Hundreds of varieties of perennials, both new to the market and old-time favorites, are for sale at Historic New England’s Lyman Estate Greenhouses, 185 Lyman Street in Waltham. Let their experts help you choose the right plants for your garden. The sale will take place from 10 – 4 beginning Friday, May 31, continuing through Sunday, June 2, and admission is free. For more information visit www.historicnewengland.org.
Discover the mysteries of the East. Gardens, treasures, traditions, and native plants all blend to create the simple yet stunning beauty of this exotic part of the world. The Newport Flower Show will take place June 21 – 23 at Rosecliff in Newport, Rhode Island, and Bartlett Tree Experts is the presenting sponsor, and supporting sponsors include Northern Trust, National Trust Insurance Services, LLC, Brooks Brothers, and Coca Cola. Featured speakers will be Hitomi Gilliam and Harriet Henderson. All proceeds benefit the preservation and restoration of the historic landscapes of The Preservation Society of Newport County. You may download the official Flower Show Schedule Book by visiting www.newportmansions.org.
Visit a diverse and abundant garden in Lincoln, Massachusetts as it comes to life in the spring. Be introduced to a variety of established native shrubs that provided cover and forage for birds in the winter. Discuss planting techniques, spring chores, and methods to divide perennials and propagate shrubs. This combination garden walk and gardening workshop sponsored by the New England Wild Flower Society is set in a beautiful two-acre garden that includes a native plant woodland, a large vegetable garden and orchard, an herb garden and diverse perennial beds. No one goes home without a plant in hand! The date is Sunday, June 2, from 2 – 4, cost is $24 for NEWFS members, $28 for nonmembers, and you may sign up at www.newfs.org. Once registered, you will be sent all pertinent address information.
At the Annual Meeting of The Garden Club of the Back Bay, members voted to approve the grant recommendations proposed by its Co-Presidents Jackie Blombach and Jolinda Taylor and by the Executive Committee of the Club.
Our major focus in the coming year will be the completion of the Linden Project on Beacon Street. Over 60 historic linden trees will be professionally pruned, at a cost of $35,000. $5,000 of the total will be paid with a grant received from the City of Boston, with The Garden Club of the Back Bay contributing the balance. In addition to our tree care project, we will give $5,000 to the Commonwealth Avenue Mall Committee for its tree, turf and soil project on the Charlesgate block of the Mall, and another $5,000 to the Friends of the Public Garden to continue the inoculation of elms against Dutch elm disease.
Other organizations receiving Garden Club of the Back Bay grants this June are the Boston Nature Center of the Massachusetts Audubon Society – $2,000 to support scholarships for its summer camp for children aged 5 – 14, $2,000 to City Roots/Urban Ecology Institute for a project in partnership with Roslindale Wetlands and the Boston Parks and Recreation Department’s Urban Wilds Initiative, $2,500 to the Esplanade Association for the Eliot Garden Project, and $1,000 each to the Charles River Cleanup Boat and The Friends of Copley Square, and $500 to The Boston Committee of the GCA, in support of a grant made by the Blossom Fund to The Friends of Christopher Columbus Park for a landscape design plan to beautify a neglected circle adjacent to Christopher Columbus Park.
Finally, $1,000 has been set aside to honor the victims of the Marathon bombing through a donation to a healing garden at one of the area’s hospitals or rehabilitation centers. In the next few weeks members of the Club will visit potential grantees and assess where the donation will have the most impact. We will report back when a decision is made.
Thanks go to all our supporters, those of you who buy a ticket to our Twilight Garden Party on June 4, or a holiday wreath in December, for without your generosity, these worthy expenditures of $56,000 could not be made.
The Ecological Landscaping Association will hold a seminar in Sandwich, on Cape Cod, on Wednesday, June 5 from 10:30 am – 12:30 pm with Trevor Smith, Landscape Designer and LEED Green Associate, on Natural Swimming Ponds: Behind the Scenes, Designing, Building and Maintaining. Environmentally friendly, chemical-free, natural swimming ponds have low ongoing maintenance costs and are healthy alternatives to conventional pools. The design options are varied and can range from formal to natural. With careful planning and installation, a natural swimming pond provides a beautiful and relaxing place for swimming, an ecological landscape feature, and a wildlife sanctuary all in one. $20 ELA member, $25 Nonmember. Registrations are limited. Register on line at https://www.eventville.com/catalog/eventregistration1.asp?eventid=1010426.
The New England Wild Flower Society will present Dan Jaffe in a program entitled Bonsai for All on Thursday, June 6, from 10 – 1 at Garden in the Woods in Framingham. Create a living work of art using native plants and easy bonsai techniques. Join Dan Jaffe for a beginner’s bonsai workshop to create low maintenance, beautiful bonsai with methods that anybody can approach, regardless of past bonsai experience. While traditional bonsai gardening with high-maintenance non-native species can be very intensive, we focus on techniques that allow this practice to be available to everyone. Plants and pots are available at the Garden Shop at a discount; all other materials are included. Bring your favorite hand pruners if you have them. $46 for NEWFS members, $56 for nonmembers. Sign up at www.newfs.org. Image from www.thegiftofgivinglife.blogspot.com.
Dragonfly migration occurs on every continent except Antarctica. In North America, huge numbers of dragonflies can be seen flying south in fall along both coasts and through the Midwest, but these migrations are still poorly understood. The Migratory Dragonfly Partnership (MDP), Xerces Society, and U.S. Forest Service International Programs are pleased to announce an upcoming Migratory Dragonfly Short Course in White River Junction, Vermont, at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies on Saturday, June 8, from 10 – 4:30. This FREE full day training will provide an overview of dragonfly life history, ecology, conservation, and migratory behavior, and train participants to identify key migratory species and contribute data to ongoing MDP citizen science research projects. Morning refreshments will be provided, but lunch is not included. For more information contact Michele Blackburn at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation at dragonfly@xerces.com. Register on line at http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?utm_medium=email&oeidk=a07e7d4pqro10030708&llr=tnjebhdab&utm_campaign=MDSC+VT+2013&utm_source=VT+June+8%2C+2013+-+MDSC+event+Announce+1.
The Rockport Garden Club invites you to its annual Plant Sale at the Duffy’s Greenhouse, 156R Granite Street in Rockport. A wide selection of annuals, perennials, shrubs, herbs, bulbs, house plants, and vegetable seedlings will be available on Saturday, June 1, from 9 – 1. Free admission. Proceeds fund planting and maintaining Rockport town gardens, civic projects, and scholarships.  For more information visit www.rockportgardenclub.org.
On Wednesday, June 5, The College Club of Boston is pleased to welcome Meg Muckenhoupt, author of Boston’s Gardens and Greenspaces, as a featured speaker. Meg will bring us back through history to understand why we have parks in the first place, how they have changed over time, and how new parks are created today. From the suburban wilderness and urban wilds to the Emerald Necklace and newly created Big Dig parks, Meg will change the way you look at the green world around you. Rediscover the city through its most revered historic parks and explore its ever-expanding network of public spaces as the author takes us on a fascinating journey through green Boston, past to present.
Meg spoke to The Garden Club of the Back Bay two years ago, following the publication of her book. We expected a lovely talk with pretty pictures about public gardens in Boston. Instead, we were treated to a fantastically interesting lecture on the archaeology of the Massachusetts colony, the building of Boston, the politics of public spaces, and the ecological influences leading to the creation of Boston’s park lands and open spaces. History buffs, archaeologists, scientists, environmentalists, political junkies, and anyone living in or around Boston should not miss this program. We walked away with new appreciation of how things happen, finally grasping the importance of fish weirs and cow commons, marshland and land fill. This is a five star event! Dinner is included.
Wednesday, June 5 @ 6pm. $35 plus tax, public invited. For more information and reservations please call 617-536-9510 or email info@thecollegeclubofboston.com
The Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Program kicks off in the Berkshires on Sunday, June 2, from 10 – 4, with two superior gardens. Ticketing information may be found at www.gardenconservancy.org.
Under the Hemlocks, 258 Great Barrington Road
Housatonic, MA 01236-9773
The owners write: After a two-year absence from the Open Days program, this garden is ready to be shown again. The garden is maturing and ripening – taking on what it wants – where and when. We still have the basic structure in a wooded setting–a bowl, with a rock garden in the front and the Magnolia garden, with the pond and upper walk in the back, surrounded by many rhododendrons. Boulders are everywhere – such blessings. The many shrubs and trees we planted have grown and taken their places with grace and certainty. There are eleven Japanese maples–at least four varieties –with their graceful shapes and colors. The white Thalia daffodils look spectacular under three of these maples on the side garden. In the Fall, it is the blue Lobelia siphilitica under the same maples. The weeping pines are larger and even droopier. Different grasses and hostas are everywhere. Perennials do their thing: the blue/purple drift of phlox divaricata mingling with the tulips in Spring; the foxgloves popping up all over the upper back garden a little later. Primula Japonica put on a major display after the Spring bulbs die back. Then summer moves on apace, with lilies, including waterlilies in the pond making their appearance, culminating with the Fall display of full grown coleus, phlox, blooming Ligularia Desdemona, dahlias, grasses, Kirengeshomas, and brugmansias. Sculptures dot the garden here and there, also the unexpected. The garden has been featured in several magazines: Passport, Country Living Gardener, Country Gardens, and is one of the Great Gardens of the Berkshires, a recent book by Virginia Small and Richard Pomerantz. We have added a new garden–-the woodland walk–-a playground designed for our new grandson, complete with fire pit. People enjoy the natural flow and feel of this garden. Please feel welcome at Under the Hemlocks.
Good Dogs Farm—Maria Nation and Roberto Flores, dirtmeisters
334 West Stahl Road
Ashley Falls, MA 01257
The owners say: In the years since we were last open for the Garden Conservancy the gardens have undergone a major transformation. The madcap exuberance has been tamed. The perennials have given way to boxwood, yew, junipers and broad swaths of ground cover beneath clipped shapes. The palate is a more harmonious series of blues, greys and greens. Where once it was a riot of color, now it is a place for peace and contemplation; a place where the shadows and light are as much a part of the garden as the plantings themselves. The paths through the gardens still lead to the follies and eccentricities of the owners – the outdoor bake oven, the outdoor shower, the distant sleeping room, the Keep (a new viewing tower created by Grey Davis & Chase Booth), and the large vegetable garden contained by a rough cedar fence, etc etc. Now the paths also lead the wanderer to the mini donkeys and Haflinger horse, the new barn and paddocks, the farm that has replaced the wild meadow and a river walk carved from the bramble. And, of course, good dogs still live here – and sometimes they stay out of the garden. Our gardens have been featured in Cottage Living, Berkshire Living, The Litchfield Country Times, Oprah’s *O at Home*, Gardenista Daily, various catalogues and the books Great Gardens of the Berkshires and Jack Staub’s newest: Private Edens, published in the Spring of 2013. We look forward to seeing you.
