Boston Flora

Month: November 2014

  • Saturday, December 6, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Concord Museum Holiday House Tour

    On Saturday, December 6, 2014, eight of Concord’s most beautiful private homes will be professionally decorated in the holiday spirit by local and Boston-based interior designers. Guests will be welcomed inside the front doors of these gracious private residences to visit the charming ground floor rooms. From Colonial to Victorian to Shingle Style and more, each house will be decorated in a different holiday theme. The Concord Museum welcomes you to spend the day in Concord, a small town with a big history, and enjoy the elegant streets, charming cafés and shops, as well as the many historic homes. And new this year, enjoy treats from Trail’s End Café at ticket pick-up, and take a break midway through your tour for complimentary cider and cookies at the Colonial Inn!

    The Guild of Volunteers is organizing this event as a benefit for the education initiatives of the Museum. The House Tour Co-Chairs are Kelly Benkert and Aura Bruce. Tickets may be purchased online at http://www.concordmuseum.org/holiday-house-tour.php, at the Museum, or by phone through December 4: $40 Members, $45 Non-members; after December 4 or day of: $50. No refunds; no photography. Tickets and maps must be picked up at the Museum the day of the tour.

    Special Offer from the Colonial Inn:
    Concord’s Colonial Inn, built in 1716, has a long and distinguished history of hospitality and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The hotel is located in downtown Concord within easy walking access to local shops, the Concord Museum and attractions including the Minuteman National Historical Park. Overnight accommodations for the Concord Museum’s Holiday House Tour are discounted to $119 per night for our Prescott Wing. Please call 978-369-9200 and mention this ad while booking.

  • Saturday, December 6 and Sunday, December 7, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm – NABB’s Annual Christmas Tree Sale

    Come to the Clarendon Street Playground on the corner of Clarendon Street and Commonwealth Avenue in Back Bay on Saturday and Sunday, December 6 & 7, from 9 – 5, and purchase your fresh cut balsam fir tree.  The beautiful trees have been brought down from Maine by our friend Chris Mitchell, and local delivery is available.  Proceeds from the sale will benefit both the Clarendon Street Playground and the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay.  For further details, please contact the NABB office at 617-247-3961 or visit www.nabbonline.org.  Image from http://ian.umces.edu.

  • Through November 30 – Chrysanthemums at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

    Dozens of varieties of chrysanthemums appear in the courtyard in late October. Japanese-style single-stem chrysanthemums mix with traditional types in an explosion of color and texture.

    To create this unique exhibit, Museum gardeners and volunteers work from June to October using Japanese cultivation methods to create a single stalk and a single flower on each specimen plant. Over the spring and summer, each plant is pinched weekly (this is called disbudding) and fertilized at specific intervals. This style, which produces a large single bloom, is called ogiku.

    The Japanese technique of training chrysanthemums became popular in the West around the turn of the century. Within Isabella Gardner’s lifetime, many chrysanthemums were grown on her Brookline estate, Green Hill, and won awards at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s fall flower shows. The Museum later won top awards from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society for its chrysanthemums in 1934 and 1936.

    Chrysanthemums were first cultivated as an herb in ancient China and arrived in Japan in the 8th Century. Cultivation of the flower was originally permitted only in the gardens of the emperor and the nobility. They were introduced to the western world in the 17th Century. Today, sumptuous festivals are held in celebration of the flower throughout Japan.

    The Chrysanthemums display is made possible in part by the Barbara Millen and Markley H. Boyer Endowment Fund for Horticulture. The Museum thanks Longwood Gardens and the Botanic Garden of Smith College for their generous donations of single-stem chrysanthemum cuttings for the 2014 Chrysanthemums display.

    The Courtyard features plants that are actively growing and constantly changing. Courtyard images include plants that are representative of each display, but plants will be added or replaced over the life of the display. For more information visit www.gardnermuseum.org.

  • Saturdays, December 6 & December 13, 9:00 am – 12:30 pm – Introduction to Winter Tree Identification

    The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University will hold a two session class in the Hunnewell Building on December 6 and 13 from 9 – 12:30 with arborist Kyle Stephens, an Introduction to Winter Tree Identification. Learn the basic information necessary to identify deciduous trees during their dormant season. Looking at specific character combinations, you will determine the genus and species of several types of trees in the Boston area. Class begins indoors with a discussion of basic classification techniques and continues outside to the Arboretum grounds to examine a variety of trees. This class is recommended for the beginner-to-intermediate tree observer. Dress in layers for both classroom and outdoor learning. A hand lens may be helpful, but is not necessary.  $75 for Arboretum members, $100 for nonmembers.  Register online at https://my.arboretum.harvard.edu/Info.aspx?DayPlanner=62&DayPlannerDate=12/6/2014. (Kyle is in the tree below, photo courtesy of Arnold Arboretum.)

  • Garden Club of the Back Bay Holiday Wreath Order Deadline Approaching

    Garden Club of the Back Bay Holiday Wreath Order Deadline Approaching

    This year we ask that customers intending to purchase one of our fabulous fully decorated wreaths submit their orders no later than November 22.  We’re setting a limit on the number of fully decorated wreath orders we will accept in 2014 (last year we were perhaps a bit too optimistic about our abilities to fulfill all the orders we received, and while we did finish, we were drained of all rational thought by the end of the fourth day of decorating.)  Visit https://bostonflora.com/products-page/ for either a copy of the printed form, or a link to our online wreath store.  You may be able to order a fully decorated wreath after the 22nd, but before our Thanksgiving deadline, although we cannot guarantee availability. Thank you!

    IMG_1708

  • Monday, November 24, 5:15 pm – Christopher Columbus Park Light Trellis Display

    The Friends of Christopher Columbus Park (FOCCP) will celebrate a Boston holiday tradition with the twelfth annual lighting of the park’s signature trellises on Monday, November 24, beginning at 5:15 p.m. Local businesses and neighbors support the efforts of FOCCP, the all-volunteer neighborhood organization, to raise the funds needed to illuminate the trellis and 14 trees annually. Mayor Martin J. Walsh will preside over the trellis lighting ceremony, along with Boston Parks Commissioner Chris Cook.

    “The Friends of Christopher Columbus is proud to fund the more than $25,000 necessary to light up the trellis and trees for the season,” says FOCCP President Joanne Hayes-Rines. “Every year it is thrilling to watch the park be transformed into a winter wonderland, and we’re delighted that Mayor Walsh will throw the switch this year.”

    Entertainment will be provided by the North End Music and Performing Arts Center while Santa Claus and Miss Massachusetts, Lauren Kuhn, welcome attendees. The Marriott Long Wharf Hotel, Joe’s American Bar & Grill, Starbucks and Magic 106.7 will provide refreshments and holiday treats.

    The major corporate sponsors for this year’s trellis and tree lighting are Boston PushCart, The Chiofaro Company, CL Waterfront Properties, Joe’s American Bar & Grill, Marriott Long Wharf Boston, NorthEndBoston.com, Sunstone Hotel Investors and Tia’s Restaurant. The Friends would also like to recognize the support of Sanibel Electric in this year’s trellis lighting. “With an ambitious docket of projects before us, we are more dependent than ever on the generosity of our members, both private and corporate, in Boston and outside the city, who help us fund these efforts,” says Hayes-Rines. “We have been one of the most successful Friends groups to support a city park, and we truly appreciate everyone’s help and continued donations to keep pulling all this off.”

  • Friday, December 5 – Sunday, December 7 – 35th Annual Christmas in Salem House Tour

    This year’s historic holiday house tour will be taking place in South Salem, showing residences that both escaped the Great Salem Fire of 1914 and those that rebuilt with beautiful Colonial Revival details. History will focus on life and renewal of the neighborhood “after the fire.” Special tours and activities will be taking place in “La Pointe.”  December 5-7, 2014, presented by Historic Salem, Inc.

    Featuring historic homes decorated for the holidays, walking tours, music, restaurants, wine tastings, and shopping specials.  For more information, please contact Historic Salem, Inc. at978-745-0799 or info@historicsalem.org. Tickets are $30 ($35 on day of tour,) and advance ticket purchasers will receive special entry to the Friday night candlelight preview of three selected houses. Purchase online at http://historic-salem-inc.myshopify.com.

  • Saturday, November 29 and Sunday, November 30, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm, or Sunday, November 30, 9:00 am – 12:00 noon – Gardener’s Wreath Workshops

    Saturday, November 29 and Sunday, November 30, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm, or Sunday, November 30, 9:00 am – 12:00 noon – Gardener’s Wreath Workshops

    Choose one of the following times: Saturday, November 29, 1 – 4, Sunday, November 30, 9 – 12, or Sunday, November 30, 1 – 4, to participate in a Gardener’s Wreath Workshop at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive in Worcester, led by instructor Karen Perkins.  Create a botanical wreath that highlights the splendor of evergreens, with many collected from Tower Hill.  Incorporate accents such as cones, dried berries, gilded twigs, seedpods, and ribbon.  Please bring pruning shears and a towel.  All other materials are provided.  $60 for THBG members, $75 for nonmembers.  Register at www.towerhillbg.org. Pictured, however, is one of The Garden Club of the Back Bay wreaths, available online at www.gardenclubbackbay.org/shop/, if you can’t attend the Tower Hill workshop.

    IMG_1325

  • Thursday, November 20, 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm – Ecological Landscaping Alliance Members’ Reception

    Current and future Ecological Landscaping Alliance Members – this one’s for you! You asked for more opportunities to gather and talk with other ELA members about projects and strategies, and ELA listened. This fall ELA invites you to the South Shore Members’ Reception – and it is FREE. This second ELA Members’ Reception will take place on November 20th in Plymouth, Massachusetts, beginning at 5:30 pm at the Southeastern Massachusetts Pine Barrens Alliance (SEMPBA) community center, 204 Long Pond Road in Plymouth. Our host for this event, SEMPBA is working to better protect, enhance and celebrate the beautiful Southeastern Massachusetts Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens Ecoregion.  Please call 617-436-5838, or email ela.info@comcast.net if you plan to attend.

  • Friday, November 28 – Sunday, January 4 – Holly Days: Winter Reimagined

    If you have come to Holly Days at Tower Hill Botanic Garden in the past, you know that volunteers come up with some clever, creative displays.  The emphasis is on natural materials.   The 2014 theme is Winter Reimagined, a wonderfully free and open-ended concept sure to inspire and entertain.  Wander through glittering indoor displays and illuminated trees and shrubs in the Orchard, Entry, Lawn and Winter Gardens.  A giant Bromeliad tree, hundreds of poinsettias, more than 1,500 hand-crafted ornaments and over six miles of lights make this a unique holiday experience for all ages.  The Garden is making it even easier to experience the winter magic with special extended hours during Holly Days.  Buildings, grounds, The Shop at Tower Hill, and TWIGS Cafe will be open Wednesday and Thursday evenings until 9 pm, and all other days from 9 – 6.  Tower Hill is open seven days a week during Holly Days, including Mondays.  Tower Hill Botanic Garden is located at 11 French Drive in Boylston, Massachusetts.  For directions, and a complete list of activities including live music and children’s events, log on to www.towerhillbg.org.