Boston Flora

Month: June 2011

  • Saturday, June 18, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Seekonk Open Days Garden Tour

    Landscape designer Andrew Grossman’s Seekonk, Massachusetts gardens, which border the Martin Wildlife Refuge and the Runnins River, showcase a wide variety of perennials, shrubs, and grasses. The property includes a blue-and-white garden, a hot colored garden with a checkerboard thyme patio, a cottage garden planted with roses and other old-fashioned favorites, and a rustic pond surrounded by bog plantings. There is also a cutting garden currently planted with tea roses and dinner plate dahlias.  Andrew’s garden will be open on Saturday, June 18, from 10 – 4 as part of the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days schedule, along with three additional gardens in nearby Kent County, Rhode Island.  For a complete description, visit http://www.gardenconservancy.org/opendays/open-days-schedule/openday/390-east-greenwich-area-open-day.  Admission is $5 per garden, or $25 for all six gardens open on this date.  Discounted ticket booklets can be purchased on June 18 at each participating private garden or at Tranquil Lake Nursery, 45 River Street, Rehoboth, Massachusetts.

     

  • Wednesday, June 29, 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Summer Pruning Workshop

    Learn the best techniques for pruning your spring blooming shrubs such as Rhododendron, Azalea, and Viburnum in this Summer Pruning Workshop, sponsored by The Trustees of Reservation at Long Hill in Beverly on Wednesday, June 29, from 5 – 7 pm. This hands-on workshop will give you tips and confidence for keeping your landscape looking it’s best year after year. TTOR Members: $15. Nonmembers: $20. Please pre-register at www.thetrustees.org/longhill, or call 978-921-1944, x. 4018.

  • Sunday, July 10, 10:00 am – 3:00 pm – Provincetown Secret Garden Tour

    Gardening enthusiasts will enjoy PAAM’s 14th Annual Secret Garden Tour with a double header garden experience. The day (Sunday, July 10) begins with a self-guided walking tour of gorgeous Secret Gardens in Provincetown’s east end. Ticket-holders will receive a map and booklet with stories and details about each garden. Visitors are then invited to the Provincetown Art Association and Museum to tour the Art of the Garden, an exhibition of floral works in air-conditioned galleries. All proceeds from the event benefit PAAM exhibitions and educational programs.

    The Secret Garden Tour leads guests through hidden stone paths and crooked wooden walkways into borders and beds of specimen plants, common and exotic flowers, and lush greenery. The owners and tenders of fragrant and visually stunning Provincetown gardens plan to welcome more than 500 visitors.

    Free parking for the tour is provided at Benson, Young and Downs Insurance Agency and Gately-McHoul’s Funeral home, found at the end of Harry Kemp Way. A fleet of shuttle-cars makes continuous stops between the parking lots and gardens throughout the day. Tickets to the Secret Garden Tour include admission to PAAM’s galleries for the Art of the Garden exhibition. This event continues to be a success year after year due in part to the kindness of more than fifty dedicated volunteers.

    Tickets are $30 and may be purchased by: stopping by the Museum (Thursday-Sunday, 12-5pm), calling (508) 487-1750, e-mailing credit card information to Annie at alongley@paam.org, or sending a check or credit card information by mail to Secret Garden Tour, PAAM, 460 Commercial Street, Provincetown MA 02657.

  • Tuesdays and Thursdays, July 19, 21, 26 and 28, 9:30 am – 3:30 pm – From Flowers to Fruits: Botanical Textures in Gouache

    Join award-winning designer/illustrator and botanical artist Kelly Leahy Radding to explore the properties of this historic, versatile medium while painting a variety of botanical subjects and textures.  Pronounced “gwash,” gouache comes from the Italian word guazzo for mud, and is often referred to as body-color.  It can be painted from light to dark with consecutive washes or glazes, or it can be scumbled – adding white to the pigments to paint light over dark.  Include this water-based medium in your artist toolbox and find new ways to enhance your work.  For intermediate to advanced artists.  Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture members, $300, non-members $375.  Classes will be held Tuesdays and Thursdays, July 19, 21, 26 and 28  at the Wellesley College Botanic Garden, and you may register by calling 781-283-3094, or by logging on to www.wellesley.edu/WCFH.

  • Monday, June 13, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Healthy Food for Healthy Kids

    The Massachusetts Horticultural Society has initiated its Garden to Table Program, to help people of all ages and all levels of gardening experience to grow, cook, preserve, and enjoy healthy local food.  On Monday, June 13, from 6-8, come to the Crockett Garden at Elm Bank, 900 Washington Street, Wellesley, to hear Sally Sampson, founder and president of Chop Chop magazine, a one-year-old local magazine that encourages families to spend time together in the kitchen.  Chop Chop is endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics.  The cost is $20 for MHS members and $25 for non-members.  You may register online at www.masshort.org, or call 617-933-4995.

  • Friday, June 24 and Saturday, June 25, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm – In the Groves: A Summer Solstice Journey

    Transport yourself to a different time and place with this enchanting evening of tree lore and summer-solstice legends. Storyteller Diane Edgecomb and Celtic harpist Margot Chamberlain spin tales of the human connection with trees and the deep meaning we have assigned to them through the ages. This unique performance, designed specifically for the Arnold Arboretum, starts at the Hunnewell Building and continues along tree-lined paths with story and music. The evening culminates with the haunting Czech legend “The Wild Woman of the Birch Grove” told amid the birches of Bussey Hill at sunset. Appropriate for adults and for children 12 years and above. Bring a cushion to sit on if you wish. Registrants will walk approximately two miles on and off trails. The performance takes place rain or shine. In the event of rain, it will be held in the Hunnewell Building lecture hall. You may choose from two sessions, the first taking place Friday, June 24, and the second on Saturday, June 25, from 6:30 – 8:30 pm. Fee $20 per person; space is limited. To register, visit www.arboretum.harvard.edu.  Painting of The Birch Grove (Birkenwald), circa 1900, by Ludwig Dill, courtesy of the Frye Art Museum.

  • Saturday, June 18, 1:00 pm – Native Shrubs Walking Tour

    Native shrubs add seasonal interest when used as specimen plantings, in mixed borders, as hedges or as hardscape accents for landscapes. Join Jim Gorman at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge on Saturday, June 18 at 1 pm for a walk focused on their impressive collection and take home a few planting ideas. Fee: $5 members; $10 non-members. For more information, telephone 617-607-1952.  Photo below by Curtis Adams.

  • Saturday, June 11, 9:00 am – 1:00 pm – Compost Tea Workshop

    Most gardeners know the impressive benefits of homegrown compost, but did you know that by steeping compost in water you can produce a superior product? Join author Christopher Roddick, head arborist at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and certified Master Composter, at the Polly Hill Arboretum on Saturday, June 11, from 9 – 1, to learn the process of making compost tea. This workshop will cover how to make high-quality compost and the logistics of producing and using compost tea. Roddick will also discuss the relationship between plants and soil and how to improve plant and soil health.  $45/$40 for PHA members. (Includes mid-morning refreshments.)  For directions and registration information, visit www.pollyhillarboretum.org.

  • Sunday, June 26, 2:00 pm – Tea Ceremony Presentations at the Art Complex Museum

    The Art Complex Museum, 189 Alden Street, Duxbury, will be the site of a Tea Ceremony Presentation on Sunday, June 26, beginning at 2 pm, in the tea hut situated in a Japanese garden on the museum grounds.  Admission is free.  Future presentation dates will include July 31 and September 25.  The Art Complex Tea Hut, Shofuan, “Wind in the Pines Hut” was designed by Kojiro Tomita’s long time friend Gofu Sano and built in Kyoto, Japan in 1969.  It was reassembled in 1975 and dedicated to the Tomitas at an inaugural tea ceremony. More information may be found at www.artcomplex.org.

  • Saturday, June 11, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm, and Sunday, June 12, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Antiques at Elm Bank

    The Massachusetts Horticultural Society at Elm Bank Reservation again hosts the annual Antiques at Elm Bank on Saturday, June 11, 9 – 5, and Sunday, June 12, 10 – 4, at 900 Washington Street in Wellesley.  More than 100 dealers will be on the spacious grounds, and 25 more inside two air-conditioned buildings,  along with free parking, a food court, and live music by Lou Yelle.  For more information, log on to www.masshort.org or www.neantiqueshows.com.