Boston Flora

Month: April 2017

  • Tuesday, April 11, 7:30 pm – Chemical Ecology and Behavior of the Emerald Ash Borer and Asian Longhorned Beetle

    Emerald Ash borer (EAB) Agrilus planipennis and the Asian longhorned Beetle (ALB) Anoplophora glabripennis, are considered to be two of the most serious invasive pests of deciduous trees in North America. Efficient monitoring traps are needed to detect and delimit new introductions and assess population densities of established infestations. Development of a monitoring trap for these pests are hindered by their complex sequence of mating behaviors.

    EAB and ALB mating involves host kairomones, male produced short range pheromones, female produced short range pheromones, female produced trail and cuticular contact pheromones, along with important visual cues. A Tuesday, April 11 Cambridge Entomological Club presentation by Dr. Damon Crook of the USDA will discuss the complex chemical ecology of these insects and show what electrophysiological and behavioral research is currently being done at the Otis USDA laboratory with regards to identifying and testing new potential attractants and traps.

    The lecture will take place at Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, MCA 101 in Cambridge. Parking permits are available: see www.entclub.org for details. Free and open to the public.

  • Sunday, April 23 – Wednesday, April 26 – Gilded Age Art, Design & Technology

    The Preservation Society of Newport County with U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management, Franklin & Company, and Christie’s presents Gilded Age Art, Design & Technology on Sunday, April 23 through Wednesday, April 26, 2017 at the Hotel Viking Conference Center in Newport, Rhode Island.

    The Gilded Age arose from the effort to reconcile modern industrial technology with the artistic vocabulary of the past – both real and imaginary. Many of Newport’s summer colonists made their fortunes in industry, and were instrumental in promoting the widespread adoption of advances like steam engines, electric lighting, central heating, refrigeration and automobiles. But jubilation at modern progress was tinged with nostalgia for pre-industrial styles and craftsmanship, giving rise to a host of inventive, eclectic expressions in material culture. From the romantic Medievalism of Ruskin, Henry Adams and William Morris to the bold new iconography of the Statue of Liberty and the Newport mansions, this symposium will explore the range of ways in which Gilded Age patrons and designers forged a new American identity, celebrating innovation while remaining firmly rooted in tradition.

    Speakers will include Richard Guy Wilson of University of Virginia on The Dynamo versus the Palazzo, Richard W. Rydell of Montana State University on America’s Gilded Age World Fairs, Libby O’Connell of the History Channel on From Caviar to Leek Pie: Food and Society in America’s Gilded Age, Kelly Conway of the Corning Museum of Glass on Transparency at the Table: Glass in the Gilded Age, and John Stuart Gordon of Yale University on The Polite Implements of Eating: Innovation & Fantasy in Nineteenth-Century America. And that’s just Monday. For a list of other events visit http://www.newportmansions.org/learn/newport-symposium/symposium-program

    A block of rooms has been reserved at the Hotel Viking for participants at a reduced rate.  Contact the Hotel at 800-556-7126 and mention you are participating in the Symposium.

  • Thursday, April 20, 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm – A Hidden Treasure: Arnold Arboretum Herbarium of Cultivated Plants

    Irina Kadis, Curatorial Assistant, will lead a special indoor tour on Thursday, April 20 from 2:30 – 4:00 of the Arnold Arboretum Herbarium.  This special event will take a look at the historic Arnold Arboretum collection and find out how and why an herbarium is assembled.  Meet in the Visitor Center of the Hunnewell Building, the Arborway, Boston. Free, but registration is limited and required at http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu.

  • Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Center House Entry Garden Competition

    The Berkshire Botanical Garden (BBG) is launching a call for proposals to select a designer or design team to help create a new entry garden on its 15-acre property. This call for proposals is open to all students currently enrolled in an accredited landscape architecture program in the United States and Canada. Entrants can be individuals or teams of students.

    BBG is seeking an innovative proposal that will complement the design of its newly restored and expanded Center House building and surrounding established garden areas. The c. 4,000 sq.ft. Entry Garden area will become the new gateway for tens of thousands of annual visitors touring the Garden, attending special events on BBG grounds and inside the Center House, and participating in BBG’s varied horticultural and educational programs that take place year-round.

    The deadline to submit proposals electronically is May 19, 2017 at 5pm EDT. (A preliminary Registration Form and a $50 registration fee must first be submitted by April 17, 2017 at 5pm EDT.)

    Any applications submitted after the May 19, 2017 deadline will not be accepted.

    For further information, please contact:

    Michael Beck
    Executive Director
    Berkshire Botanical Garden
    P.O. Box 826
    Stockbridge, MA 01262
    competition@berkshirebotanical.org

    The winning design will be selected by a five-member jury made up of independent designers, horticulturalists, and landscape architects, on the basis of the creative response to the design brief as well as originality and clarity of the concept and the creative approach. The winning submission must take into consideration the specifics of the site, the challenges of the location, BBG’s estimated project implementation budget and timeline, the demands on ongoing maintenance, and the programming envisioned by BBG for the garden area and the adjoining Center House building.

    The winning design and two runners up will be announced on June 2, 2017 on the competition website and through local and regional news media. All participants will receive the results of the competition via email.

    The winning design proposal will be used as the basis for the new Center House Entry Garden that will be built beginning in the fall of 2017. BBG’s staff and design consultants will provide feedback on the concept described in the winning submission, and will work with the winning designer(s) towards a final design and construction drawings, which must be finalized by July 7, 2017.

    April 3, 2017— Registration Opens
    April 17, 2017— Online registration and fee payment deadline
    Interested designers submit contact information and nonrefundable processing fee of $50 to BBG
    April 24, 2017— Deadline for questions to BBG
    Registered designers are invited to submit questions to BBG at any point from time of registration until 5pm EDT. BBG’s answers to all questions will be posted on the competition site on a rolling basis, but no later than April 28, 2017
    May 19, 2017— Deadline for competition submission (electronic)
    Registrants submit design materials electronically
    June 2, 2017— Announcement of winner and runners-up
    June 2-July 7, 2017— Development period for winning project
    Winning designer or team to work with BBG and BBG’s design consultants on details of design. BBG has engaged Landscape Architects Okerstrom Lang Ltd. to draft all construction documents.
    July 7, 2017— Construction drawings for winning project finalized by Okerstrom Lang Ltd.
    August, 2017— Dedication of Center House Building and presentation of winning Entry Garden design to the public
    Winning designer or representative of winning design team will be invited to attend. Exact date will be dependent on building construction schedule.
    September, 2017— Construction begins for Entry Garden
    May 6, 2018— Dedication of new entry garden on first day of 2018 visiting season at BBG

    The Jury:

    Page Dickey, Writer and Garden Designer (Falls Village, CT)
    Fergus Garrett, Head Gardener at Great Dixter Garden and CEO, The Great Dixter Charitable Trust (East Sussex, United Kingdom)
    Renny Reynolds, Landscape Architect and Co-Owner of Hortulus Farm (Bucks County, PA)
    Mark E. Strieter, Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects (New York, NY and Charlottesville, VA)
    Matthew Urbanski, Principal, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc., (New York, NY)

    The winning designer will be awarded an honorarium of $1,500. Two runners-up will each receive $750. These three designs will be exhibited at BBG during the summer of 2017, and BBG will seek to publicize the designs through local, regional and national media channels.

    BBG plans to have a design development and construction budget of $100,000 available to implement the Center House Entry Garden. However, we reserve the right not to implement the design based on unforeseen future funding constraints or for any other reason.

  • Friday, April 28, 5:00 pm – 10:00 pm, and Saturday, April 29 – Monday, May 1, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm – Art in Bloom

    Mark your calendar for Art in Bloom 2017 and celebrate this exuberant spring festival at the MFA. This joyous rite of spring pairs fine art and floral design with offerings of free guided tours among MFA treasures, plus workshops, demonstrations, and lectures. Garden clubs and professional designers from across New England create floral arrangements inspired by the MFA’s works of art.

    Highlights this year include a special evening preview on Friday night April 28, starting at 5 pm. The popular Members’ Night is Saturday, April 29 and Community Day with children’s activities is Sunday, April 30. Enjoy the Art in Bloom Café with its casual dining and lighter fare among masterpieces of European painting in Koch Gallery, 250.

    Ariella Chezar, an expert on painterly arrangements offers master classes on Saturday and Sunday, April 29 and 30, and, on Saturday, April 30, presents a lecture and demonstration with techniques for creating designs that are dramatic, unexpected, and even magical. Art in Bloom is sponsored by Wilmington Trust.  For complete information visit www.mfa.org.

  • Friday, April 21, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm, and Saturday, April 22, 8:00 am – 11:45 am – UMass Earth Day & Arbor Day Celebration with Dr. Michael Dirr

    Join UMass Amherst Extension Landscape, Nursery & Urban Forestry Program for an Earth Day and Arbor Day Celebration with Dr. Michael Dirr. For most people who work with trees, Dr. Michael Dirr needs no introduction. He is the author of numerous books on woody plants that have become staples on our desks. He also has some New England roots, as he earned his PhD from UMass. His fingers are always on the pulse of the nursery industry, scouting for new introductions, and having himself introduced 15 trees into commerce.

    Michael Dirr is the author of seven books, including Manual of Woody Landscape Plants: Their Identification, Ornamental Characteristics, Culture and Propagation and Uses, a widely used and best-selling reference text, Dirr’s Hardy Trees and Shrubs, Hydrangeas for the American Gardener, and Viburnums: Flowering Shrubs for Every Season. A Mercer scholar, Dirr is considered one of the green industry’s most celebrated plant experts. An Emeritus Professor of Horticulture at the University of Georgia, his teaching, lectures, seminars, garden study tours and plant introduction programs have contributed greatly to industry awareness.

    He has established several arboreta, consults on tree selection, and has penned tree guides for many campuses. The green industry has tremendously benefited from his keen interest in evaluating trees and his enthusiasm to share it with us.

    Sponsored by: UMass Extension, the UMass Waugh Arboretum, and Eversource. Friday, April 21, 2017 – 2:00pm to 3:30pm, Saturday, April 22, 2017 – 8:00am to 11:45pm at UMass Amherst, 551 North Pleasant Street in Amherst. To register ($50), and for complete itinerary of events, visit http://ag.umass.edu/landscape/events/umass-earth-day-arbor-day-celebration-with-dr-michael-dirr

  • Friday, April 14, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Arums

    On Friday, April 14, beginning at 10 am at the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens, Carol Govan talks about the connections among related arum plants and how they express their genetic heritage in response to their environments. Some are important food crops, some are “delicious,” and others can make you sick. Some look X-rated, and a few can change sex according to the weather. One produces the largest flower in the world, while another is one of the smallest plants around. Learn all about the amazing Araceae family. Wellesley Friends free, nonmembers $10. Pre-registration required. Read more at http://www.wellesley.edu/wcbg/learn/adult_education#gdScv5mOfLKcOHWu.99

  • Friday, April 21 – Sunday, April 23, 9:30 am – 3:30 pm – Color Mixing for Artists

    With Susan Fisher’s easy system, you will learn to mix the colors you want, not the ones you end up with through trial and error.  This Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens three day seminar will take place Friday, April 21 – Sunday, April 23 from 9:30 – 3:30.  Friends price $350, nonmembers $450.  Register at http://wellesley.edu/scbg/learn.

  • Wednesday, April 26, 10:00 am – The Emerald Necklace Parks: 130+ Years Later and Counting

    Wednesday, April 26, 10:00 am – The Emerald Necklace Parks: 130+ Years Later and Counting

    The Boston Committee of the Garden Club of America will hold its Spring 2017 Lecture and Luncheon on Wednesday, April 26 beginning with coffee and registration at 10:00 am, welcome at 10:30 am, and lecture at 10:45 am, followed by lunch at The Country Club, 191 Clyde Street in Brookline.  The guest speaker is Marion Pressley, FASLA, of Pressley Associates Landscape Architects, who will speak on The Emerald Necklace Parks: 130+ Years Later and Counting.  Marion is a devoted professional who has contributed enormously to the designed landscape through her work in landscape architecture and the restoration of public parks and private historical properties throughout the eastern United States.  Her work has received national recognition in both historic preservation and contemporary design.  Marion’s work in preserving the Olmsted legacy is particularly noteworthy and includes master planning and the implementation of treatment design on the Emerald Necklace Park System.  Her presentation for the Boston Committee will enlighten us on the extraordinary Muddy River project.  Garden Club of the Back Bay members will receive car pool notices.  Open only to members of Boston Committee Clubs.  Lecture and luncheon $60, lecture only $30.  Please make checks payable to The Boston Committee of the GCA and mail to Karen Gregg, 92 Beacon St. Unit 41, Boston, MA 02108 prior to April 19. Please note your Club on the memo portion of your check.  Names will be held at the door.

  • Thursday, April 13, 6:00 pm – Symbiosis and the Evolution of Life in the Ocean

    Peter R. Girguis, Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, will speak on Thursday, April 13 at 6:00 pm in the Science Center, Hall D, 1 Oxford Street, as part of the Harvard Museum of Natural History’s Evolution Matters Lecture Series, supported by a generous gift from Drs. Herman and Joan Suit. The discovery of microscopic life forms in the seventeenth century led to humankind’s understanding of microbes as the biochemical innovators of our world. Microbes have evolved exotic metabolisms that enable them to live in seemingly inhospitable places, and they inhabit nearly every animal and plant on Earth. Peter Girguis will lead a virtual tour of ocean microbial life and discuss how marine microbes influence the evolution of all life on Earth, even playing a role in the geological and geochemical composition of our planet. Free parking is available at the 52 Oxford Street Garage. Free and open to the public.