Boston Flora

Month: September 2017

  • Wednesday, October 18 – Friday, October 20, 9:30 am – 3:30 pm – Painting Fall Treasures

    Learn to paint the autumnal treasures that can be found in abundance at this time of year, in this three-day Wellesley College Botanic Garden workshop with two noted botanical artists, Dianne Sutherland and Shevaun Doherty. You will draw and paint a small “table top” collection of subjects, such as richly colored leaves, seed pods, and small, jewel-like fruits. You are encouraged to bring in your own subjects, but subject material will also be provided. Dianne specializes in leaves and Shevaun in fruits, but they are both familiar with all subjects. Benefit from more individual instructor time per student as both Dianne and Shevaun work cooperatively to support the class in the learning process. You will learn about lighting subjects, composing the page, and watercolor techniques such as washes and color mixing. The class takes place October 18 – 20 from 9:30 – 3:30. Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Garden $450, nonmembers $550. Register at 781-283-3094, or email wcbgfriends@wellesley.edu. Image copyright Shevaun Doherty.

  • Sunday, October 8, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Pocket Peatlands

    Visit several pocket peatlands in the Groton Town Forest on Sunday, October 8 with ecologist Patricia Swain, the New England Wild Flower Society, and the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions. Many characteristic peatland species are present, but this trip will focus on the natural communities and their differences as well as variations among and within the peatlands, which include a bog, an acidic graminoid fen, and a shrub fen. Be prepared to get wet or wear hip boots or chest waders. The cost is $28 for members of the sponsoring organizations, $35 for nonmembers. Register online at http://www.newfs.org/learn/our-programs/pocket-peatlands

  • Sunday, October 8, 2:00 pm – George Bucknam Dorr: From Jamaica Pond to Commonwealth Avenue

    George Bucknam Dorr, known as the “Father of Acadia”, was the founder of the oldest national park east of the Mississippi River. The roots of George B. Dorr’s land conservation achievements are deeply embedded on the Jamaica Pond shoreline where he was born in 1853. Childhood exposure to other Massachusetts landscapes also shaped his later success on the mid-Maine coast. Throughout Dorr’s life, notables with attachments to Jamaica Plain–Charles S. Sargent, Edith Wharton, Francis Parkman, Ellen Swallow Richards, Henry & Charles P. Bowditch, Margaret Fuller, and Charles Eliot–kept the Father of Acadia National Park tethered to the place where he spent the first decade of his life. Speaker Ronald H. Epp is the author of Creating Acadia National Park: The Biography of George Bucknam Dorr and has spent the last two decades researching the Massachusetts families that influenced the development of conservation philanthropy.
    Fee Free, but registration required. This October 8 lecture begins at 2 pm in the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum. Offered in collaboration with the Jamaica Plain Historical Society. Register at my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.

  • Wednesday, October 11, 7:00 pm – Rte 2 Geology

    Rte 2 Geology beginning with the Great Wall of Erving through the Ancient Rift (Jurassic) Valley is the topic of an illustrated lecture at the Millers River Environmental Center, 100 Main Street in Athol, on Wednesday, October 11 beginning at 7 pm. Join Harry Sharbaugh for this free virtual geology tour focusing on the visible signs of the geologic forms at road cuts along Route 2. The talk will be supplemented with specimens collected along the way to give a hands on look at rock types including Gneiss, Schist, Shale and some interesting dinosaur tracks and fossils. Call 978-413-1772 for more information. Image from www.autourdumontblanc.com.

  • Saturday, October 7, 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm – Fall for Local: Floral Workshop with Little State Flower Farm

    There are few things more indicative of the change of the seasons than the shifting colors and textures of the leaves, flowers and trees surrounding us. Join Jill Rizzo of Studio Choo East and Anna Jane Kocon of Little State Flower Company for a collaborative floral design workshop focusing on bringing the fleeting beauty of autumn into your home. The class will take place at Tower Hill Botanic Garden on Saturday, October 7, from 1:30 – 3:30. We’ll start with a show-and-tell on the basics: selection, flower care, cleaning and seasonality. We’ll discuss the selected color palette and our favorite ways to tweak traditional autumn hues. The arranging demonstration will focus on combining gestural branches and foliage to make a unique structural base, then we’ll show you how to layer and nestle your favorite blooms for a composition that is full of movement and air. Workshop cost ($165 for Tower Hill members, $175 for nonmembers) includes all materials for students to take home (flowers and vessel). Floral snips will be provided for use during the workshop but students are encouraged to bring their own. Register online at www.towerhillbg.org.

    Jill Rizzo is the owner of Studio Choo East, founded in 2009 in San Francisco with best friend Alethea Harampolis. In 2015, she opened a New England branch of the studio focused on creating uniquely wild floral designs for weekly clients, weddings, and workshops. Co-author of The Flower Recipe Book and
    Branches and Blooms, her work has been featured in Martha Stewart Weddings, Real Simple, Veranda and Sunset.

    Anna Jane Kocon is the founder and owner of Little State Flower Company; a five acre specialty-cut flower farm based on Aquidneck Island in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Little State focuses on sustainable, environmentally-friendly growing practices in an effort to create local, healthy options for the wedding and event industry in and around Rhode Island.

  • Saturday, October 7, 11:00 am – 12:00 noon – The Art of Collaboration: The Florist and the Farmer

    It is no secret that the freshest local ingredients help create the tastiest recipes! Just as great chefs have their favorite farm on speed dial, the relationship between florists and flower farmers can be equally symbiotic. On Saturday, October 7 at 11 am at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, meet Jill Rizzo of Studio Choo East (acclaimed author of The Flower Recipe Book and Branches and Blooms) and Anna Jane Kocon, lead farmer and owner of Little State Flower Company. Learn about their collaborative partnership, the ways their businesses have evolved, and how they are providing unique local floral materials and designs in Rhode Island and beyond. A book signing will follow the talk. Free with admission to the Garden.

  • Friday, October 6, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm, and Saturday, October 7, 10:00 am – 11:30 am – Garden Delights Contest

    Tower Hill wants to see what’s been growing in your garden. Take a look in your garden and start planning now for what you will submit to the 2017 Garden Delights Contest. Participants must submit two of each type of fresh food or flower they want to enter. Two apples or two squashes or two aster blooms, etc. (Exception: Pumpkins and Melons may be submitted alone.) Participants can enter multiple categories.

    Each submission must be labeled with the participant’s Name, Hometown, General Category, and Type of Produce.

    Submissions must be checked in at Tower Hill on Friday, Oct. 6, 2017, between the hours of 11am and 5pm, or on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2017, between 1o and 11:30am. Judging will occur on Oct. 7 at noon.

    Submissions must be picked up between 3-5pm on Monday, Oct. 9, or Tower Hill will dispose of them.

    There are three General categories: Fruit, Vegetable, and Flower. If your submission is the only type of its kind in the competition, it will be judged against other submissions in that General category. If we receive multiple submissions for a type of produce, those will face off in their own category.
    For example, your fruit will compete against all other fruit submissions, unless we receive several apple submissions, at which time we would start a Best Apples category.

    Ribbons will be awarded in each category for first, second, and third place. Winners of each individual category will receive a $5 gift certificate to the Garden Shop at Tower Hill, which will be mailed to them. Best in Show will win $10.

    For kids: Show us your best Veggie Creation. Transform your fruit or veggie into something that will surprise us. We’ll award ribbons for first, second, and third and make sure all participants take a ribbon home.

    Note: Participants don’t have to pay to drop off their submissions, but must pay admission to re-enter Tower Hill over the weekend. For more information visit www.towerhillbg.org. Thank you www.reuters.com, for the wonderful image.

  • Saturday, October 7 – Saturday, November 18 – Hemlock Hospice

    Hemlock Hospice, and art/science installation and exhibition by David Buckley Borden (Artist-in-Residence), Aaron Ellison (Senior Ecologist), and Salua Rivero (intern) opens at the Harvard Forest Saturday, October 7 from noon – 4 pm. The address is 324 North Main Street in Petersham. David Buckley Borden is a Cambridge-based interdisciplinary artist and designer known for his creative practice of making ecological issues culturally relevant to the general public by means of accessible art and design. David is a 2016/2017 Bullard Fellow in Forest Research at Harvard University where he explores the question, “How can art and design foster cultural cohesion around environmental issues and help inform ecology-minded decision making?”

    David studied landscape architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and worked with Sasaki Associates and Ground, Inc. before focusing his practice at the intersection of landscape, creativity, and cultural event. David’s work now manifests in a variety of forms, ranging from landscape installations in the woods to data-driven cartography in the gallery. David’s place-based projects highlight both pressing environmental issues and everyday phenomena and have recently earned him residencies at the Santa Fe Art Institute, Teton Art Lab, Trifecta Hibernaculum, and MASS MoCA. Learn more about David and his work at his website http://davidbuckleyborden.com/.

  • Friday, October 20, 6:00 pm – 10:00 pm – Party Under the Harvest Moon

    Support local hunger relief and food rescue on Friday, October 20 from 6 – 10 at Morss Hall at MIT. Party Under the Harvest Moon is a fundraiser for Food For Free. Eat, drink, dance, bid, celebrate and support. Enjoy beer, wine, nibbles and desserts from Bandit Wines, Cabot Cheese, Cambridge Brewing Company, Dave’s Fresh Pasta, Flour, Henrietta’s Table, iCater, Mainely Burgers, Manoa Poke, Nubar, Q’s Nuts, Royal East Restaurant, Russell House Tavern, Spindler Confections, Sub Zero Ice Cream and Yogurt, Veggie Galaxy, Viale, and more! Every dollar spent on tickets, auction bids, sponsorships, and donations helps get healthy food to people who need it.  To purchase tickets ($75) and for more information visit www.foodforfree.org.

  • Monday, October 2, 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm – How To Propagate Natives Webinar

    Many propagation classes focus exclusively on how to propagate plants and neglect to explain which species will give new propagators the best results. For instance, if you try sowing 100 seeds of Chimaphila maculata, you’ll be lucky if two germinate. However, 100 seeds of Agastache foeniculum may yield more than 90 seedlings. Join Dan Jaffe of The New England Wild Flower Society online on Monday, October 2 from 6:30 – 7:30 to learn which plant species to propagate as well as how to do it. $10 for NEWFS members, $13 for nonmembers. Image from www.tipdisease.com. Register at http://www.newfs.org/learn/our-programs/live-webinar-how-to-propagate-natives