Month: January 2014

  • Friday, January 17 – Sunday, January 19, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Botanical Painting with Watercolor: Master Class with Carol Woodin

    Gain confidence and comfort in this Berkshire Botanical Garden class devoted to techniques of botanical painting in watercolor. Using pomegranates as subjects, students will learn to capture the vitality and drama of these luscious fruits. After creating a base watercolor layer for guidance, artists will add a series of dry-brush layers, gradually increasing color intensity and form. Through demonstration and individualized attention, the instructor will guide students through mixing believable reds and maintaining color clarity. By the end of the class, each student will have a painting either finished or nearly so.  The three day class will be held Friday, January 17 – Sunday, January 19  from 10 – 4 at the Education Center at Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.  Bring a bag lunch.  A materials list can be found on the website, http://www.berkshirebotanical.org/ai1ec_event/botanical-painting-with-watercolor-master-class-with-carol-woodin/?instance_id=2433, where you may also register.  $320 BBG members, $360 nonmembers.

    Carol Woodin has been painting botanicals in watercolor for over 20 years. Her focus is orchids, rare plants and heirlooms. Her work is included in collections around the world, including those of the Smithsonian Institution, Shirley Sherwood Collection and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK. As Director of Exhibitions for the American Society of Botanical Artists, she has organized exhibitions of botanical art throughout the US.

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  • Sunday, January 19, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm – What is Beekeeping All About?

    This Tower Hill Botanic Garden talk on Sunday, January 19, from 1 – 2 will focus on the critical role honeybees play in our ecosystem, including your vegetable garden, and will explain management of honeybee colonies through the seasons in Central Massachusetts. Mary Duane, Past President, Worcester County Beekeeper’s Association, will present this talk, free with admission to the Garden. Learn what you can do to help to protect the honeybee, including becoming a beekeeper. Registration recommended.

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  • Wednesday, January 22, 3:00 pm – Annual Garden Club of the Back Bay Winter Tea

    Wednesday, January 22, 3:00 pm – Annual Garden Club of the Back Bay Winter Tea

    Each January we thank our members for their support with a Winter Tea, this year to be held Wednesday, January 22 beginning at 3 pm at The Courtyard Restaurant at The Boston Public Library. Overlooking the beautiful Italianate courtyard in the BPL’s historic McKim building, the Courtyard Restaurant is steeped in history and loaded with delightful tea selections. The Courtyard Restaurant’s tea was featured recently in an article in Victoria Magazine. We will enjoy a selection of tea sandwiches which may include (subject to the whims of the market) cucumber with herb cream cheese, smoked salmon butter canapes, apricot chicken salad, turkey & Earl Grey butter on marble rye, lobster with chive cream cheese on mini lemon butter crust buns, tomato with crumbled bacon, date nut bread with honey cream cheese, currant scones, four fruit marmalade, Devonshire double cream, plus fresh fruit tartlets, assorted French macaroons, Irish coffee bars, raspberry thumbprints, chocolate sinclairs, and your choice of premium loose leaf teas. Members are invited to ask friends to join them, although we must charge a separate increased fee for guests. The Club underwrites a substantial portion of the expense of this meeting on behalf of our valued volunteers. $35 for Garden Club members, $45 for guests. Members will receive a written invitation. If you are not a member, or know a member, but are interested in attending, please email info@bostonflora.com. Responses are required no later than January 14.

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  • Monday, January 20, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Superplants

    Just like Marvel comic characters, there are plants with superpowers.  Have you heard of a plant whose fruit has the power to make sour foods taste sweet?  Some superpowered plants are highly nutritious, while others are super-competitive – which is great for them, but not for the plants around them!  Search the Wellesley College Botanic Garden greenhouse for greenhouse superplants and start some super sprouts to take home, on Monday, January 20, between 1 – 4 (drop in anytime.)  Free. Thank you www.psmag.com for the great illustration.

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  • Saturday, January 25, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm – The Kitchen Apothecary: Making Herbal Medicine the Shaker Way

    The Fruitlands Museum, 102 Prospect Hill Road, Harvard, Massachusetts, will present The Kitchen Apothecary: Making Herbal Medicine the Shaker Way, on Saturday, January 25 from 1 – 2:30, in partnership with the Herbal Community of Central Massachusetts.  Fee of $10 (Fruitlands members) and $15 (nonmembers) includes admission to WinterFest.  To register, call 978-456-3924, or email programming@fruitlands.org.

    http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/ethnobotany/mindandspirit/images/solanaceae/Shakers_ExtractThornApple_lg.jpg

  • Saturday, January 11, 2:00 pm – Navigating Our Milky Way Galaxy

    Earth may be a pint-sized planet and the Sun just an average star, but the Milky Way galaxy is a major player within the cosmos. Astronomer William Waller, author of the new The Milky Way, An Insider’s Guide, will lead a journey through our home galaxy, as viewed both from dark-sky sanctuaries here on Earth and from space satellites that explore the outer limits of the solar system. The author talk and book signing will take place Saturday, January 11, beginning at 2 pm at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge. Regular museum admission rates apply.

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  • Saturday, January 25, 9:00 am – 12:00 noon – Planning Your Garden for a 4-Season Bounty

    This four-part Newton Community Farm series is designed to get your home garden up and running, growing vegetables all year round. The curriculum is split into four sessions and is timed to coincide with the main gardening seasons and the associated tasks. Classes will be held at the instructor’s home in Newton or at class member’s garden site. Class dates are subject to change. Class 1 – Planning Your Garden for a 4-Season Bounty. (January 25th). Class 2 – Garden Structures and Planting. (April 12th). Class 3 – The Mid Season Bounty and Thinking Ahead. (June 21st). Class 4 – Winding down…not really!! Season extension & more. (Sept 13th, 2014). Image below from www.growtolearn.org. For times and registration details, call 339-203-0314, email ncf.education@gmail.com, or visit www.newtoncommunityfarm.org.

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  • Sunday, January 12 – Friday, January 17 – Seed School

    Join Bill McDorman (NS/S Executive Director), Joy Hought, MSc (Director of National Seed School), Hampshire College alum Rowen White (co-founder of Sierra Seed Cooperative) and special guests for a 6-day Seed School session at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Seed School is for gardeners, farmers, herbalists, nurseries, CSAs, non-profits, government agencies and everyone concerned with regional, sustainable and diverse agriculture. Click here to learn more about this groundbreaking course.

    Native Seeds/SEARCH is proud to partner with Hampshire College, Massachusetts for its January Term program, January 12th through the 17th. College credit will be available and 12 Hampshire College students will get priority placement for this Seed School session.

    January 12-17, 2014
    Hampshire College
    Amherst, MA

    Tuition: $700
    Deposit to reserve a spot: $200
    Payment can  be made by mailing a check payable to Native Seeds/SEARCH, 3584 E. River Road, Tucson AZ 85718. Indicate “Seed School – January 2014” on your check and include contact information and phone number. For complete information, and to complete your registration following payment, visit http://www.nativeseeds.org/index.php?option=com_rsform&formId=3.

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  • Saturday, February 1, 3:30 pm – 6:30 pm – Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts Winter Interlude

    The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts will hold a fund raising event – Winter Interlude – on Saturday, February 1, from 3:30 pm – 6:30 pm at the Beechwood Hotel, 363 Plantation Street in Worcester.  The cocktail party will feature The Wonderful World of Floral Design.  Enjoy a delightful afternoon walking through a wonderland of floral designs as you feast on delicious hors d’oeuvre and drinks, while listening to live music in a beautiful ballroom highlighted by antique stained glass windows.  Donation $50, cash bar.  For tickets call Bonni Asbjornson at 978-692-8685, or email asbjornson@comcast.net.  For information call Joyce Bakshi at 978-470-0263, or email Joyce.bakshi@comcast.net. All designs and more will be raffled at 6 pm, and a portion of your donation may be tax deductible.

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  • Saturday, January 11, 12:30 pm – Annual Nepenthes Cutting Class

    The next meeting of the New England Carnivorous Plant Society will be held on January 11, 2014 at 12:30 pm at the Roger Williams Park Botanical Center, 1000 Elmwood Avenue, Providence, Rhode Island.

    This meeting will be their Annual Nepenthes Cutting Class.  Members and friends are encouraged to bring any overgrown Nepenthes that could use a little cutting back.  Following instruction on taking Nepenthes vine cuttings and tips for sucessful Nepenthes cutting propagation,  members will have the opportunity to take cuttings from the plants brought in to bring home and grow.  This is only possible when members bring in and allow others to take cuttings of their overgrown plants.  So if you have a plant that is vining and needs a little cutting please consider bringing it in!

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