September 25, 2013 - Boston Flora

Wednesday, October 16, 11:00 am – Boston Committee Annual Meeting Featuring Bill Cullina

September 25, 2013 by Boston Flora

The Annual Meeting of The Boston Committee of the Garden Club of America will take place Wednesday, October 16 beginning with coffee and registration at 10:30 am, and the meeting at 11 am at The Country Club in Brookline. We are fortunate to have as our keynote speaker Bill Cullina, Bill is the Executive Director at one of North America’s newest and most exciting public gardens, The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay, Maine. Bill’s topic is Sugar, Sex and Poison: Shocking Plant Secrets Caught on Camera: The world of pollen, poisons, pigments, pheromones, sugars and sex, and how they translate into sound into sound organic gardening practices.

A well known author and recognized authority on North American native plants, Cullina lectures on a variety of subjects to garden and professional groups and writes for popular and technical journals. His books include Wildflowers, Native Trees, Shrubs, and Vines, Understanding
Orchids, Native Ferns, Mosses, and Grasses, and most recently, Understanding Perennials, published in 2009.Â Members of The Boston Committee clubs will receive invitations by email.Â Garden Club of the Back Bay members will receive car pool notices in the mail. If you are not a member but wish to attend, please email info@bostoncommittee.org.

Charles River Clean Up Boat Update

September 25, 2013 by Boston Flora

The Garden Club of the Back Bay is proud to support Tom McNichol and the Charles River Clean Up Boat.Â Below is Tom’s end of season wrap up and a link to an article published in The Boston Globe. To contribute, visit www.cleanupboat.org:

It’s been a wonderful year on the Charles. The Spring was rainy and it upset our schedule for a while, but by the end of June we were right on track.

The 4th of July was a great party and a credit to the City and all the people and organizations involved in putting it on.

For the Clean Up Boat it is always a day we need to prepare for. This year, in an effort to get some new donors, we worked to get some publicity. Anne Benaquist worked hard to get articles in the Cambridge and Newton Tabs. The Metrowest Daily News wrote a nice article on the Clean Up Boat. But nary a donation materialized from these efforts. Peter DeMarco wrote an article in the Globe when we were starting (9 years ago) and it generate a number of donations that got us going. Since this was our 10th year he agreed to do another story, only if I guaranteed that there would be trash. The first time he came, we went all day and got very little trash. So I set it up for him to come right after the 4th, and we did not disappoint him.Â By the way, David Solomon was the crew for that day, and the article included a nice picture of him.

The volunteers have been wonderful. Always on time. Always cheerful, enthusiastic and hard working. Our schedule was basically full in late July and we have had only a rare cancellation.

We are doing a great job. Last Friday, Bob Gaffney, a 10 year veteran captain of the Clean Up Boat, reported he had never seen the river so clean.

Our combined efforts have kept the river clean, for so long, that people assume it is always clean. Not so, but our efforts have made it so. As always take a few moments and enjoy this unique asset that we have right in the middle of our metropolitan area.

Link to Boston Globe article: http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/2013/08/19/tom-mcnichol-for-decade-charles-river-not-unofficial-garbage-man/wZDgF6xZNU5Kb8ZA0s9vLI/story.html