Boston Flora

Month: February 2017

  • Saturday, March 4, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm, and Sunday, March 5, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – 188th Annual Camellia Show

    The final weekend of Tower Hill Botanic Garden’s Winter in Bloom, March 4 & 5, features the 188th Annual Camellia Show presented by the Massachusetts Camellia Society. View the diversity of camellia varieties with more than 150 cut blooms and camellia trees on display. Presented by the Massachusetts Camellia Society, free with admission to the garden. As part of the show, at 2 pm on Saturday, March 4, Frank Streeter will give a lecture on Camellias Past & Present, a basic introduction to camellia care and history.

  • Wednesday, March 1, 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Club Mosses

    Club mosses and fir mosses are two very recognizable plant families in the New England flora. Ranging from sea-level to the summits of our highest mountains, these families include many well-known as well as regionally rare species and some difficult problem groups. This New England Wild Flower Society lecture and key guiding session by Arthur Haines at Garden in the Woods in Framingham on Wednesday, March 1 from 1 – 5 will present the relatively new generic scheme and terminology needed to understand the morphology of the group. $54 for NEWFS members, $64 for nonmembers. Register online at www.newfs.org.  Image from www.capecodwoodlandgarden.com.

  • Wednesday, March 1, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – The Art and Science of Growing Native Plants from Seed

    Grow Native Massachusetts presents a free talk by Randi Eckel, Founder of Toadshade Wildflower Farm, on Wednesday, March 1 from 7 – 8:30 at the Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway in Cambridge, entitled The Art and Science of Growing Native Plants from Seed.

    As we incorporate more native plants into our landscapes, there are so many good reasons to use plants propagated from seed. But wild plants have evolved with a dizzying array of mechanisms, including chemical-induced dormancy and mandatory cold stratification, to ensure that their seeds disperse, persevere, and germinate at just the right time under natural conditions. These mechanisms are not in place to frustrate would-be plant propagators, but must be understood by gardeners to successfully grow native plants from seed.

    Come for a far-reaching discussion of the issues surrounding seed collection, procurement, and propagation, with information that will encourage the novice and challenge the professional alike. Randi Eckel has been studying native plant seed propagation and plant-insect interactions for over thirty years.  Toadshade Wildflower Farm supplies both seeds and plants of species native to eastern North America.

  • Thursday, March 9, 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Lewis Mumford’s Green Urbanism

    Friends of Fairsted present Lewis Mumford’s Green Urbanism with Aaron Sachs, Professor of History and American Studies, Cornell University. Seating is limited and reservations are required. The event takes place at Wheelock College, Brookline Campus, 43 Hawes Street, Brookline, MA 02446.

    Reserve online at http://friendsoffairsted.org/programs/register/or 617-566-1689, ext. 265.

  • Sundays, March 5 – April 9, 1:00 pm – Gardening For Life

    The Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, 869 Main Street in Brewster, will sponsor a five part series of classes on Sundays, March 5 – April 9, on Gardening for Life.  Register online ($45 for the series, $12 for individual talks) at http://www.ccmnh.org/Gardening-for-life

    On March 5, Trevor Smith will discuss Waterwise Landscape Designs.  On March 12, Claudia Thompson speaks on Lessons from the Garden: What Native Plants Have Taught Me.  Mark Richardson of NEWFS follows on March 26 with his well received lecture Kill Your Lawn!  Nanette Masi, on April 2, covers Bird-Friendly Gardens, and the final lecture on April 9 by Michael Talbot is entitled Attractive Native Plants for the Cape Cod Garden.  For reservations, call 508-896-3867.

  • Wednesday, March 8, 10:00 am – How the Glaciers Affected New England’s Plants

    Wednesday, March 8, 10:00 am – How the Glaciers Affected New England’s Plants

    Today, Massachusetts is a network of houses, businesses, farms, forests, and wetlands—but how did it get to be that way? What did it look like when the Laurentide Glaciers melted 12,000 years ago? How did a state that was only 25 percent forest by 1850 come to be 64 percent forested today? As part of our ongoing series The Prehistoric Garden, The Garden Club of the Back Bay welcomes Meg Muckenhoupt to our March meeting on Wednesday, March 8 at 10 am at The College Club, 44 Commonwealth Avenue. This broad overview traces how and why the land has changed and what people thought about it—from Wampanoag King Philip to Frederick Law Olmsted to Governor Charlie Baker.

    Our speaker Meg Muckenhoupt is an environmental and travel writer. She has appeared on NPR’s Radio Boston and WCVB’s Chronicle, as well as WGBH’s Forum site. Her work has been featured in the Boston Globe, the Boston Phoenix, Boston Magazine, and the Time Out Boston guide; her book Boston Gardens and Green Spaces (Union Park Press, 2010) is a Boston Globe Local Bestseller. She currently serves as Executive Director of Community Outreach Group for Landscape Design (COGdesign).

    Meg was awarded a certificate in Field Botany by the New England Wild Flower Society and earned degrees from Harvard and Brown University. She lives in Lexington, Massachusetts. Garden Club members will receive notice of the meeting. If you are not a member but are interested in attending, please email info@bostonflora.com. Image from bostongeology.com.

  • Tuesday, February 21, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm – Toward an Urban Ecology

    The Harvard Graduate School of Design will host a lecture by Kate Orff in Gund Hall, Piper Auditorium on Tuesday, February 21 from 6:30 – 8:30.

    Kate Orff, RLA, is the founder of SCAPE, a landscape architecture and urban design studio based in New York City, and author of Toward an Urban Ecology, a book about the practice. SCAPE re-conceives urban landscape design as a form of activism, demonstrating how to move beyond familiar and increasingly outmoded ways of thinking about environmental, urban, and social issues as separate domains; and advocating for the synthesis of practice to create a truly urban ecology. A range of participatory and science-based strategies will be discussed and shown in the lecture through the lens of the office’s work, featuring projects, collaborators, and design methods that advance urban ecological design.

    Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the events office at (617) 496-2414 or events@gsd.harvard.edu. The event is free and open to the public.

  • Tuesday, March 7, 8:00 am – 3:30 pm – 38th Annual UMass Community Tree Conference

    We are a tree club, and urban tree activists will be pleased to know about the 38th Annual UMass Community Tree Conference – Utilities, Communities, and Urban Trees: Partnerships in Practice, especially those of us who have been active in the fight to prevent methane leaks from destroying our trees and our environment. One of the featured speakers will be Calvin Layton (pictured) of Eversource speaking on Utilities & Communities in Partnership: Enhancing Public Safety & Protecting Trees from the Community Perspective. This one-day conference, to be held Tuesday, March 7 from 8 – 3:30 at Stockbridge Hall at UMass Amherst, is designed for tree care professionals, volunteers, and enthusiasts including arborists, tree wardens/municipal tree care specialists, foresters, landscape architects and shade tree committee members.

    The theme of this year’s conference will pertain to utilities and community trees. Topics will include: Design Solutions for Tree and Overhead Utility Conflicts, Utility Storm Resiliency, Communities and Utilities in Partnership for Urban Trees, and Updates from the UMass Diagnostic Lab.

    Sponsored by UMass Extension in cooperation with the UMass Dept. of Environmental Conservation, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation and the USDA Forest Service Urban Natural Resources Institute. Registration is $90 for a single participant, and $75 for each additional registration from the same organization. For complete agenda visit www.ag.umass.edu.

  • Thursday, February 23, 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm – From the Farm Kettle: Stews

    Join Appleton Cooks! and chef Carolyn Grieco on Thursday, February 23 from 6 – 8:30 for our winter culinary workshop  on Stews at Appleton Farms in Hamilton and Ipswich, Massachusetts. With seasonal ingredients as our inspiration, this class bring together the farm’s winter bounty and professional chef instruction to inspire, improve, and support your culinary endeavors at home.

    This culinary series features hearty stews and homemade bread making skills. We’ll cover culinary techniques & kitchen tips as we prepare seasonal recipes perfect for the long chilly winter season! Hands-on cooking, chef instruction, printed recipe booklet, and a warming meal of fresh hearth-baked bread and steaming stew.  You can expect to roll up your sleeves and learn as we cook together then enjoy a sumptuous shared meal at the end of the workshop. BYOB beer or wine is allowed.

    Recipes to include dishes such as:

    Pot-Roasted Chicken Stew with Garlic, Wine, & Root Veggies

    3-Grain Sunflower Rolls

    Vegetarian Winter Squash & Black Bean Chili

    Fee for members of Trustees of Reservations: $60, nonmembers $75. For more information about Appleton Cooks! and similar events please visit http://www.thetrustees.org/things-to-do/north-shore/event-29854.html?.  Image from www.twohealthykitchens.com.

  • Tuesday, February 21, 6:00 pm – The New World of Coffee and Cacao

    The Pepin Lecture Series in Food Studies and Gastronomy, cosponsored by Jacques Pepin and Boston University’s Master of Liberal Arts program in gastronomy, will present The New World of Coffee and Cacao, with Matthew Block, on Tuesday, February 21 at 6 pm at 808 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 117, Boston.  Ever wonder about the mysterious journey that coffee and cacao beans take from their origins to their transformation into delicious specialty products?  Join importer Matthew Block, founder of Campesino Mateo, for a free talk that will cover the histories of coffee and cacao, their roles in Western culture, and the beans’ step-by-step journey from cultivation to finished product.  Block partners with traditional family  farmers from the most remote regions of Peru’s “eyebrow of the jungle” to help improve growing, harvesting, and processing practices.  Attendees will learn about – an  taste – the dramatic impact on aroma and flavor that different farming, processing, and production techniques impart.  Additionally, they will virtually meet some farmers on their lands, see how the plants and fruits grow in their raw form, and experience the various terroir factors that play so large a role in the finished products.  Register online at http://bu.edu/foodandwine.  Image from marinersmuseum.org.