Boston Flora

Month: April 2012

  • Sunday, May 13, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Lilac Sunday

    FREE! Join lilac enthusiasts from all over New England to celebrate a beloved Boston tradition on Sunday, May 13, from 10 – 4. This year Lilac Sunday is on Mother’s Day—what better way to celebrate Moms! Delight your senses with a hillside of heavenly fragrances and dazzling colors. There will be tours, live outdoor music, art, children’s activities, and food vendors (picnicking is allowed on this special day only). 2012 Lilac Sunday T-shirts and other and other merchandise will be for sale.

    On Lilac Sunday, the Arboretum is open as usual from dawn to dusk, with special activities from 10:00am until 4:00pm (full program schedule coming online soon) at http://arboretum.harvard.edu/plants/lilac_sunday.html

    Parking is limited, so use of public transportation is strongly encouraged.

    HIGHLIGHTS:

    Tours of the Lilac Collection: (every hour)

    Tours from the Visitor Center to the Lilacs: (every 30 minutes)

    Tours of Special Collections: (various times) Explorers Garden, Leventritt Shrub & Vine Garden, Bradley Rosaceous Collection, and more

    Family Activities: (various times): Build-a-flower, Mother’s Day cards, Coloring & drawing, Science station

    Performances (various times): Delta Swingers trio featuring Erin Harpe, The J-Way String Quartet, Lloyd Thayer, and more.

    Food vendors: Clover Fast Food, Slush King, Lefty’s Silver Cart, Cupcakory, and more.

    Displays: Library display, information about the Aboretum’s programs, science research, and more!

    Free lilac plant if you join the Friends of the Arnold Arboretum on Lilac Sunday!

    The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University is the oldest public arboretum in North America, and one of the world’s leading centers for the study of plants. A unique blend of beloved public landscape and respected research institution, the Arnold Arboretum provides and supports world-class science research, horticulture, and education programs that foster the understanding, appreciation and preservation of trees.

  • Saturday, April 28, 2:00 pm – Traffic-Stopping Container Gardens

    Deborah Trickett, MCH, and owner of The Captured Garden, will speak at Weston Nurseries of Chelmsford, 160 Pine Hill Road in Chelmsford, on Saturday, April 28, beginning at 2 pm. Deborah is an award-winning designer whose work has been featured in The Boston Globe, in Garden Gate Magazine, and on the TV show New England Dream Home.  She is a frequent lecturer at the Boston Flower & Garden Show as well as at the Philadelphia International Flower Show. She also teaches classes and workshops at the Arnold Arboretum.  She’ll help make your container gardens the talk of the neighborhood!  Free.  For directions, visit www.westonnurseries.com.

  • Saturday, April 21 – Sunday, April 22 – Sew In Love With Violets

    A spectacular show featuring America’s favorite houseplant, the African Violet (Saintpaulia sp.), will take place Saturday, April 21 (10 – 5) and Sunday, April 22 (9 – 4) at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive in Boylston. All are welcome to enter their own plants and floral designs for judging to win ribbons and prizes. Participate in workshops on African Violet care. Start your own collection at the sale, where commercially grown plants and supplies are sold, along with plants grown by members. For more information, call 508-869-6111, or visit www.towerhillbg.org.

  • Thursday, April 26, 7:00 pm – Grass-Free Small Gardens

    Designing a landscape with shrubs, sub-shrubs, and ground-covers can eliminate the chore of mowing and significantly reduce the need for supplementary water and fertilizer. This Massachusetts Horticultural Society slide lecture given by Sally Muspratt of Sally Muspratt Landscape Design explores ways of creating beautiful, ecologically responsible, low maintenance plantings without enraging the neighbors with horticulturally correct sunburned, shaggy lawns. The lecture begins at 7 pm on Thursday, April 26, at Elm Bank in Wellesley, and although free, registration is recommended at www.masshort.org.  Photo from www.guardian.co.uk.

  • Monday, April 23, 6:30 pm – History & Development of Allston Brighton

    Anthony Sammarco, noted author of more than sixty books on Boston and surrounding cities and towns, will outline in an illustrated slide lecture the history of this dynamic and ever evolving neighborhood of Boston. The presentation will take place at the Brighton Branch of the Boston Public Library, 40 Academy Hill Road in Brighton. Free admission.

    Originally known as Little Cambridge, Allston-Brighton remained largely a rural farming area for almost two centuries after the Massachusetts Bay Colony was settled in 1630 by the Puritans. Agitation in the early nineteenth century led to the creation of the Town of Brighton. Throughout the 19th century, Brighton thrived with not only the stock yards where cattle was king, but also numerous nurseries, among them that of Joseph Breck, founder of the Breck Seed Company. That evening, Amy Ryan, president of the Boston Public Library, will announce the Bonifazio and Angela Cocuzzo Cedrone Fund, which Mr. Sammarco created to honor longtime Brighton residents and the late parents of his partner Joe Cedrone. The Cedrone Fund will benefit the Brighton Branch, Boston Public Library.

  • Wednesday, April 18, 3:00 pm – Japanese Cherry Tree Planting

    Governor Deval Patrick, Mayor Thomas Menino and Japan Airlines Chairman Emeritus Kazuo Inamori will join Consul General of Japan in Boston Takeshi Hikihara for a ceremonial planting of Japanese flowering cherry trees in Boston’s Public Garden on Wednesday, April 18 at 3:00pm near the corner of Beacon and Charles Streets.

    The planting ceremony is part of the Greater Boston-Japan Cherry Blossom Festival which marks the 100th anniversary of the gift of Japanese flowering cherry trees from Japan to the United States. The original trees, which were planted in Washington D.C., have become a symbol of the close relations between the two countries. One of the cherry trees to be planted in the Public Garden is a graft produced from those in Washington’s Tidal Basin.

    At the April 18 ceremony guests will hear remarks from Governor Patrick, Mayor Menino, Chairman Emeritus Inamori and Consul General Hikihara. Women of the World, a rising international vocal ensemble made up of Berklee graduates, and Japanese koto player, Ms. Yuki Yasuda, will add enjoyable cultural color to the occasion.

    For further information on the Greater Boston-Japan Cherry Blossom Festival 2012, which includes a gagaku (Japanese Imperial Court music) concert; Haru Matsuri, a Japanese-style festival in Copley Square as well as other performances, lectures and exhibits, visit:

    Consulate General of Japan in Boston: www.boston.us.emb-japan.go.jp/

    Japan Society of Boston: www.japansocietyboston.org/sakura/eng

    For national information, see:

    Embassy of Japan in Washington DC: www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/sakura100

    For questions regarding this event, contact: Susan Gill s.gill@cgjbos.org or 617 973-9772

  • Thursday, May 17, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm – Hidden Gardens of Beacon Hill

    The Beacon Hill Garden Club invites you to its 83rd Annual Tour of the Hidden Gardens of Beacon Hill on Thursday, May 17, from 9 – 5, rain or shine.  Tickets are $30 in advance and $40 on the day of the tour.  You may purchase tickets online at www.BeaconHillGardenClub.org, or by mail (check payable to Beacon Hill Garden Club, no later than May 8 along with a self-addressed stamped envelope) to Beacon Hill Garden Club 2012 Tour, Box 302, Charles Street Station, Boston, MA 02114.  Tickets will also be available for purchase at several retailers on Beacon Hill – a complete list will be found on the Beacon Hill Garden Club website.

    On the day of the tour, there will be three hostess booth locations, one on the corner of Charles and Chestnut Streets, one on the corner of Charles and Mt. Vernon Streets, and the third at the Church of the Advent’s garden entrance off Mt. Vernon Square.  Cash or checks only – credit cards cannot be accepted on tour day.  No refunds or exchanges, no group discounts, no baby strollers.  If you have questions, email info@BeaconHillGardenClub.org, or leave a message at 617-227-4392.

  • Saturday, April 28, 9:30 am – 3:00 pm – Introduction to Willow Identification

    Willows are considered challenging for identification: variation within each species is so high that often at first glance plants belonging to different species resemble each other more than those of the same species. However, some characters remain constant and reliable, and with practice, willows become much more approachable. Irina Kadis and Alexey Zinovjev, Botanists and willow enthusiasts, will concentrate on the characters helpful for identification, using mostly common native and non-native species from Massachusetts as examples, on Saturday, April 28, from 9:30 – 3 at New England Wild Flower Society’s Garden in the Woods in Framingham. In the classroom they will have herbarium specimens, freshly cut branches, some forced branches for those species that flower later in spring, and also some potted plants to examine and compare. Bring a hand lens, if you have one. After lunch, you will carpool to a site a short distance away from Garden in the Woods for a walk. Boots are required, as the area is flooded during the spring time. Bring a lunch and beverage. (Note: Irina Kadis is Curatorial Assistant at the Arnold Arboretum’s Dana Greenhouses.)  Co-sponsored with the Arnold Arboretum. Fee $66 member, $80 nonmember.  Register at http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu/Info.aspx?EventID=1#April.  Image of melanostachys from www.thislittleworld.typepad.com.

  • Tuesday, June 5, 7:30 am – 3:00 pm – The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts Annual Meeting

    The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts will hold its Annual Meeting on Tuesday, June 5 at the Holiday Inn, Mansfield, 31 Hampshire Street, Mansfield, Massachusetts.  The day will begin with registration and coffee from 7:30 am.  Registrants may select one workshop to attend from 8:15 – 9, either How to Take Minutes and Write Reports, taught by Nancy Donaldson, GCFM Parliamentarian pro tem, or How to Develop Your Club’s Web Site and Service It, instructor to be announced.  At 10:15 the Acton Garden Club will present Problems with Lyme Disease, and at 10:30, Nancy Brennan, Executive Director of the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, will speak.  President’s Certificates and Club Awards will be announced at 11:30 am, followed by a social hour and boutique shopping.  Lunch will be served at 12:45, and the 2012 Life Members will be introduced.  At 2 pm, there will be a floral design program, with four GCFM floral designers honoring four major visionaries of New England’s cultural landscapes – Frederick Law Olmsted, Fletcher Steele, Charles Eliot, and Beatrix Farrand.  Following a registration report, the meeting will adjourn.   Below, Heidi Kost-Gross is presented the Landscape Design Council Award for Excellence by Joan Butler (right) at the 2010 meeting.

    To register (please mail registration before May 29), send your name, address, telephone, email, and Club affiliation with a check for $55 ($50 if you do not intend to attend the workshop)  made payable to GCFM,Inc. to Linda Yuele, 38 Nevins Road, Methuen, MA 01844.  Please indicate also your luncheon menu choice preference of chicken marsala, grilled salmon, London broil, or eggplant parmesan.  Any questions may be sent by email to denlinyuele@comcast.net.

  • Saturday, April 21, 2:00 pm – The Race for What’s Left: The Global Scramble for the World’s Last Resources

    Visit the Harvard Museum of Natural History on Saturday, April 21 at 2 pm for an author talk and book signing by Michael Klare. In his newest book, The Race for What’s Left, Michael Klare, Five College Professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College, describes a world facing an unprecedented crisis of resource depletion—from oil to coal and natural gas, copper and cobalt, water, and arable land.
    Regular admission rates apply. Part of the Cambridge Science Festival.  For more information, visit www.hmnh.harvard.edu.