Daily Archives: May 10, 2016

Sunday, June 5, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Secret Gardens of Cambridge

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The Secret Gardens of Cambridge, presented on alternate even numbered years, is the signature fundraising event of the Friends of the Cambridge Public Library. This special self-guided tour will be held this year on Sunday, June 5, from 10 – 4, rain or shine, just as spring turns to summer. Since 2000, the Friends have been uncovering secret gardens in neighborhoods all across the city and inviting our friends and neighbors to take a peek.

The Secret Gardens tour has featured over 200 individual gardens in Cambridge, from a hidden swimming pond in a small backyard oasis to a garden that springs to life with thousands of bulbs each year; from a woodland tree-lined front walk to guided contours of border plantings and decorative pots. Some are small and sunny, others are large or shady. Flowers, herbs, sculptures, and stones adorn the deeply diverse variety of gardens found in every nook and cranny of Cambridge.

The Secret Gardens of Cambridge tour is the single largest fundraiser for the Friends, raising more than $10,000 at each biennial event. Proceeds from the garden tour ticket sales are used by the Friends of the Cambridge Public Library to sponsor community events and special presentations, to purchase museum passes for public use, to bring guest authors to the library for readings, and to expand the collections at the Cambridge Public Library.

Tickets are $25, available online at http://www.cambridgepubliclibraryfriends.org/events/. Online ticket sales end on Friday, May 27th. If you prefer to purchase your tickets in person, you can find them at:

Big Picture Framing, 1100 Massachusetts Avenue
Bonny’s Garden Center, 41 Bay State Road
Brattle Square Florist, 31 Brattle Street
Nomad, 1741 Massachusetts Avenue
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street
Rodney’s Bookstore, 698 Massachusetts Avenue

On the day of the event, tickets can be purchased at: Hooper-Lee-Nichols House, 159 Brattle St and Cambridge Public Library Main Branch, 344 Broadway from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm.

Thursday, May 26, 8:00 am – 6:00 pm – Untermyer Garden and Rocky Hills

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This year’s Berkshire Botanical Garden annual spring field trip takes BBG to two gardens: one just coming into public life and one heading into the private sector. The day begins with a visit to Untermyer Garden in Yonkers, NY, once the private garden and estate of Samuel Untermyer. Beginning in 1899, Untermyer spent the next 40 years attempting to make his garden and greenhouse the most extraordinary private horticultural endeavor in the country. Since 2011, a conservancy, under the guidance of Marco Polo Stufano of Wave Hill fame, has been working along with the city of Yonkers to restore Untermyer Garden to its former glory. The tour will include the Indo-Persian-inspired Walled Garden; the Vista, modeled on a similar series of descending stairs at the Villa D’Este in Italy; the Temple of Love; and other gardens at various stages in the restoration process.

Following a picnic lunch on the grounds, the tour will travel north to Mt. Kisco to the much-loved Rocky Hills, pictured below, the 12-acre strolling garden that once belonged to Henriette and William Suhr. A Garden Conservancy Project Garden, Rocky Hills was to be turned into a public garden upon its owner’ s death, but for a variety of reasons, is now being sold privately with the proceeds being used to create a foundation to help support horticultural and environmental causes. This may be one of the last times this extraordinary garden, replete with it naturalistic water and rock gardens, azalea and rhododendron borders, and meadows and conifer collections, will be available for public viewing.

Bring a bag lunch and dress for the weather: comfortable, sturdy footwear and warm, waterproof outerwear, umbrella. Berkshire Botanical Garden members $100, nonmembers $120. Register online at https://berkshirebotanical.org/education/field-trips/