Boston Flora

Month: October 2017

  • Saturday, November 4, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm – Bare Trees and Naked Shrubs

    No leaves? No problem! We will use a combination of branching patterns, bud and bark characteristics, habitat, persistent fruits, galls, and marcescent leaves to help identify woody plants in winter. We’ll head out onto conservation lands in Lexington and Winchester, MA, where we’ll take a close look at 18-20 common trees and shrubs. The New England Wild Flower Society program, co-sponsored with the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions, will conclude indoors with a twig quiz and a hot beverage. Bring lunch and a hand lens if you have one. Boot Boutwell is your instructor, and the locations will be Whipple Hill in Lexington and Wright-Locke Farm in Winchester. $38 for sponsor members, $46 for nonmembers. Register at http://www.newfs.org/learn/our-programs/bare-trees-and-naked-shrubs

  • From the Archives: Early Fundraising with Thalassa Cruso

    Every not for profit group needs to do its share of fundraising so all its planned projects and improvements can be paid for, and The Garden Club of the Back Bay is no exception.  In 1983 we welcomed Thalassa Cruso  (1909 – 1997) at the First and Second Church on Marlborough Street (now known as First Church, Boston). Her lecture was entitled My Grandfather’s Garden. Tickets were $6 in advance and $8 on the day of the event, and included refreshments in the Library Courtyard garden.

    Thalassa Cruso was well known as the host of WGBH’s Making Things Grow, and was a successful author and newspaper columnist. In her obituary in the New York Times, she was referred to as “The Julia Child of horticulture” and “In brisk, impeccable diction, she indoctrinated viewers into the mysterious world of cyclamen and spathiphyllum, enjoining them to tend their plants with loving kindness, and to throw them in the dustbin without a backward glance if the little ingrates failed to respond.”  Net profits from the event totaled $387.45, with 69 tickets sold. Image from www.digitalcommonwealth.org.

  • Friday, November 3 – Saturday, November 4 – Massachusetts Trails Conference: Building Trails – A Path to Vibrant Communities

    The Massachusetts Trails Conference is hosted by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) in partnership with the Massachusetts Recreational Trails Advisory Board (MARTAB) with funding provided by the Recreational Trails Program. Keynote speaker David C. Toland is the first CEO of Thrive Allen County, a nonprofit coalition that works to improve quality of life and economic conditions in Allen County, Kansas. A seventh-generation Allen Countian, Toland oversees a coalition known regionally, statewide and nationally for its innovative approaches to improving healthcare access, healthy lifestyles and economic development in a small, rural Kansas county.

    At the conference, there will be hands-on workshops on Trail Crossings in Wetlands: Bog Bridge at Barrett Park, Chainsaw Safety, Constructing Accessible Trails with Stabilized Stonedust, etc, as well as field trips in and around Leominster and Fitchburg, and a host of concurrent sessions such as Finding Your Way through Storytelling: The Thoreau Trail and Chinatown Trail, and A Tale of Two City Trails: The Springield Urban Bird Trail and Worcester’s East-West Trail. A complete list may be found at http://www.masstrailsconference.com/schedule.html Registration begins at $45 with some workshops priced at an additional fee. Register online at http://www.masstrailsconference.com/register.html Registration includes Friday, November 3 field trips, and Saturday, November 4 keynote address, sessions, breakfast, lunch, and networking social. The event takes place at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Leominster, Massachusetts.

  • Thursday, November 9, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Global Flora: We’re On Our Way!

    With a focus on diversity of form, and various microhabitats in the Dry House and Wet House at the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens, Global Flora will be a unique resource for experiencing and studying botanical wonders. Botanic Gardens Director Kristina Jones will go over the details of the project and answer questions. If you have favorite flora of fabulous form, please be ready to suggest them, as the list of taxa for initial inclusion is not yet closed. The event will take place in the greenhouses on Thursday, November 9 from 10 – 12. Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens free, nonmembers $10. Register by emailing wcbgfriends@wellesley.edu, or call 781-283-3094.

  • Friday, November 3, 6:45 pm – Green Eggs and A.m (Ambystoma maculatum)

    On Friday, November 3, Dr. Louise Lewis, Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut, will present a lecture at the New England Botanical Club meeting entitled Green Eggs and A.m (Ambystoma maculatum).  Ambystoma maculatum is more widely known as the spotted salamander. Meetings at Harvard University are held in Haller Lecture Hall (Room 102), Geological Museum, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA 02138 (door to right of Harvard Museum of Natural History entrance) Free and open to the pubic. For more information on the New England Botanical Club, visit http://www.rhodora.org.

  • Holiday Wreaths 2017 – It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

    We are excited to announce the kick off of our 2017 Holiday Wreath sale. Order forms are in the mail to customers who have purchased from us, or who put their names on our wreath mailing list, over the past two seasons, and to our members.  The Online Store is also now active, and you may purchase by clicking HERE. If you prefer, you may print our order form, also found on the website, fill it out, and send with a check made out to The Garden Club of the Back Bay to Francine Crawford, 421 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02115. Or email info@bostonflora.com and we’ll mail a form to you, or email it as an attachment. You may also leave a message at 617-859-8865 and we’ll follow up. So there is absolutely no reason not to support our neighborhood tree care efforts! In the coming weeks we’ll highlight some designs from past years and share some insights on our process, but if you’d like to get ahead of the game, order now. We’ll confirm delivery or pick up status with you in November – and thank you in advance.

  • Tuesday, October 31, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm – Toru Mitani

    Is there any essential difference between the detail design of landscape architecture and of architecture? It is very common to discuss detail design in the architectural realm, as evidenced by a number of research works and publications focusing on the rationality and logics of the wooden structure of traditional Japanese architecture that praise its beauty. On the other hand, it is not so easy to find any discussion of detail designs of the traditional gardens in Japan, because most focus on the semantics and symbolization of their style. For example, the stone formation in the dry garden has been explained from the viewpoint of Buddhist symbolization or sometimes of the spiritual representation, and not from the viewpoint of its functional, structural reason, in other words, as a matter of engineering.

    Japanese-based landscape architect Toru Mitani discusses these and other considerations with reference to the concurrent Harvard Graduate School of Design exhibition featuring his ongoing work and collaborative projects with his firm ‘studio on site.’The lecture will take place Tuesday, October 31 from 6:30 – 8:30 in Gund Hall Piper Auditorium, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge. Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the events office at (617) 496-2414 or events@gsd.harvard.edu.

  • Thursday, November 2, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Tooning In To Conservation

    Science and conservation are serious endeavors. But sometimes you just need a laugh. Rosemary Mosco, a nature cartoonist and science communicator with a keen wit, will share some of her science-based comics, sure to make you guffaw. She’ll talk about how you can use art and writing to support conservation and speak about her process of developing a cartoon, from concept through research, wordsmithing, to sketch-up and final design. The lecture takes place Thursday, November 2 from 7 – 8:30 in the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum in Boston.

    Rosemary has created acclaimed cartoons, served in communications roles for groups such as NPS and Mass Audubon, written for nature publications, and led unique nature walks. Her graphic novel, Solar Systems, comes out via First Second Books in 2018. Fee: Free members and students, $10 nonmember. Register at my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.

  • Wednesday, November 8, 6:00 pm – The Majestic Moose

    Join Wildlife photographer Bill Fournier for this wonderful look at our largest resident mammal the Moose. Bill will include images from both Maine and from our own backyard at Quabbin. This Athol Bird and Nature Club talk is part of the annual meeting, open to the public, on Wednesday, November 8. As usual, the annual dinner meeting begins at 6 p.m. in Liberty Hall at the Athol Town Hall (584 Main St.), with the program at 7 p.m.

    Reservations are required for the dinner and must be received by Thursday, November 3rd. To reserve, call Cindy Hartwell at 978-544-5783, or email cindyhartwell56@gmail.com. There will be two dinner options available, stuffed chicken or vegetarian lasagna. Please indicate your preference when making the reservation. She will call or email you back with a confirmation of your reservation. No reservations are necessary for the program. The event will also feature our always popular tin can auctions; participants are encouraged to bring an item to donate.

  • Saturday, November 4, 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm – Hydrangea Winterizing Workshop

    Hydrangea macrophylla are the least cold-hardy of hydrangea species and are hard to keep alive during harsh Cape Cod winters. Heritage Museums & Gardens Hydrangea Curator Mal Condon will provide information and demonstrate techniques for protecting hydrangeas from the ravages of winter, in this workshop on Saturday, November 4 from 1:30 – 2:30 at the gardens on 67 Grove Street in Sandwich. $10 for Heritage members, $25 for nonmembers (includes Museum admission.) For more information visit https://heritagemuseumsandgardens.org/event/hydrangea-winterizing-workshop-2/ Photo by Luc Balemans from www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com.