Boston Flora

Month: November 2014

  • John Forti Named Director of Horticulture and Education at Massachusetts Horticultural Society

    The Garden Club of the Back Bay was fortunate to have welcomed John Forti as a program speaker in 2013. The Massachusetts Horticultural Society is excited to announce that John Forti has been named the Director of Horticulture and Education, a major step in the implementation of its 10-year strategic plan.

    A nationally recognized lecturer, garden historian, ethnobotanist and garden writer, Forti comes from the Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, NH, where he created numerous award-winning gardens and educational programs in the role of the Curator of Historic Landscapes. He previously served as the Director of Horticulture at Plimoth Plantation Museum, where he created a gardens and seed program that brought international attention to the preservation of Pilgrim and Wampanoag heirloom crops.

    John founded and serves as the board chair for Slow Food Seacoast. He serves on the bio-diversity committee for Slow Food USA and recently represented the group as an international delegate among the 150 nations at the Terra Madre or “Farmers United Nations” in Italy. He is chair of the board for the Herb Society of America’s New England Unit, and won the 2014 Award for Excellence in Horticulture from the national office.

  • Thursday, November 20, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Animals of the North: What Will Climate Change Mean For Them?

    Sue Morse, field naturalist and founder of Keeping Track, will speak at the US Fish and Wildlife Service, 300 Westgate Center Drive in Hadley on Thursday, November 20, beginning at 7 pm, on Animals of the North: What Will Climate Change Mean for Them?  This program details ways in which northern wildlife species are already being affected by climate change, with more serious challenges ahead. Canada lynx, moose, American marten, caribou, polar bears, arctic fox and marine mammals and waterfowl are some of the species covered in this stunningly beautiful show. We promise not to overwhelm our audience with bad news. Instead, our program will devote equal time sharing remarkable images of animals and their northern habitats—all in the spirit of Jane Goodall’s “reason for hope.” Our intent is to inspire our attendees, young and old alike, to join us in the vital crusade to change our fossil fuel-burning ways, conserve natural resources, and share a healthy planet with all that lives. Donations appreciated. Photo courtesy of www.fws.gov.

  • Thursday, November 20, 9:00 am – 3:15 pm – Trees in the Urban Landscape Symposium

    Urban tree professionals, tree wardens, persons working in the tree-care industry and anyone interested in learning more about the urban forest are invited to attend Trees in the Urban Landscape Symposium, to be held Thursday, November 20, from 9 – 3:15 at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive in Boylston.  $35 fee, with an additional $14 if you wish to reserve a box lunch.  Sponsored by Tower Hill Botanic Garden and the Nathaniel Wheeler Trust, Bank of America, Trustee.  For more information, or to reserve, visit www.towerhillbg.org.

  • Sunday, November 16, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Vision, Practice and Legacy: Edward Winslow Lincoln and the Worcester Park System

    Jack Herron will present Vision, Practice and Legacy: Edward Winslow Lincoln and the Worcester Park System, on Sunday, November 16 from 2 – 3 in the Library of Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive in Boylston, followed by a reception.  This talk is the second in a series of lectures sponsored by Lost Gardens of Worcester, a joint project of the Worcester Garden Club, Preservation Worcester, and Tower Hill Botanic Garden.  Free with admission to Tower Hill.

  • Thursday, November 13, 5:30 pm – 8:30 pm – 18th Annual Boston International Fine Art Show Gala

    The 18th Annual Boston International Fine Art Show Gala Preview will be held Thursday November 13, 2014 at the Cyclorama, Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont Street, Boston, to benefit the Friends of the Boston Park Rangers Mounted Unit. The 18th Annual BIFAS will continue to feature the best in historic, modern, and contemporary fine art, with 40 galleries from the United States, India, Europe, and Canada. The Friends were established in 2008 in order to preserve the Mounted Unit. Boston was under fiscal pressure and the six horses that patrol the nine parks of the Emerald Necklace were going to be cut. Thanks to generous donations, the horses today still provide a safety net in our parks. This year the friends must raise $100,000 in donations to ensure continuation of the Mounted Unit. Your participation will help us achieve this goal! For more information on the horses or to purchase tickets (at $125 and $250 levels) please visit www.SaveBostonsHorses.org. Enjoy exquisite cuisine, fine wine compliments of Dark Horse, and music, while being among the first to select from a dazzling array of fine art.

    The show will continue throughout the weekend with special receptions, lectures, and dealer booth talks. Opening on Friday at 1:00pm and running until 8, Saturday from 11am-8pm, and Sunday from 11am-5pm. To see the special receptions and programs going on please visit www.FineArtBoston.com.

  • Saturday, November 15, 11:00 am – 3:00 pm – Annual African Violet Repotting Clinic

    Each fall, Bay State African Violet Society holds a Re-potting Clinic at Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, Massachusetts.  For a nominal fee of $1.00 per plant, they will repot your African violet into a new pot with new soil.  They will also remove suckers and separate multiple crowns so you may go home with more plants than you brought in!.  It is a fun and informative session.  Turn your lopsided, non-blooming, multi-crown African violet into a thing of beauty on Sunday, November 15, from 11 am to 3 pm. For more information, log on to www.baystateafricanviolet.org. Thank you www.realcountryliving.com for the perfect picture.

  • Saturday, November 8, 12:30 pm – Preparing Plants for Dormancy

    The November meeting of the New England Carnivorous Plant Society will be held Saturday, November 8 at 12:30 pm at the Roger Williams Park Botanical Center in Providence, Rhode Island.  John Lombardi will speak on Preparing Plants for Dormancy, and there will, in addition, be a talk on Propogating Cephalotus Follicularis  (pictured, courtesy of www.collectorscorner.com.au) by Jeff Matteson.  The meeting is free and open to the public.  For more information visit www.necps.org.

  • Sunday, November 23, 12:00 noon – 2:30 pm – Thanksgiving Centerpiece

    Make a beautiful, long-lasting table arrangement in the Williamsburg tradition, combining fresh fall flowers, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seasonal berries with preserved autumn leaves, in this Thanksgiving Centerpiece workshop taught by instructor Betsy Williams at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive in Boylston, on Sunday, November 23 from 12 – 2:30.  The fee is $75 for THBG members, $90 for nonmembers.  Register on line at www.towerhillbg.org.

  • Wednesday, November 12, 5:30 tour, 6:00 pm lecture – Prohibition: Boston Dry/Boston Wet

    The Jamaica Plain Historical Society presents Stephanie Schorow, author of Drinking Boston: A History of the City and its Spirits, who will discuss the history of Boston during the era when the 18th Amendment was in effect. Prohibition in Boston was a period rife with class politics, social reform, and opportunism. Our hosts will be the Boston Beer Company, housed in the historic Brewery Complex where Haffenreffer survived Prohibition by brewing ‘near beer’ and sodas.

    In Drinking Boston, Stephanie Schorow serves up a remarkable cocktail representative of Boston’s intoxicating story: its spirit of invention, its hardscrabble politics, its mythology, and the city’s never-ending battle between personal freedom and civic reform-all told through the lens of the bottom of a cocktail glass.

    Come early (at 5:30) to the Sam Adams Brewery at 30 Germania Street in Boston on Wednesday, November 12 to go on a tour of the Samuel Adams Brewery before the talk. Books will be for sale.

  • Saturday, November 8, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm – Earthwatch Summit 2014

    You are cordially invited to Earthwatch Summit 2014, a Citizens for Science Exposition, on Saturday, November 8, from 9 – 4 at the Harvard Science Center in Cambridge.  Although the registration deadline has passed, please contact Nicole Barry at 978-450-1235 if you wish to attend.  The event is sponsored by the Earthwatch Institute. This FREE event is a great opportunity to learn about meaningful research from scientists around the world, including Dr. Wallace J. Nichols, a marine biologist and author of Blue Mind, Dr. William Moomaw, Chief Science Officer of the Earthwatch Institute, Dr. Richard Primack, Boston University biologist and author of Walden Warming, and Dr. Meg Lowman, Chief of Science & Sustainability at the California Academy of Sciences. You will also learn how citizen science research directly influences wildlife, the environment, and community members. At the Summit, you’ll have the opportunity to meet and network with some of the world’s brightest scientists.