual boxwood cultivars, and club grown annuals and perennials. Community projects benefit from the proceeds of the plant sale. For more information, email GCBBplantsale@yahoo.com, or call 508-758-3867.
The 10 Annual Northern New England Home, Garden and Flower Show returns to the Fryeburg Fairgrounds in Fryeburg, Maine May 13, 14 & 15, 2011. Show hours are 11 – 6 on Friday, 10 – 6 on Saturday, and 10 – 5 on Sunday. Admission is $8 for adults, $6 for seniors, $4 children six to sixteen, under six years old free. For complete information log on to www.homegardenflowershow.com.
Come to the Loring-Greenough House, 12 South Street in Jamaica Plain, on Saturday, May 14, from 9 – 3, for a plant sale to benefit the 250 year old historic house. There will be many donated plants, and all proceeds will go toward the maintenance and restoration of the historic landscape. For more information, go to www.loring-greenough.org, or contact Mariya Nikiforova at mariya@radonlake.com. Rain date: Sunday, May 15.
Take inspiration for your rose paintings from Redoute and Rory McEwen. Sarah Roche guides your interpretation of the form and dimension of this most elegant of flowers through a series of basic exercises in drawing and painting. Learn to decode the complex shape and structure of flowers. Apply your skills in a watercolor study, portraying the way the petals overlap and curl, the sharp edges of the thorns, and the smooth textures of leaves. Techniques covered in this class will reinforce your painting skills so that you can add a painting of the rose and other similar complex flower forms to your portfolio. The four day class will take place Mondays and Wednesdays, June 13, 15, 20 and 22 from 9:30 am – 2:30 pm at the Wellesley College Botanic Garden in Wellesley, and costs $225 for Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture members, and $275 for non-members. Sign up at www.wellesley.edu/WCFH, or call 781-283-3094, ext. 4. The image below, by Maria Cecilia Freeman, is part of an art exhibition entitled “Rose Studies” on view through April 30, 2011 at the Helen Crocker Russell Library of Horticulture at the San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum.
Plan to attend a garden tour of private Concord area gardens on Friday or Saturday, June 3 and 4, sponsored by the Concord Museum. This event has been a New England garden tradition for 22 years. Discounted tickets are available in advance by calling 978-369-9763, or by logging on to www.concordmuseum.org. The 22nd annual Garden Affairs tour features exceptional properties that range from a Cotswold cottage-style garden to a serene, river-view garden. A benefit organized by the Museum’s Guild of Volunteers, the tour of Concord’s lovely gardens is self-guided and self-paced, beginning each day at 9:00 a.m. and continuing until 4:00 p.m., rain or shine.
Garden-goers should arrive at the Museum to pick up their maps prior to starting out. Tickets are good for either or both days, but each garden may only be visited once. Tickets through May 27: $26 Members, $32 Nonmembers; after May 27 or at the door: $32 Members; $38 Nonmembers. No refunds; no photography.
Wake Up the Earth Festival in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts is an annual festival held on the 1st Saturday of May. The festival brings together community across Jamaica Plain, Roxbury and other areas of Boston, celebrating diversity, springtime, world music and culture, youth music and culture, popular theatre, puppetry, local food and artisan vendors, non-profits around the community and so much more! The Wake Up the Earth Festival began in 1979 when a group of local neighbors and activist banded together to stop the Interstate 95 expansion into Jamaica Plain. The festival began as, and still is, a celebration of what can be accomplished when people of all traditions, cultures, ages, and beliefs come together. A great many individuals, local artists, community groups, and schools join forces every year to make a unique community collaboration. Recent festivals have included an enchanted puppet forest, side shows, live bands, dancers, acoustic performers and a giant pageant. It begins with a parade that begins at the JP monument at 11am and turns into a day long music and art festival featuring amazing local musicians and performers, all at the Southwest Corridor Park, near the Stoneybrook T Station.
Please join the Northeast Organic Farming Association/Massachusetts Chapter for a Hive Visit and Spring Management morning on Saturday, May 7 beginning at 11 am at the Boston Nature Center, 500 Walk Hill Street in Mattapan. During this springtime apiary inspection, participants will have the opportunity to closely observe bees in their habitat. Jean Claude Bourrut will begin the workshop by opening hives to check on spring development. He will discuss bee life and activity within various hives (Top Bar, Nucleus, Langstroth eight and ten frames), hive management on a natural system, and hive splitting. Bring a veil and hive tool if you have them. Registration for those without veils will be limited to 7. Anyone with a veil (more up to date than the one pictured) may register. Cost: $25 NOFA members/ $30 Non-members. Jean-Claude Bourrut has been keeping honeybees for 20 years in urban and suburban settings. He currently manages a dozen hives in three apiaries. To register for the workshop or for more information visit www.nofamass.org or contact Laura Eppstein at laura@nofamass.org.
Our gardening friend Kim Smith sent an interesting link to us, which we now share with you, a new resource—the Butterflies of Massachusetts website, www.butterfliesofmassachusetts.net. Created by Sharon Stichter, Butterflies of Massachusetts “offers a comprehensive review of the current status of butterflies in the state. It is designed as a resource for all those interested in these charismatic insects, including butterfly enthusiasts, conservationists, biologists, land managers, and wildlife professionals.â€Â Ecologically speaking, the Appalachian Mountains and Atlantic coastal plain are largely self-contained, allowing unrestricted north-south movement of individual butterflies and migratory populations. The information found on the new Butterflies of Massachusetts website represents many years of data compiled by Sharon Stichter and the Massachusetts Butterfly Club. Below is a common checkered-skipper.
