Boston Flora

Month: January 2019

  • Thursday, January 24, 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Artists of New England and Their Gardens

    Gardens are a space for creative rejuvenation, muse, and inspiration. New England is rich with historical artists, poets, and writers, and we are lucky to have not only their work but also the gardens that held a special place in their lives. The garden of  sculptor William Chester French is pictured below.

    Join The Massachusetts Horticultural Society on January 24 from 1:00 – 5:00 at The Gardens at Elm Bank, 900 Washington Street in Wellesley, for an afternoon of presentations exploring these truly inspired settings. $40 for Mass Hort members, $60 for the general public. Register at www.masshort.org.

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  • Tuesday, January 15, 5:15 pm – 7:30 pm – Camp Benson and the “GAR” Camps: Recreational Landscape of Civil War Memory in Maine

    The Massachusetts Historical Society will host C. Ian Stevenson, of Boston University, along with commentator Ian Delahanty of Springfield College, in an Environmental History Seminar on January 15 from 5:15 – 7:30 at the Massachusetts Historical Society headquarters, 1154 Boylston Street in Boston. The topic is Camp Benson and the “GAR” Camps: Recreational Landscapes of Civil War Memory in Maine, 1886 – 1910. This seminar examines sites where veterans transitioned the Civil War vacation toward a civilian audience: Camp Benson, where several Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) posts built a campground, and at the “GAR Camps” where a single veteran proprietor built rental cottages. The speakers ask why postwar civilians would want to mimic the veteran desire to associate healthful destinations with wartime memory. How do these outdoor landscapes explain the nation’s healing process from the Civil War? The seminar is free and open to the public.

    To RSVP: email seminars@masshist.org or call (617) 646-0579.

  • Thursday, January 24 – Sunday, January 27 – Flora in Winter 2019

    Thursday, January 24 – Sunday, January 27 – Flora in Winter 2019

    Leave the winter cold outside and treat yourself to color and fragrance during Worcester Art Museum’s annual floral extravaganza — when the entire Museum blooms with flower arrangements inspired by works of art. The region’s top floral designers interpret paintings, sculpture, and other works with imaginative arrangements that both dazzle and delight! Demonstrations, lectures, guided tours, and activities for children also take place throughout Flora in Winter, January 24 – January 27.

    Flora in Winter 2019 Chairs: Kim Cutler, Kathy Michie, and Sarah Ribeiro. Flora in Winter is funded in part by The Spear Fund for Public Programs.
    Sponsored by: United Bank Foundation Massachusetts. WAM Members enjoy free admission to all four days of Flora in Winter, except for the Flora/Monet Opening Party – special rates apply. Nonmembers: Adults $22, youth $6 during exhibition hours.  For complete schedule visit http://worcesterart.org.

  • Saturday, January 26, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm – Greenhouse Growing and Maintenance

    David Fiske, Massachusetts Horticultural Society Gardens Curator, will lead a workshop on Saturday, January 26 from 10 – 2 at The Gardens at Elm Bank, 900 Washington Street in Wellesley, that will show you ways to best utilize your greenhouse and indoor growing spaces.

    He’ll discuss not only how to use these spaces to grow specific plants and starts, but also review maintenance needs that should be on your seasonal checklist. $25 for Mass Hort members, $40 general admission. Sign up at www.masshort.org.

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  • Saturday, January 19, 5:00 am – 5:00 pm – Superbowl of Birding 2019

    Winter is a wonderful time to bird in northeastern Massachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire. In celebration of this season, the Joppa Flats Education Center, 1 Plum Island Turnpike in Newburyport, is hosting the Superbowl of Birding XVI on January 19, 2019.

    Superbowls I-XV were great successes with teams of all abilities participating. The challenge is renewed this year, with prizes awarded in ten categories!

    This is a unique competition to find the greatest number of species and to earn the greatest number of points based on the rarity of the birds recorded. The Zeiss Joppa Cup is awarded to the team that collects the most points by the end of the specified 12-hour birding day. Strategy and planning are essential in order to win this competition.

    Registration is $35 per person ($20 for participants 12 and under), and fees support refreshments and prizes for winning teams. Register by calling 978-462-9998. Complete information may be found at https://www.massaudubon.org/get-outdoors/wildlife-sanctuaries/joppa-flats/news-events/superbowl-of-birding

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  • Thursday, January 24, 7:00 pm – Going Up the Country: When the Hippies, Dreamers, Freaks, and Radicals Moved to Vermont

    Going Up the Country is part oral history, part nostalgia-tinged narrative, and part clear-eyed analysis of the multifaceted phenomena collectively referred to as the counterculture movement in Vermont. This is the story of how young migrants, largely from the cities and suburbs of New York and Massachusetts, turned their backs on the establishment of the 1950s and moved to the backwoods of rural Vermont, spawning a revolution in lifestyle, politics, sexuality, and business practices that would have a profound impact on both the state and the nation. The movement brought hippies, back-to-the-landers, political radicals, sexual libertines, and utopians to a previously conservative state and led us to today’s farm to table way of life, environmental consciousness, and progressive politics as championed by Bernie Sanders.

    Yvonne Daley is the author of five previous books and director of the Green Mountain Writers Conference. She will speak at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge, on January 24 beginning at 7 pm. If you ever dreamed of escaping to that farm in Vermont, be sure to hear Yvonne’s stories. More information may be found at https://www.portersquarebooks.com/event/yvonne-daley-going-country

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  • Saturday, January 12, 9:00 am – 2:00 pm, and Wednesdays, January 16 – January 30, 3:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Nonvascular Herbarium Work Sessions

    The New England Botanical Club welcomes volunteers to help with curatorial work in the nonvascular herbarium of the NEBC. Listed below are the scheduled work sessions. If you would like to join us or have questions, please email Elizabeth Kneiper (Ekneiper@aol.com) or call 781-801-2734. We look forward to hearing from you! Weather and various other circumstances can force the sessions to be canceled or rescheduled, but volunteers will be notified.

    Wednesday, January 9, 2019 – 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
    Saturday, January 12, 2019 – 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
    Wednesday, January 16, 2019 – 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
    Wednesday, January 23, 2019 – 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
    Wednesday, January 30, 2019 – 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

    Type of work: Curatorial – replacing old packets, data basing, and inserting collections. A great chance to work with historic collections of New England lichens, bryophytes, algae, and fungi.

    Location: Farlow Herbarium, 22 Divinity Ave, Cambridge, MA.

  • Sunday, January 20, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Fruits and Seeds Revealed

    Plants need their seeds to move around so they can propagate the next generation. In this New England Wild Flower session on Sunday, January 20 from 10 – noon at Nasami Farm in Whately, participants learn how plants have adapted a variety of ways to disperse their seeds. After a lecture on seed and fruit structures, the class studies examples of some of the adaptations using hand lenses and microscopes. George LoCascio leads the session, which costs $26 for NEWFS members, $32 for nonmembers. Register at http://www.newenglandwild.org/learn/our-programs/fruits-and-seeds-revealed-1

  • Saturdays, January 26, February 9, and February 23, 8:30 am – 10:30 am – Smartphone Photography: Winter Landscapes Enhanced

    Saturdays, January 26, February 9, and February 23, 8:30 am – 10:30 am – Smartphone Photography: Winter Landscapes Enhanced

    Capture the essence of winter, when landscapes present a diluted palette of colors and contrasts are most striking. Professional photographer Nancy Katz will introduce fundamental concepts of landscape photography and then teach techniques for getting the best photographs from your smartphone camera. You will capture images in color and black and white, then learn to enhance them using a host of editing tools provided in the Snapseed App. (Note: Nancy Katz was selected by the Apple Store of Boston as a guest artist in March 2017 for her photography work with her iPhone and has taught her techniques there and most recently at Brandeis University’s Osher Life Long Learning Institute.) The three session, Arnold Arboretum class will take place Saturdays, January 26, February 9, and February 23 from 8:30 – 10:30. Fee Arboretum members $65, nonmembers $84. Register at my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.

  • Saturday, January 19, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm – Introduction to Botanical Art and Illustration

    Botanical artist Bobbi Angell will lead a class in botanical art and illustration on Saturday, January 19 from 9 – 4 at the Lyman Conservatory at the Smith College Botanic Garden, 16 College Lane in Northampton.  Free parking passes will be provided. Registration deadline is January 7. Learning to draw while learning to observe increases one’s knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of the world of plants. Botanical artist Bobbi Angell will guide participants through the process of creating an illustration that defines and depicts a particular species. Using pressed herbarium specimens and preserved flowers, participants will design a composition with a plant habit and dissected flowers and enlarged details, with a layout intended for publication or framing. Sketches can be inked or colored afterwards. Bring your hand lens, pencils and erasers; plant material and paper will be provided. The only prerequisites are curiosity and expandable interest in plants.

    Instructor Bobbi Angell draws plants for scientists at The New York Botanical Garden, Harvard University, and other institutions for floras and monographs. Ongoing work features illustrations of neotropical species new to science. To view her work, visit http://www.bobbiangell.com. She is co-author of A Botanist’s Vocabulary (Timber Press).

    Bobbi is the artist for the current logo for the New England Botanical Club. NEBC member price $30, nonmembers $60. Register at http://www.rhodora.org/whatsnew.html

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