Boston Flora

Month: June 2017

  • Tuesday, June 27, 10:00 am – 12:30 pm – The Role of Plants in an Aquatic Ecosystem

    Aquatic plants are an essential part of all natural lakes, ponds, and streams – providing food and shelter for fish and other wildlife, improving water clarity, and in many cases absorbing pollutants. But the benefit that is most obvious is the visual appeal of aquatic plants. The interest in water features in the built landscape continues to grow, with good reason. Waterscapes including rain gardens, constructed wetlands, streams, waterfalls, and ponds are restorative and beautiful in addition to the habitat value that they bring into the landscape.

    Join Rip Sokol on Tuesday, June 27 at 10 am for this behind-the-scenes tour of Fourth Generation Nursery in Mendon to learn about the oldest and largest wholesale grower of aquatic plants north of New Jersey. This Ecological Landscape Alliance tour will feature demonstration water gardens and nursery production areas while discussing the role of plants in an aquatic ecosystem. Submerged and emergent plants will be presented for both function and esthetics. Soil & nutrient requirements will be discussed as well as appropriate planting strategies for both newly constructed ponds & streams or for introduction into existing water features.

    Natives, “nativars”, well behaved introductions and noxious invasives will be addressed. Fourth Generation Nursery does not recommend introduction of ANY plants into any natural water body unless it is recognized as in need of remedial replanting and then only with an approved plan. Bring your camera!

    R. P. “Rip” Sokol has worked in the horticulture industry for over 50 years, has been growing plants since the age of five, and created his first water garden at age 11. He has been a Massachusetts Certified Horticulturist since 1986 and belongs to multiple nursery associations. Rip is the co-owner of Fourth Generation Nursery, a wholesale nursery and supplier in Mendon, MA. The Sokol family has been engaged in horticulture for over 100 years, and began Fourth Generation Nursery in 1989. $10 for ELA members, $20 for nonmembers. See more at: http://www.ecolandscaping.org/event/role-plants-aquatic-ecosystem/#sthash.BKYHRRLJ.dpuf

  • Thursday, June 22, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Hydrangea Highlights

    Endless Summer®, Sugar Puff, Pinky Winky, Incrediball – there has been an explosion of hydrangea cultivars with cute and quirky names. Hydrangea Highlights helps demystify our most popular blooming shrub.

    Gail Anderson will help attendees identify and care for hydrangeas already in their gardens and will include tips for choosing reliable new hydrangeas. Anderson will share a primer of hydrangea species, new cultivars and breeding trends, how to plant, and how to prune.

    Gail Anderson is a former teacher and magazine journalist. She earned a Certificate in Landscape Design and Maintenance from North Shore Community College and a certified a Massachusetts Master Gardener.

    This Massachusetts Horticultural Society session will take place Thursday, June 22 from 7 – 8:30 in the Education Building at the Gardens at Elm Bank, 900 Washington Street in Wellesley, and is $12 for Mass Hort Members, $20 for nonmembers. Register at www.masshort.org, or call 617-933-4973. Image from www.healthyhomegardening.com.

  • Tuesday, August 1 – Thursday, August 3 – Coastal Maine Garden Trip

    DAY 1: Come and join Tower Hill Botanic Garden for our visit to the charming Maine Coast, August 1 – 3! Our first stop is a visit to the very beautiful Fuller Gardens an elegant 1938 formal estate designed by the Olmsted Brothers. This ‘Seaside Gem’ features hundreds of varieties of gorgeous roses, English perennial border, Japanese garden framing a pond and more. Now we continue along the coast with a lunch stop en route, to arrive at Boothbay Harbor to spend 2 nights at the Boothbay Harbor Inn located right on the Harbor, near the footbridge. Enjoy lovely rooms and fabulous views. Welcome Dinner in the Inn’s waterfront restaurant.

    DAY 2: This morning we’ll have breakfast before visiting the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, a natural wonder on 250 acres of shorefront in mid-coast Maine. Join our garden docents for a Guided Walking Tour as we stroll through spectacular ornamental gardens, waterfront and woodland trails. Visitors are delighted by the beautiful plantings, impressive stonework, waterfalls, fountains, and scenic views. Enjoy an afternoon at leisure to explore the charming village of Boothbay with its wonderful shops, crafts and exciting harbor front. Farewell lobster dinner at McSeagull’s Restaurant.

    DAY 3: We say goodbye to our friends in Boothbay Harbor and head to Portsmouth, NH. It’s time to explore four centuries of American History through the eyes of the people who lived in New Hampshire’s oldest waterfront neighborhood, Strawbery Banke. Here you can see 40 buildings – most on their original sites – spanning the late 1600s to the mid-1950s. From the spare storefronts of colonial merchants, the elegant Georgian-style mansion of Governor Goodwin, the humble dwellings of early Jewish immigrants, the penny candy counter of the WWII-era Abbott Store, Strawbery Banke tells the stories of a neighborhood over time. We head home with memories of our Maine Coast trip.

    Member $599, Non-member $659 pp double / triple, $110 single supplement, $200 deposit

    Includes: Deluxe Motor Coach, 2 nights hotel, 2 breakfasts, 2 dinners, sightseeing & admissions – final payment due 6/20/17. If a passenger cancels from deposit to June 20, 2017 fee of $100 pp; June 21 to July 17, 2017 fee of $350 pp; no refunds if cancelled on July 18, 2017 or later unless a substitute is provided. Trip Protection Coverage is strongly recommended.  To register visit https://towerhillbg.thankyou4caring.org/pages/event-registration-form—coastal-maine-garden-trip

  • Wednesday, June 28, 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm – The Language of Flowers Opening Reception

    Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive in Boylston, will hold its opening reception for its newest art exhibit, The Language of Flowers, on Wednesday, June 28 from 5 – 7. Explore collage and mixed media art by artists from the United States and around the world.  Free with admission.  The exhibit will run through August 6. For more information visit www.towerhillbg.org.

  • Now through September, Thursdays, 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm – FOPG Border Brigade

    Join the Friends of the Public Garden’s Border Brigade Thursdays, 5 pm – 7 pm, to help at the Boylston Street border.  FOPG is looking for champion volunteer weeders to help maintain the now-beautiful Boylston Street and Beacon Street borders in the Public Garden.  Gloves, knee pads, and some brief instruction on weed identification will be provided.  No previous experience necessary and one can participate every week, a couple of weeks, or only once.  You’ll get a free Friends of the Public Garden t-shirt and a book about the Public Garden.  Feel free to bring your favorite small hand tools.  Email info@friendsofthepublicgarden.org if you are interested, and to confirm dates (weather may affect the schedule.)

  • Sunday, June 18, 11:00 am – Cooking with Flowers

    This Sunday, June 18, beginning at 11:00 am, Miche Bacher, author of Cooking with Flowers: Sweet and Savory Recipes with Roses, Lavender, and Other Edible Flowers, will do a demonstration at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive in Boylston, with a tasting and book signing.  Tower Hill member price $7, nonmembers $20.  For registration and information on future chef demos, visit https://towerhillbg.thankyou4caring.org/pages/event-registration-form—chef-demos–tastings-spring-2017

  • Summer 2017 – A Flower CSA Partnership

    Allandale Farm is proud to announce that they’ve partnered with friends at Tiny Hearts Farm to host their 2017 Flower CSA. Tiny Hearts Farm grows, arranges, and delivers these beautiful bouquets, and you pick up your share weekly at Allandale Farm.

    Tiny Hearts Farm is a family-run organic flower farm located on 15 acres in Copake, NY. Check out their beautiful Instagram account @tinyheartsfarm to see what this farm is all about (a new website is coming soon!). Luke and Jenny are truly committed to gorgeous cut flowers. Allandale Farm, 259 Allandale Road in Chestnut Hill, is so excited to share all their hard work with you, and offer a high quality flower CSA option. A ten week flower share is $160, and a 15 week share is $240. Pick ups will be held on Tuesdays from 2 – 7 pm, beginning in late June. Registration form may be printed at http://files.constantcontact.com/dc9d4917be/4a182344-6510-4d2b-83fe-a1f633a03b2c.pdf, or email csa@allandalefarm.com with any questions.

  • Monday, June 26, 7:00 pm – The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth’s Past Mass Extinctions

    As new groundbreaking research suggests that climate change played a major role in the most extreme catastrophes in the planet’s history, award-winning science journalist Peter Brannen takes us on a wild ride through the planet’s five mass extinctions and, in the process, offering us a glimpse of our increasingly dangerous future.

    Our world has ended five times: it has been broiled, frozen, poison-gassed, smothered, and pelted by asteroids. In The Ends of the World, Peter Brannen dives into deep time, exploring Earth’s past dead ends, and in the process, offers us a glimpse of our possible future.

    Many scientists now believe that the climate shifts of the twenty-first century have analogs in these five extinctions. Using the visible clues these devastations have left behind in the fossil record, The Ends of the World takes us inside -scenes of the crime, – from South Africa to the New York Palisades, to tell the story of each extinction. Brannen examines the fossil record–which is rife with creatures like dragonflies the size of sea gulls and guillotine-mouthed fish–and introduces us to the researchers on the front lines who, using the forensic tools of modern science, are piecing together what really happened at the crime scenes of the Earth’s biggest whodunits.

    Part road trip, part history, and part cautionary tale, The Ends of the World takes us on a tour of the ways that our planet has clawed itself back from the grave, and casts our future in a completely new light. Peter Brannen will discuss and sign copies of his book at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge on Monday, June 26 at 7 pm. For more information call 617-491-2220, or visit www.portersquarebooks.com.

  • Tuesday, June 20, 12:30 pm – What’s Your Tick IQ?

    The Cape Cod Museum of Natural History will present Tick Training and Lyme Disease Prevention with the Cape Cod Medical Reserve Corps on Tuesday, June 20 at 12:30 pm at the Museum, 869 Main Street in Brewster. Those of us who live on Cape Cod are probably familiar with the high incidence of Lyme disease in our area; however, people who visit in the summer as vacationers, campers or camp counselors may know very little about this problem. It is essential that they understand about Lyme disease, prevention of tick bites and monitoring and dealing with tick bites.

    The Museum is pleased to offer this one hour program to our visitors, volunteers and staff. This program is taught by Medical Reserve Corps volunteers who have extensive training in Tick borne Illness.

    Free with Museum Admission. For directions and more information visit www.ccmnh.org.

  • July and August, 2017 – Berkshire Botanical Garden Art in the Garden Summer Program

    Berkshire Botanical Garden has opened registration for its Art in the Garden Summer Program, a lineup of five workshops ranging from watercolor painting to drawing nature and the art of cut paper.

    The Garden in Watercolors Session I: En Plein Air Watercolor Painting in the Summer Garden, will be offered four consecutive Wednesdays beginning July 5, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Each class will begin with an introduction and demonstration by instructor Ann Kremers, followed by study of forms, composition, and simple, direct color schemes. Participants are welcome to attend all four classes or individual classes, but all are encouraged to attend the first session, when the basics of watercolor, paint brushes and paper will be explained. Students of all levels are welcome; no previous experience is necessary. This four-session workshop will be repeated beginning August 2, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m., and will follow the same curriculum. Fees for the classes are: four sessions $185 / $155 members; individual classes, $50. A materials list is available at berkshirebotanical.org.

    A workshop on the Art of Cut Paper — Scherenschnitte, is offered on Thursday, July 20, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Taught by Pamela Dalton (pictured below,) this hands-on program includes instruction on the simple techniques of cut paper. Students will create multiple Scherenschnitte, executed in the style of the Pennsylvania German tradition drawing on farming and gardening themes from the 19th century. The instructor will also share paper cutting from a variety of cultures and historic periods. Fees for the class are $85 / $75 members. View a materials list at berkshirebotanical.org. A materials fee of $10 is paid directly to the instructor.

    Basic Drawing: Observing Nature with Graphite Pencil, a workshop taught by Carol Ann Morley, is scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, August 14 and 15, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Students will learn how to look at the natural world and give shape and definition to their subject through graphite shading techniques. This workshop is open to any level of student from beginner to those with drawing skills. Fees for the workshop are $250 / $225 members.

    Carol Ann Morley will also instruct the workshop, Drawing in Nature: A Visual Narrative. This consecutive three-day program begins Wednesday, August 16, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. and focuses on how to present an image of nature to achieve an interesting drawing that engages the attention. Students are encouraged to bring several natural subjects to choose from as the focus of their drawing, and will work in graphite during design stages, but can select a color medium for a final rendering. Open to students of all levels. Fees for the workshop are $315 / $290 members

    Berkshire Botanical Garden is located at 5 West Stockbridge Road, (Routes 102/183) Stockbridge, Ma. For additional information on these classes, bios of the instructors, or to register, visit berkshirebotanical.org or call 413 320-4794.