Boston Flora

Month: November 2013

  • Monday, November 25, 5:30 pm – Christopher Columbus Park Trellis Display Lighting

    The Friends of Christopher Columbus Park will celebrate a Boston holiday tradition with the 11th annual lighting of the park’s signature trellis on Monday, November 25 beginning at 5:30 pm.  The entire 260 foot trellis, the architectural centerpiece of the park, will be set aglow by more than 100,000 white and blue lights, as it has for the last ten years.  This year, Mayor Thomas M. Menino will preside over the final trellis lighting of his term, along with Boston Parks Commissioner Antonia M. Pollak and FOCCP President Joanne Hayes-Rines.

    The major corporate sponsors for this year’s event are The Chiofaro Company, CL Waterfront Properties, Marriott Long Wharf Boston, NorthEndBoston.com, Sunstone Hotel Investors, and Tia’s Restaurant. There will be a musical performance by the North End Music and Performing Arts Center Children’s Choir, a visit from Santa, and free hot chocolate from Starbucks and cookies from the Marriott.  The Mayor will share some thoughts and remembrances about the park and his mayorship as he throws the switch.  Other fun surprises are planned as well. For more information visit www.foccp.org.

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  • Thursday, November 21, 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Green Landscape Equipment and Green Zones

    Join the Ecological Landscaping Association and Quiet Communities on Thursday, November 21, from 3 – 5 at the Holiday Inn, Boxborough, to learn about sustainable landscape equipment and outdoor maintenance practices from a seasoned contractor, Dan Mabe, President of The GreenStation.  A growing number of towns and cities across the US are concerned with loud noise and air pollution from gasoline powered equipment.  Green, emissions-free equipment represents one alternative solution.  The ELA, in partnership with Quiet Communities, a 501(c)(3) organization focused on sustainable maintenance practices, is hosting this free event.  Refreshments will be served.  Register online at https://www.eventville.com/catalog/eventregistration1.asp?eventid=1010791.

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  • Monday, December 2 – Thursday, December 5, 8:00 am – 7:30 pm – Holiday Wreath Making

    Monday, December 2 – Thursday, December 5, 8:00 am – 7:30 pm – Holiday Wreath Making

    Pastors Ingo R. Dutzmann, Paul Lantz and their parish will again host The Garden Club of the Back Bay for wreath making on the lower level of The First Lutheran Church of Boston, 299 Berkeley Street (on the corner of Berkeley and Marlborough Streets). We are very, very grateful. Please note that we are setting up the space on Sunday, December 1 and will be ready to work first thing Monday morning – Monday participation by as many of you as possible is critical to our success. The hours are as follows:

    Monday, December 2 – 8:00 a.m. – 7:30 p.m. (decorating)
    Tuesday, December 3 – 8:00 a.m. – 7:30 p.m. (decorating)
    Wednesday, December 4- 8:00 a.m. – 7:30 p.m. (decorating, delivery)
    Thursday, December 5- 8:00 a.m. – 7:30 p.m. (decorating, delivery, clean up)

    Please come to the side door on Berkeley Street. We’ll post a sign. Coffee and baked goods will be available each morning, and catered lunches will be delivered all four days. Dried materials and fresh greens can be delivered to the Church no earlier than Monday, December 2. Please have all decorations “cleaned down” – branches cut down, dead leaves removed – so we can contain the mess we inevitably make. Delicate materials can be laid flat in sweater boxes or gently stacked in cardboard containers. We are going to need as many dried items, especially flowers, as we can collect.

    Bring clippers and scissors if you have them, labeled with masking tape for ease of identification. Aprons are also a good idea. Dress comfortably! We need everyone’s help, whether you decorate, deliver, organize, make telephone calls confirming delivery, or sweep. Contact info@bostonflora.com if you have any questions.

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  • Sunday, November 17, 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm – Ecological Impacts of Climate Change in New England

    Ailene Kane Ettinger will speak at Garden in the Woods, Framingham, Massachusetts, on Sunday, November 17, from 1:30 – 3:30 on the topic Ecological Impacts of Climate Change in New England, in a program sponsored by the Ecological Landscaping Association, the New England Wild Flower Society, the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Audubon Society Drumlin Farm.  The fee is $26 for members of any sponsoring organization and $32 for non-members.

    Are alpine environments threatened because forests may expand uphill with global warming?  Is maple syrup likely to remain a viable product in New England?  How will salt marshes and other coastal habitats be affected by sea level rise?  Will we see more invasive plants in New England.  Learn what scientists know about climate change, including past warnings, and what we can expect for the future.  Dr. Ettinger will discuss what remains uncertain and what can be expected for New England’s flora, fauna, and unique habitats.  For more information email ela.info@comcast.net or call 617-436-5838.  Register online at https://www.eventville.com/catalog/eventregistration1.asp?eventid=1010800.

     

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  • Thursday, November 14, 4:30 pm – Opening Reception: The Landscape Architecture Legacy of Dan Kiley

    Modernist landscape architect Daniel Urban Kiley (1912-2004) achieved acclaim for his visionary landscape designs, numbering more than 1,000 worldwide. In 2013 The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s annual Landslide compendium will be presented as a special retrospective of Kiley’s life and prolific body of work. As a part of the retrospective, an exhibition of photography, showcasing some of Kiley’s most important commissions as they appear today, will open at the Boston Architectural College where it will remain on display through 2013, before traveling to other venues nationwide.

    An exclusive opening reception will be held at the College’s McCormick Gallery, 320 Newbury Street in Boston, on November 14, 2013 beginning at 4:30pm.

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  • Wednesday, November 20, 7:00 pm – Holiday Sparkle

    The North Reading Garden Club will present renowned floral designer Bill Graham at a meeting on Wednesday, November 20, beginning at 7 pm, entitled Holiday Sparkle. Mr. Graham has been a fixture in the North Shore for twenty five years, and is the proprietor of Beautiful Things, Ltd. in Salem. The event will take place at the Aldersgate United Methodist Church, 235 Park Street in North Reading.  The cost is $10 in advance (contact Lisi Lesch at ecolesch@gmail.com) or $15 at the door.

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  • Thursday, November 21, 6:00 pm – From Buffalo to Boston: Olmsted’s Evolving Vision of Urban Park Systems

    The Friends of Fairsted presents From Buffalo to Boston: Olmsted’s Evolving Vision of Urban Park Systems, a lecture by Francis R. Kowsky, PhD,  SUNY Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts Emeritus and author of the the book The Best Planned City in the World: Olmsted, Vaux, and the Buffalo Park System, on Thursday, November 21, at Wheelock College, 43 Hawes Street in Brookline.  The reception and book signing will begin at 6, with the lecture at 7.

    Beginning in 1868, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux planned the first metropolitan park system in America for Buffalo, New York.  They designed three distinct parks linked by “parkways,” majestic, tree canopied boulevards that were linear parks in themselves.  Displaying a map of Buffalo at the Paris Exhibition in 1878, Olmsted called it the best planned city in the world.  That same year, he began to apply the concept he had pioneered in Buffalo to the Boston metropolitan area.  Here, he planned six parks stretching from the Charles River to the harbor, a remarkable chain of green spaces today known as the Emerald Necklace.

    Free and open to the public.  Seating is limited and reservations are required.  Email friendsoffairsted@gmail.com.  Limited street parking is available.  Public parking is not allowed in the Wheelock parking lot.

    http://www.buffalonews.com/storyimage/BN/20130819/CITYANDREGION/130818991/AR/0/AR-130818991.jpg&maxW=960

  • Thursday, November 21, 6:00 pm – Seeing Earthquakes Before They Happen

    Geophysicist Brendan Meade, using satellite technology, generates images of current fault-line activity to help predict earthquakes and to better understand earthquake cycles and the tectonic development of continents. Find out more about his research and the progress being made in predicting the timing and magnitude of earthquakes on Thursday, November 21, at 6 pm, in a lecture sponsored by the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Free and open to the public. Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street. Free event parking is available in the 52 Oxford Street Garage after 5:00 pm.

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  • Holiday Wreaths – Don’t Forget the Poinsettias

    We go on and on about our beautiful wreaths, but let’s not forget the poinsettias.  Our Garden Club of the Back Bay plants are huge – six inch pots, at least four main stems – healthy and full, a complete design statement.  They will arrive carefully wrapped for protection from the elements.  Order one or order multiples to create a poinsettia forest.  You could even dispense with a tree!  Order here.

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  • Friday, November 15, 7:30 pm – Maize, Mysteries of an Ancient Grain

    Edward S. Buckler is a Research Geneticist at the USDA-Agricultural Research Service, Adjunct Professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics at Cornell University. On Friday, November 15, beginning at 7:30 at the Smith College McConnell Hall Room 103 at The Botanic Garden of Smith College, 16 College Lane in Northhampton, he will be talking about genetic diversity of corn and how this diversity is the product of evolution and adaption over the last 5 million years and how it provides the potential for creating a more sustainable crop to satisfy nutritional needs facing many parts of the world. The lecture is free.

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