Boston Flora

Month: February 2018

  • Tuesday, February 20, 6:30 pm – 8:00 ppm – Designing a Multi-Season Shade Garden

    This Massachusetts Master Gardeners talk on Tuesday, February 20 at 6:30 with Paul Steen covers a variety of shade situations and covers the unique problems/opportunities of shade gardening. We then cover the best shade plants and how to select them so that your garden is in bloom spring through fall. Even discuss how to have winter interest. Handout included covers a wide variety of shade plants and their cultural properties. The event takes place at the Eleanor Cabot Bradley Estate in Canton. Registration and payment is through the Massachusetts Master Gardeners Association. Fee: $25 per class. Contact: bradley@thetrustees.org for more information and the location to register and provide payment.

  • Say “Bee Mine” on Valentine’s Day and Benefit The Esplanade

    Looking for a special gift for that special someone this Valentine’s Day? Say “Bee Mine?” by sponsoring pollinator-friendly plants on the Esplanade.

    Populations of native bees, and other pollinators like butterflies, moths, and humming birds are declining around the world due to loss of habitat. Your gift will help the Esplanade Association plant species that provide essential habitats for these pollinators. For your donation, you or the person(s) you are honoring will receive a beautiful e-card from the Esplanade Association on February 14 describing your gift. Say “Bee Mine?” today! $100 will buy a Button Bush (photo below from http://snaplant.com), Aronia arbutifolia, or Elderberry. $50 will purchase New England Aster, Bergamot, Goldenrod, Autumn Brilliance, Blacked-Eyed Susan, Coneflower Or give the Gift of Multiple Plants! Donate at https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?name=E11852&id=58

    http://snaplant.com//srv/htdocs/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Cephalanthus-occidentalis-Buttonbush.jpg

  • Friday, February 9, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm – Green Up for Clean Up: Planting to Remediate Contaminated Landscapes Webinar

    When soil tests confirm the presence of site contaminants, cost-effective phytotechnology (phytoremediation) plantings can often be effective in mitigating on-site pollutants. These interactions are complicated, sometimes taking decades for remediation, and many times plant-based remediation strategies are not a good fit for environmental cleanup.

    Phytotechnology is the use of vegetation and their associated microbes to remediate, contain, or prevent contaminants in soils, sediments, and groundwater. The term ‘phytoremediation,’ where plants are used to remediate sites that are already polluted, is often used interchangeably with ‘phytotechnology,’ but is only one subset of the field. ‘Phytotechnology’ is a much broader term that includes techniques such as pre-emptive installation of vegetation to mitigate ecological problems before they actually occur, as well as stabilization of pollutants on site, beyond just contaminant removal. Green roofs, constructed wetlands, bioswales, bioenergy crop cultivation, and phytoremediation plantings are all forms of ‘phytotechnology,’ a term which encompasses all uses of plants to meet environmental and technological goals.

    Plants are a cost-effective method of tracking and mitigating contaminated landscapes. In this Ecological Landscape Alliance online presentation on Friday, February 9 from 12:30 – 1:30, Kate Kennen will explain phytoremediation (plants uptake and remove contaminants) and phytoforensics (plants detect and delineate pollutants). She will discuss some of the limitations of phytoremediation, how to integrate the science of phytoremediation into landscape design practices, preventative (phytobuffering) capabilities, and recommend plant species that can be utilized.

    Kate Kennen is the founder and president of Offshoots, Inc., a Boston landscape architecture practice focused on productive planting techniques and phytotechnology consulting. Ms. Kennen’s book PHYTO: Principles of Site Remediation and Landscape Design was published in 2015. Ms. Kennen completed her undergraduate studies in Landscape Architecture at Cornell University, and received her master’s degree with distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Having spent her childhood at her family’s garden center in Massachusetts, Ms. Kennen is well versed in the plants of the Northeast. She currently teaches a research seminar in phytoremediation and plant-based technologies at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

    Free for ELA members, $10 for nonmembers. Register at http://www.ecolandscaping.org/event/webinar-green-clean-planting-remediate-contaminated-landscapes/

    https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61wkxpBu2cL._SX393_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

  • Monday, February 26, 10:00 am – Why Public Gardens?

    Please Join The Trustees for a lively and compelling talk: Why Public Gardens? by noted landscape designer W. Gary Smith, on Monday, February 26, 2018 at 10AM at The French Cultural Center, 53 Marlborough St. in Boston.

    Smith, a designer who creates meaning and artful encounters between people, plants, and the natural world, will present his recent work in public gardens that invite broad audiences for exploration and discovery, and will discuss the Public Gardens initiative at The Trustees.

    His recently completed projects include the Luci and Ian Family Garden at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, the John C. Wister Rhododendron Garden at Tyler Arboretum, and Ojos y Manos, the ethnobotanical garden at the Santa Fe Botanical Garden. Projects currently in design or construction include the Will C. Curtis Woodland at Garden in the Woods, a new children’s garden at the Tower Hill Botanic Garden, and a master plan for the Toronto Botanical Garden.

    Kindly Respond by February 20. Call: 617.542.7696 (Option 7) or E-mail: development@thetrustees.org to register today!

  • Sunday, February 11, 2:30 pm – 3:30 pm – Plant Combinations for a Long Season of Bloom

    You can enjoy colorful and fragrant flowers even in January, long before the vernal equinox and have blooms celebrate all of the other seasons – spring, summer and fall! This is not a fanciful ideal and you don’t need a heated greenhouse or conservatory. Landscape Horticulturist Warren Leach will introduce plants and planting combination to extend your garden enjoyment in a free (with admission to the garden) lecture at Tower Hill Botanic Garden on Sunday, February 11 from 2:30 – 3:30.

    Warren Leach is co-owner of Tranquil Lake Nursery in Rehoboth MA, a specialty nursery that is a prominent grower of daylilies, iris and distinctive perennials and woody plants. Warren is a passionate plant collector and landscape horticulturist with a depth of knowledge of all garden plants – both perennial and woody plants and tropical and temperate. He is also a distinguished and award-winning garden designer. Warren enjoys sharing his horticultural and garden design knowledge with others through garden lectures, mentoring and through the gardens that he designs. For more information visit https://towerhillbg.thankyou4caring.org/pages/event-registration-form—plant-combinations-for-a-long-season-of-bloom