June is the prime time for The Trustees of Reservations Rose Garden at The Stevens-Coolidge Place in North Andover, and they want to celebrate the beginning of garden season with you! Join them on Friday, June 10 from 6 – 8 for a relaxing social evening of cocktails and live music among the roses. Trustees members $24, nonmembers $30. Register by calling 978-356-4351, x 4020, or email cshortliffe@thetrustees.org.
Four gardens will be open for viewing in Chatham on Friday, June 24 from 10 – 4 as part of the Hydrangea Festival. The proceeds from the garden tours will benefit Chatham Garden Club. Admission is $5 per garden tour. RAIN or SHINE.
Garden#1 Horticulturist’s Hydrangeas
Explore this naturalistic garden designed by the owner, a former art teacher, horticulturist and landscape designer. Register at the front table near Trident and Paper Bark Maple trees and you will receive a map of the garden highlighting unusual trees, shrubs and a variety of hydrangeas. Enter the garden through an arch made from fastigiate apple trees to view a rare Pekin lilac tree, stewartia pseudocamellia and other plants of interest. Varieties of our native Hydrangea quercifolia and many other paniculata and macrophylla hydrangeas are planted throughout the garden.
Garden#2 Grandmother’s Perennials
“My garden has been planted and maintained by me with an emphasis on pink, white, blue and green colors. My grandmother’s peonies have been transplanted 3 times with loving care. The hydrangeas in the back perimeter are volunteer clippings I have nurtured which flow into my neighbor’s property naturally. Behind our house, the path leads toward Ridgevale Beach lined with my perennials which bloom from late spring through early December. Most of my plants have been divided and replanted several times resulting in what you see today.”
Garden#3 Water Spout
“In 1995, faced with a choice of filling my yard with $7000 worth of sand or making a pond, I created this decorative water spout surrounded by hydrangeas and roses. A gazebo, as requested by my wife, is on the north and a walking path on the east border of the property. In the back is a beautiful perennial garden sloping toward the house with seasoned trees and shrubs around the yard.”
Garden#4 Not Just Cape Cod Art
Nikko Blue, Mophead Mathilda Gutges, Endless Summer hydrangeas along with lavender and various perennials grace the front gardens. Knockout roses and perennials lead to a white arbor covered with Zephirine Drouhinand roses and Clematis. Stop and relax by the fish pond shaded by a Japanese Maple surrounded by peonies, Strawberries & Cream, and Climbing hydrangeas with a secret room hidden from view by Fairy Roses. The owner will be painting pictures of hydrangeas in her garden during the tour.
For complete information visit www.chathamgardenclub.org.
This is the season for plant sales, a major fund raising component for many Garden Clubs. Here in the City of Boston, such sales are far more difficult. We often don’t have gardens large enough to support plant communities which produce many suitable divisions. So many neighbors now have their front and back gardens professionally planted, there is little demand for “home grown” plants. However, in June of 1974, we did hold a Plant Sale at the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay’s Street Fair, held on Marlborough Street between Berkeley and Clarendon Streets. There were suggested plants for both sunny and shady sides of the street, and plants suitable for indoor gardening. Each member was asked to start at least 24 small plants, and peat moss pots were suggested. Marigolds were recommended, and children were to be charged only a nominal fee.
Six lovely Orleans gardens will be on display Saturday, June 25 from 10 – 4, at a garden tour sponsored by the Orleans Improvement Association. Representatives from the Master Gardener Association of Cape Cod will be on site to answer your questions. Talented local musicians will be present at selected gardens, including Tim Sweeney with Randy Patterson, Gregg Sullivan and the Kingsbury String Quartet.
After tour receptions will be held at local galleries from 4 pm to 6 pm where you may sip wine and meet the artists.
Addison Art Gallery – Artists: Susan Overstreet, David Burns and Steve Kennedy
Left Bank Gallery – Artist: Kate Nelson
Alice Mongeau Gallery – Artist: Alice Mongeau
Gallery 31 – Artists: Jennifer McCalmont, Sissi Sneve Schultz, Barbara Stone and Mary Wojciechowski
Tickets ($25 in advance at outlets, $27 in advance online, and $30 day of tour) may be purchased at the Nauset Regional Middle School, 70 Rt. 28 in Orleans, or at www.orleansimprovement.org
The Community Garden Club of Duxbury GARDEN TOUR & PICNIC will serve as their final season “meeting.” They have six fantastic, diverse gardens all around town (one of which was featured in the March 2016 issue of House and Garden.) There will be a delicious “brown bag” style lunch served at one of the gardens along with a surprise party favor. Member tickets are $20 for tour and lunch, non-members are $32. Tickets can be purchased by mailing a check to CGCD, P. O. Box 1713, Duxbury, MA 02331, or online (with a slight fee) via the button on the “2016 DUXBURY Garden Tour” tab at http://www.communitygardenclubofduxbury.org/. Ticket deadline June 9. Everyone will start that morning by driving through Duxbury Bay Maritime School’s driveway, 457 Washington St, Duxbury, Massachusetts. Community Garden Club of Duxbury members will come to your car window, check the paid list, and give you your program with the garden addresses.
Herbs are an easy way to add freshness, flavor, and health to your cooking, and are simple to grow indoors or out. Learn how you can grow and cook with basil, cilantro, parsley, oregano, rosemary, and more. On Saturday, June 11, beginning at 11 am, the Egleston Square Branch of the Boston Public Library, 2044 Columbus Avenue in Roxbury, will present a class on Growing Herbs at Home. Free. Please contact the Egleston Square Branch at 617.445.4340 for additional information. Space is limited. Image from www.rodalesorganiclife.com.
Take your garden photography from good to great by capturing Tower Hill at its most beautiful. During this Sunday, June 12 workshop with Steve McGrath from 10 – 3 at Tower Hill in Boylston, you will learn to sharpen your awareness of light on the landscape. If you are an Intermediate to Advanced photographer, looking to fine tune your skills and expand your knowledge of Photography then this course is for you. $60 THBG members, $70 nonmembers. Register by calling 508-869-6111 or visit https://towerhillbg.thankyou4caring.org/pages/event-registration-form—garden-photography.
During the Gilded Age, nearly every aspect of life was elevated to an art form. Gardens became stages for nature’s most brilliant performances, women’s fashions were created for stylish parades, and houses became museums for a lifetime of treasures.
Join The Preservation Society of Newport County at Rosecliff, 548 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, as we celebrate all that is Gilded. Each day of the Newport Flower Show offers guests opportunities to enjoy judged horticultural specimens and floral designs, special garden exhibitions, free lectures and demonstrations, children’s activities, and wonderful shopping experiences at the Oceanside Boutiques and Gardeners’ Marketplace. Featured special guests are Bruno Duarte and Bunny Williams.
Tickets are also available for special luncheons, lectures and workshops, as well as full weekend packages. Visit www.newportmansions.org for complete details.
Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and a host of other vegetables grow well in sunny spaces, but what edibles can you grow in the shade? Join Dan Jaffe at Garden in the Woods on Wednesday, June 22 from 1:30 – 3:30 to learn about the various native, perennial edibles that thrive in shady environments. You will discover a wide variety of choice edibles from the leaves of ramps, the stems of Solomon’s seal, and the fruit of Solomon’s plume. $23 for NEWFS members, $28 for nonmembers. Register online at http://www.newfs.org/learn/our-programs/shady-edibles
Celebrate the summer solstice on Saturday, June 18 at 5 pm in the Garden in the Woods in Framingham while enjoying craft beer, great music, local food, and a ceremonial lighting of the Ball of Fire. You won’t want to miss this special summer night on the longest day of the year! Somerville’s Aeronaut Brewing Company will provide seasonal craft beers, discuss the science of brewing, and show us how the brewery incorporates native plants such as staghorn sumac into its beer. Dan Jaffe will identify native plants you can use in beverages and teach you how to make three cocktails, including the back-woods hot toddy and the pink monkey. Live music by the Ways and Means Committee will enhance the evening’s festivities, and food will be available for purchase from a local food truck. The ticket price of $25 for New England Wild Flower Society members ($30 for nonmembers) includes all the festivities and one craft beer. Additional drinks will be available for purchase. All guests must be at least 21 years old and proper identification is required. Register at http://www.newfs.org/learn/our-programs/plants-and-pints
