Daily Archives: September 16, 2013


Wednesday, October 2, 6:00 pm – 8:00 0m – David Austin Roses

The British Society and The Garden Club of the Back Bay are pleased to present a lecture at The Union Club, 8 Park Street, Boston, on October 2nd featuring Michael Marriott, senior rose breeder at David Austin Roses.  There will be a cocktail reception beginning at 6 pm followed by a one hour presentation by Mr. Marriott.  The cost of $40 per person will include wines and hor d’oeuvre.  A cash bar will be available for spirits.

David Austin is a rose breeder, specialist grower and author.  His first rose, the fragrant Constance Spry, was released in 1961.  Since then he has released nearly two hundred English roses.  David Austin Roses was established in 1969 and remains a family business.  Today his English roses are grown in every rose-loving nation in the world, and win awards in many different countries.  In 1999, the company opened an office in Tyler, Texas, and all roses for the American market are grown in the USA.

After fifty years of intensive breeding, David Austin’s English roses combine the forms and fragrances of old roses with the repeat-flowering of modern roses. Michael Marriott has worked with David Austin Roses for over 25 years.  During this time he has designed private rose gardens and prestigious public gardens in many different countries.  His own garden is run on organic principles and has never been sprayed in the last 22 years.

The British Society was founded in Boston in 1816 as a nonprofit charity to raise funds to furnish emergency relief to British Nationals and their children in the Boston area.  As an all-volunteer organization, almost all of every dollar raised goes to help individuals and families. The net proceeds of this lecture will go exclusively to The British Society.

Please reply no later than September 27.  Reservations, and payment by check (made payable to The British Society) together with your contact details and a list of attending guests may be sent to Mr. Anthony Revis, Treasurer, The British Society, 501 Maple Meadows, 35 Maple Avenue, Sudbury, MA 01776.

For reservations, and payment by credit card:
E-mail treasurer@thebritishsociety.org with a list of attending guests, and then go to www.thebritishsociety.org/events.

If you are unable to attend and would like to make a tax-deductible donation, or would like to make a contribution in excess of the subscription amount, it would be gratefully accepted. Please follow either the payment by check or payment by credit card instructions above.

PLEASE NOTE:
The Union Club does not permit the use of cellular telephones and requires business attire. Please respect these rules. Valet parking is available, payable at the door upon arrival. We thank www.online.wsj.com for the photo below.

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Thursday, September 26, 9:00 am – 4:30 pm – The Fruit Garden of Lee Reich and Garden Tour at Mohonk Mountain House

This is a Berkshire Botanical Garden-sponsored field trip to the garden of well known author and vegetable and fruit gardener Lee Reich, followed by a garden tour and picnic lunch at Mohonk Mountain House. A writer once proclaimed Lee’s garden to be very much a “man’s garden” and perhaps it is. The emphasis is on fruits and vegetables, but the whole works is woven into plantings of flowers and ornamental shrubs supported by rustic fencing and gates. He grows a year ’round supply of pretty much every kind of vegetable except rhubarb and Jerusalem artichokes. Fruits include many varieties of dwarf apples, pears and grapes, as well as uncommon fruits such as pawpaws, persimmons, gooseberries (20 or so varieties), juneberries and medlars. September in his “farmden” brings to ripening a number of fruits, common and uncommon. Pawpaw, hardy kiwifruits, grapes and American persimmons should be available for tasting. From here, travel to historic Mohonk Mountain House and picnic on the grounds. Head Gardener Andrew Koehn will then lead a tour of the grounds and gardens of this famous historic resort. Participants can choose to carpool or drive separately to New Paltz, NY. Those joining the carpool should meet in the parking lot at Berkshire Botanical Garden at 9 am (approximate travel time from BBG to first site estimated 1 hour:45 minutes) Participants should bring a bagged lunch. BBG members $50, nonmembers $60. Register by calling Elisabeth Cary at 413-298-3926, or online at www.berkshirebotanical.org.

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From the Archives: Letter from Arthur Shurcliff

The Committee of Beacon Street Residents raised money to plant trees on Beacon Street between Arlington Street and Massachusetts Avenue in 1910.  Mrs. Frederick T. Lord of 305 Beacon Street was the Chairman of that Committee.  On November 16, 1937, she received a letter signed by Arthur A. Shurcliff, pictured below, a prominent landscape architect at 11 Beacon Street, in answer to a letter she sent to him.  The text is as follows:

“Dear Mrs. Lord:

I am glad you wrote me on the 5th with the questions.  There are no plans showing the location of the Beacon Street tree pits as finally installed.  The tentative layout was modified on the ground just before pits were dug and were adjusted to property lines, hydrants, and existing trees.  I think some of the owners who were opposed to tree planting in those days would be glad to have trees now.

It is pretty hard to answer the question about the landscape architect’s plans. I wish he had sat at a table with your daughter and roughed out some of his ideas to find out whether or not they seemed promising before going ahead with the elaborate plans.

I wonder if your daughter gave the landscape architect a free-hand.

If further work is done with the landscape architect, wouldn’t it be a good idea to rough out on the back of an envelope something which seems promising before any development is made? Rough preliminary sketches of that kind often expedite work and save later misunderstandings.

I often think of the pleasant hours we passed together at the planting of the Beacon Street trees.  You have, of course, noticed how thriving they are and how fully our hopes were realized. We did not dream the trees would be injured more by collision with vehicles than by horses.  You remember we were afraid the horses would gnaw off the bark.

Yours sincerely, Arthur A. Shurcliff”

Vehicles still collide with the trees, and DigSafe often shows we must adjust a planting site due to utility lines, but don’t you just love the comment about the horses?

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