Boston Flora

Month: December 2015

  • Holiday Wreaths 2015 – Last Chance

    Holiday Wreaths 2015 – Last Chance

    If you link today to our on-line store, https://bostonflora.com/shop/, you will still be able to order a fully decorated holiday wreath from The Garden Club of the Back Bay, but on line orders close this weekend as we prepare our paperwork and begin loading in to The First Lutheran Church of Boston for next week’s decorating extravaganza.  If you have questions, email info@bostonflora.com. We heard from a friend who had moved to Washington, DC and began to look around for a local equivalent to provide her with a wreath, and couldn’t find any which matched the standard to which she had become accustomed.  Boston is lucky indeed to have us as a wreath resource, at such competitive prices.  So act now – remember, net proceeds go directly to our street tree projects in the Back Bay and in surrounding neighborhoods. We’ll be officially announcing our Clarendon Street tree initiative soon, and your support is critical to our success.

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  • Tuesday, December 8, 7:30 pm – Role of Floral Traits in Mediating Disease Transmission

    The next meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club will be held on Tuesday, December 8 at 7:30 PM in in room 101 of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge. Lynn S. Adler, Professor of Biology at University of Massachusetts, Amherst,  will present a talk entitled Role of Floral Traits in Mediating Disease Transmission.

    All are welcome to join us at 5:45 at the West Side Lounge for an informal pre-meeting dinner. Please note the change in location from past dinners!

    Lynn’s work addresses how floral traits can affect bee pathogen loads and disease transmission. Although many researchers now study bee pathogens due to concerns about pollinator decline, we still know remarkably little about the role of plants in mediating bee diseases. In this talk she will demonstrate how nectar chemistry and pollen can affect bee gut pathogen loads, how transmission varies across plant species and consequences of plant variation for colony-level bee disease loads. The meeting is free and open to the public.  Image from www.nationofchange.org.

  • Saturday, December 5, 9:00 am – 12:00 noon – Community Garden Club of Duxbury 2015 Holiday Greens Sale

    We know you will be purchasing your wreaths from The Garden Club of the Back Bay, but if you are in need of mantelpiece arrangements, swags, roping, centerpieces and more, swing by the Cornerstone Lodge, Washington Street in Duxbury on Saturday, December 5 from 9 – noon and purchase items hand grown in the gardens of members of the Community Garden Club of Duxbury, and arranged by them.  We couldn’t resist showing a spectacular mantel from www.styleestate.com.

  • Thursday, December 10, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Yuletide House Tour

    The Community Garden Club of Cohasett is sponsoring a Yuletide House Tour on Thursday, December 10 from 10 – 4.  Five seaside homes beautifully decorated for the holidays will be featured.  There is a complimentary lunch with coffee, tea and dessert included in the ticket price, and there will be a shop where handmade goods will be featured for holiday giving.  Tickets are $40 in advance, online at www.communitygardenclubofcohasset.com, or in stores: Buttonwood Books & Toys, Darilynn’s, Fleming’s, Kennedy’s Country Gardens, La Petite Maison, Suzanne’s, Sew … What’s New, The Shoe Market, Sylvia’s by the Sea, and The Welch Company. Day of tour price $45 ($35 afternoon only, 2 – 4), available at St. Anthony’s Parish Hall in Cohasset.

  • Wednesday, May 11, 11:00 am – Save the Date: Party in the Park

    The Emerald Necklace Conservancy will again host the Justine Mee Liff Fund Luncheon, Party in the Park, on Wednesday, May 11, at the Pinebank Promontory on Jamaica Pond in Boston.  This major fund raising event helps preserve the legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace. The genius of Frederick Law Olmsted, who designed more than 1,100 acres of meadows, woodlands and paths, can be enjoyed by all more than 100 years after the completion of his work, thanks to the stewardship of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy in collaboration with its public partners.

    The Party in the Park is one of the conservancy’s surest signs of spring and one of the most anticipated social events in Boston. To date, the luncheon has generated a $7.25 million for the parks. The proceeds go directly to the Justine Mee Liff Fund for the Emerald Necklace that underwrites improvement projects in the Emerald Necklace.

    Every May, just as spring declares itself in Boston, the luncheon draws hundreds of parks champions to gather for an elegant lunch served in a beautiful tent in one of the Necklace parks. Known as the “hat lunch” because so many guests complement their spring wardrobes with flowers and feathers, the party is planned over the course of a year by an all-volunteer committee to ensure a memorable afternoon. For more information, call 617-522-2700.  Buy tickets online at www.emeraldnecklace.org/party-in-the-park.

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

    NABB’s Annual Christmas Tree Sale will take place Saturday, December 5th & Sunday, December 6th from 9:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m. at the Clarendon Street Playground on the corner of Clarendon and Commonwealth. Fresh cut balsam fir trees from Maine will be available, and you may arrange for local delivery.

    Proceeds from the sale will benefit the Friends of the Clarendon Street Playground and the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay. For further details, please contact the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay office at 617-247-3961 or by emailing info@nabbonline.com.  Image from http://www.conifers.org.

  • Saturday, December 5, 2:00 pm – Science of the Magical

    Can bird migrations foretell the future? Do phases of the moon hold sway over our lives? Are there sacred springs with curative powers? What is the best way to brew a love potion? In this Harvard Museum of Natural History interdisciplinary talk filled with tales of adventure, science journalist Matt Kaplan, author of The Science of Monsters and Science of the Magical, will explore the rich, lively, and surprising reality behind some of the magical objects, places, and ideas that infuse ancient and modern myths.

    This program takes place Saturday, December 5 at 2 pm and is located at Haller Hall (enter at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street). Free parking is available at the 52 Oxford Street Garage. Free with museum admission.

  • Friday, December 4, 6:45 pm – Red Needles in Green Haystacks: On the Trail of the Wild Paperbark Maple

    Dr. Michael S. Dosmann, Curator of Living Collections, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, will address the New England Botanical Club on Friday, December 4 beginning at 6:45 in Haller Hall on the Harvard University campus.  His lecture, open to the public, will be on Red Needles in Green Haystacks: On the Trail of the Wild Paperbark Maple. Since its initial introduction from China to the West by Ernest Henry Wilson in 1901, the paperbark maple (Acer griseum) has become rather common in cultivation, particularly in gardens, arboreta, and other managed ornamental landscapes. And yet, this species’ status is anything but common in the wild in central and western China. As part of a collaborative conservation initiative, the Arnold Arboretum is surveying wild populations, and comparing these with lineages introduced from the wild to get a global perspective of genetic diversity in this species. Photo courtesy of Cornell University. For further info see: http://www.rhodora.org/meetings/upcomingmeetings.html.