Boston Flora

Month: April 2015

  • Saturday, May 16, 10:00 am – 12:30 pm – Vegetables for Small Spaces: Containers, Window Boxes and Raised Beds

    Grow your own vegetables on your porch, patio or balcony all season long. Fresh, delicious and available when you are ready for them, many of our favorite veggies grow happily and productively in small spaces. Learn where to order seed suitable for small spaces, which containers to use, and how to plant, care for and harvest your favorites, then begin your own potted vegetable garden.

    Each student enrolled in this Tower Hill Botanic Garden class on Saturday, May 16, from 10 – 12:30, will receive a Veggie for Small Spaces Garden Kit: vegetable seed catalogs from New England growers, detailed handouts, 2 packets of vegetable seed easily grown in containers, a 14 inch plastic pot, a bag of soil, a tomato plant suitable for a pot and support stakes and ties for the tomato. We’ll plant the tomato in class. All materials included. Please bring an apron and flower scissors to class.

    Betsy Williams teaches, lectures and writes about living with herbs and flowers. A gardener and herb grower since 1972, Betsy trained as a florist in Boston and England. She combines her floral and gardening skills with an extensive knowledge of history, plant lore and seasonal celebrations. Betsy is the author of several books on the uses and stories of herbs and flowers. She has appeared on the Discovery Channel and greater Boston cable stations as well as local and national radio talk shows. Betsy lectures and teaches locally and nationally.  THBG members $65, non-members $80.  Register online at www.towerhillbg.org, or call 508-869-6111.

  • Wednesday, May 13, 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Why Green Roofs?

    Green roofs have a wide array of benefits ranging from environmental to social to economic. Learn from Mark Winterer of Recover Green Roofs how to make buildings last longer and reduce long-term costs through green roofs. This Tower Hill Botanic Garden lecture will take place Wednesday, May 13 from 7 – 8, and is free with admission to the garden.

    Recover Green Roofs, LLC is a Design/Build/Maintenance firm specializing in vegetated roofs, rooftop farms, and living walls. Recover designed and installed a practical and efficient rooftop farm for the Whole Foods Market in Lynnfield, which supplies the market with thousands of pounds of hyper-local produce each year. Mark is an accredited Green Roof Professional (GRP), a licensed General Contractor, and Recover’s co-owner and Director of Operations.

  • Thursday, May 14, 9:30 am – 12:00 noon – Sogetsu Ikebana

    Sogetsu Ikebana is an internationally recognized school of Japanese flower arranging known for creative self expression. Garden Club of the Back Bay member Kaye Vosburgh is a Master Judge and Design Instructor for the National Garden Club as well as a Sogetsu Ikebana teacher of the highest rank, Riji. Kaye provides the flowers for each class and will have supplies and equipment for purchase. The Tower Hill Botanic Garden will sponsor this Thursday, May 14 class, from 9:30 – 12. THBG member fee is $35, non-members $50. Register online at www.towerhillbg.org, or call 508-869-6111.

  • Saturday, May 9 and Sunday, May 10 – City Farm Fest and Mother’s Day Seedling Sale

    The Food Project is dreaming of spring, and seedlings to start the gardens!  They will be selling seedlings started in their greenhouses at two special events in May.  City Farm Fest will take place Saturday, May 9 at the Dudley Greenhouse, 11 Brook Avenue in Roxbury.  The Mother’s Day Seedling Sale will be held Sunday, May 10 at The Greenhouse on the Lincoln Farm, 94 Concord Road, Lincoln.  For times and directions, visit www.thefoodproject.org.

  • Sunday, May 17, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Growing the Northeast Garden: Talk, Walk, & Book Signing

    Andrew Keys, author of Growing the Northeast Garden, discusses underused and overlooked plants for gardens specifically for our region. The event will take place Sunday, May 17 from 1 – 3 at Tower Hill Botanic Garden. He’ll include plants from his book that are widely available but tend to be overlooked by gardeners, as well as “b-sides”–botanical outtakes from the book, rarer in nurseries, but sure to interest the horticulturally curious. An illustrated lecture will be followed by a walk to view many of these plants in Tower Hill’s gardens. $20 for THBG members, $30 for non-members. Register online at www.towerhillbg.org, or call 508-869-6111.

  • Saturday, May 16, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Landscapes of the Streetcar Suburb

    This Boston Building Resources workshop on Saturday, May 16, from 10 – 12, will explore a historical overview of designs that were typical of yards and gardens in Boston’s residential neighborhoods in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We will look at the types of paving, fencing, and plantings used from the 1870s through the 1930s, giving you an understanding of period elements for traditional landscapes.

    Carissa Demore is a preservation services manager at Historic New England, managing the organization’s Stewardship Easement Program. She is a graduate of Colorado State University and holds a master’s degree in historic preservation from the University of Maryland. The lecture will take place at 100 Terrace Street in Boston. For more information call 617-442-2262. $40 fee. Register online at http://www.bostonbuildingresources.com/calendar/landscapes-of-the-streetcar-suburb. Image of Dorchester from www.bostonstreetcars.com.

  • Saturday, May 16, 10:00 am – 3:00 pm, and Sunday, May 17, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Trade Secrets

    Welcome to Trade Secrets – the two-day garden event that includes a rare plant and garden antique sale on Saturday, May 16, and a four-garden tour on Sunday, May 17. We are excited this year to be celebrating the 15th Anniversary of Trade Secrets, dubbed by many to be the northeast region’s garden event of the year!

    Founded by Bunny Williams, Trade Secrets is the signature fundraiser for Women’s Support Services (WSS) of the Northwest Corner of Connecticut. The WSS mission is to create a community free of domestic violence and abuse through intervention, prevention and education by offering free, confidential, client-centered services focused on safety, support advocacy and community outreach.

    This year many beloved vendors are returning (along with a few new additions we know you will love!) for Saturday’s rare plant and garden antique sale at LionRock Farm in Sharon, CT (pictured below.) We have four lovely Connecticut gardens on the Sunday garden tour – including the Trade Secrets’ signature garden of Bunny Williams and John Rosselli – always a treat.  Tickets are available online at http://www.tradesecretsct.com/tickets.

  • Through May 31 – Art of the Heirloom

    The Hudson Valley Seed Library is a small, farm-based seed company celebrating heirloom and open-pollinated garden seeds and garden-themed contemporary art.  Each year artists are commissioned to create designs for the seed packets.  The original art for the 2015 packets was first exhibited at the New York Botanical Garden and profiled in The New York Times, and now continues on to Tower Hill Botanic Garden.  Hudson Valley Seed Library packets are available for purchase at the Shop at Tower Hill.  Exhibit free with admission to the Garden.  For directions visit www.towerhillbg.org. Below: Blue Jade Sweet Corn, by Daniel Baxter,  credit Hudson Valley Seed Library Catalog/Courtesy of The New York Botanical Garden.

  • Saturday, May 9, 7:00 am – 9:00 am – Walnut Hills Cemetery Bird Walk

    Celebrate International Migratory Bird Day with a National Park Service bird walk suitable for beginners and novices at Brookline’s Walnut Hills Cemetery. This public cemetery is also the burial place of architect H.H. Richardson, landscape architect John Charles Olmsted, and Arnold Arboretum founding director Charles Sprague Sargent. Time permitting, we will try and visit these grave sites as well as a burial plot that was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted’s firm. Bring binoculars and a field guide and be prepared for occasional uneven terrain. Meets inside the cemetery entrance, 96 Grove Street, Brookline. (Co-sponsored by the Brookline Bird Club)  For more information visit http://www.nps.gov/frla/planyourvisit/walks-and-talks.htm.

  • Saturday, May 9, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm – Landscape Photography

    In this intermediate level Tower Hill Botanic Garden photography class on Saturday, May 9, from 10 – 2, Steve McGrath will show the various camera settings appropriate for Landscape Photography, utilizing your Shutter and Aperture settings for the best exposure. The class will also cover composition, focal length, depth of field, filters and the use of natural light. Tripods are a plus but not mandatory. After a presentation, we will head out into the Gardens to photograph and end the class with a critique of your work.

    Steve McGrath is a professional freelance photographer and photography teacher who has been creating images for 20 years. Steve first began by shooting sports photography for local high schools, then weddings, and stock agencies. Then his love of the outdoors led him to focusing more on his true passion, “nature photography”. Steve was an active member of the Gateway Camera Club for many years, and has won many ribbons and awards at fairs and competitions through the group and on his own. Several of his images have been published in school text books. His favorite places to shoot are Acadia National Park in Maine, the Green Mountains of Vermont, and the Cape Cod National Seashore. $40 for THBG members, $50 for nonmembers. Register online at www.towerhillbg.org, or call 508-869-6111.