Boston Flora

Month: February 2019

  • Saturday, March 2, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Cultivating the Designer’s Mind

    Long in production, Cultivating the Designers Mind — Principles and Process of Coherent Landscape Design, is a culmination of sixty years of studying, teaching and practicing landscape design. While the book is intended for all land-related professions, landscape architects, architects, planners and engineers, it is both accessible to and useful for all audiences. By personal experience, its principles and processes are widely applicable to much of common life. Highly illustrated with real world examples, this book includes Walter’s compelling watercolor landscape paintings, and focuses on the thinking process at the various stages of a design project. It concludes with ten of the most pervasive and widely applicable design principles. This Berkshire Botanical Garden talk on March 2 from 10 – noon will share some of the sources of personal inspiration, discovered principles, and insights made in capturing on paper the elusive task called designing. There will be ample time for planned audience engagement and questions and answers in the one hour talk.

    Walter Cudnohufsky, M.L.A., is a long-time dedicated teacher. Having founded and for 20 years directed the nationally acclaimed Conway (MA) School of Landscape Design, he has honed a reasoned approach to planning design. Currently his firm is engaged in many diverse and stimulating planning/design projects throughout the region. BBG members $10, nonmembers $15. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/cultivating-designer%E2%80%99s-mind

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  • Wednesday, March 6, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Sugar, Sex, and Poison: Understanding the Vital Powers of Plants

    Wednesday, March 6, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Sugar, Sex, and Poison: Understanding the Vital Powers of Plants

    Are we humans masters of our world, or are plants really the ones in charge? What they lack in locomotion, they compensate for in structure and chemistry. Celebrated author and botanist Bill Cullina, Executive Director, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, will explain why plant life is at the center of a carefully balanced natural economy that is critical to the functioning of our ecosystems. Through photosynthesis, plants produce the energy that powers the food chain. And although eaten by others, they are far from helpless prey, having evolved a dizzying arsenal of relationships to create ecologically sound landscapes. The free Grow Native Massachusetts lecture will take place March 6 at 7 pm at the Cambridge Public Library,449 Broadway in Cambridge.

    William Cullina is the author of many celebrated books about native plants, including the well-known trio: Growing and Propagating Wildflowers; Native Trees, Shrubs, and Vines; and Native Ferns, Moss & Grasses.

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  • Thursday & Friday, April 11 & 12 – Gardening Study School Course 2, Series 11

    The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts will present Gardening Study School Course 2, Series 11 on Thursday and Friday, April 11 and 12, at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive in Boylston. On Thursday, Laura Eisner, landscape architect, will speak on Plant Diseases and Garden Pests, and horticulturist Joann Vieira will cover growing fruits and vegetables. On Friday, Betty Sanders, Master Gardener, will discuss Lawn Alternatives & Growing Grass along with Irrigation & Water. Nancy Hubert, gardening consultant, will speak on Plant Hunters. Suggested reading is Botany for Gardeners by Brian Capon. Registration deadline is March 16. For further information  contact Linda Jean Smith at lindajean.smith@comcast.net, or call 978-256-3101. Registration form may be printed by clicking here.

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  • Saturday, March 9 – Sunday, March 10, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm – Artists in Bloom

    The Canton Garden Club, in conjunction with the Canton Public Schools, will hold their biennial ARTISTS IN BLOOM on March 9 and 10 from 10 – 5 at Pequitside Farm, 79 Pleasant St., Canton. This event features student’s artworks from grades 1-12 with 30 of the pieces will be interpreted in flowers by Canton Garden Club members. $5 entrance fee.
    For more information contact Joan Marie Driscoll at cantongcmembership@gmail.com or call 781-821-5500.

  • Saturday, March 2, 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Winter’s End: A Feast to Celebrate the Transition of the Seasons

    Eating seasonally can get a little tricky in the time between the seasons. On March 2 from 2 – 5 at Berkshire Botanical Garden, join cookbook author Alana Chernila for meal to the transition from winter to spring with a menu from her three cookbooks. This will be a hands-on class, so push up your sleeves and get ready to make Winter Borscht, Herb and Goat Cheese Popovers, Radicchio and Chickpeas with Creamy Lemon Dressing, and Baked Apples with Maple Ice Cream. We’ll discuss how to find and store the best vegetables, as well as tricks to bring out the best in every root and leaf. We’ll wrap it up with a light meal together, to truly celebrate the bounty of the Berkshires.

    Alana Chernila is the author of three books: The Homemade Pantry, The Homemade Kitchen, and Eating From the Ground Up: Recipes for Simple, Perfect, Vegetables. She also writes, cooks, teaches cooking and cheese making, and blogs at EatingFromTheGroundUp.com. Alana is the Marketing and Special Events Manager for Guido’s Fresh Marketplace in Great Barrington and Pittsfield.  Sponsored by Guido’s Fresh Marketplace. $45 for BBG members, $55 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/winters-end-feast-celebrate-transition-seasons

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  • Tuesdays, March 5 – April 16, 5:30 pm – 8:30 pm – Landscape Design I

    This Berkshire Botanical Garden course, given in conjunction with Berkshire Community College, meets for 7 weeks at the Education Center at Berkshire Botanical Garden on Tuesdays, March 5 – April 16, 5:30 – 8:30 pm.

    This design course will introduce students to the design process—the systematic way designers approach a site and client. The course will include a series of simple projects that will end with a garden designed by the students. Learn design principles such as form, balance, repetition, line, texture, color, and spatial relationships. Additionally, students will be introduced to history and how it helps the designer resolve and inspire garden design. As the adage goes, we cannot escape our history so we have to understand where we came from.

    Instructor: David Dew Bruner, A.S.L.A., is an award-winning landscape architect and fine artist with over 35 years of experience ranging from Deputy Administrator of Riverside Park, NYC, to amusement park design, historical restoration and all scales of residential design. Originally from New Orleans, he has a B.L.A. and a B.F.A. from LSU as well as an M.L.A. from the University of Massachusetts.

    BBG Members: $300, Non-Members: $325. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/landscape-design-i

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  • Saturday, March 9, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm, and Sunday, March 10, 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Needham’s Art in Bloom

    Beth Shalom Garden Club presents Needham’s Art in Bloom on Saturday, March 9, from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm and Sunday, March 10, 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm at the Needham Public Library, 1139 Highland Ave, Needham Heights. Now in it’s 11th year, award winning Needham’s Art in Bloom will return by popular demand. There will be 75+ displays of Needham High School creative student artwork with colorful floral interpretations by Beth Shalom Garden Club members with participants from Kalmia and Needham garden clubs too. The free event is generously sponsored by Roche Bros. and Shark/Ninja. For more information visit http://www.needhamartinbloom.com/

  • Thursday, March 7, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Get Ready! The Spring Garden

    On March 7 at 7 pm at The Gardens at Elm Bank, 900 Washington Street in Wellesley, Garden Speaker Cheryl Monroe will cover important topics of the season such as: what to prune now and why, tool sharpening (demonstration and bring yours too!), flower bed cleanup and evaluation, transplanting, lawn care, pest control (voles, winter moth, and scale), houseplant basics, bulb care, and bare root plants.

    Get through this busy season informed, prepared, and ready for whatever Mother Nature throws your way. The Massachusetts Horticultural Society lecture is $12 for Mass Hort members. $20 general admission. For more information visit http://masshort.org

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  • Friday, March 1, 6:45 pm – Floristic and Climate Change on Mount Desert Island, Maine

    Dr. Nancy M. Eyster-Smith, Associate Professor Emerita, Bentley University, Waltham, Massachusetts, will address the New England Botanical Club on Friday, March 1 at 6:45 pm in the Haller Lecture Hall (Room 102) of the Geological Museum, 24 Oxford Street in Cambridge, on Celebrating Edward Lothrop Rand, NEBC Corresponding Secretary for 25 Years. Additionally, Dr. Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie, Postdoc, Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, Orono, Maine will address Floristic and Climate Change on Mount Desert Island, Maine, from the Champlain Society to Acadia National Park’s Centennial. Free and open to the public. For more information visit http://rhodora.org.

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  • Nature’s Superheroes – Life at the Limits

    Many extraordinary species have developed unique (and often weird!) “superpowers” to overcome the challenges threatening their survival. This Museum of Science captivating temporary exhibition (open now) lets you discover bizarre mating serenades, explore a mysterious cave environment where animals live without eyes, and investigate how a giant elephant seal can hold its breath for nearly two hours while diving a mile to find food.

    Nature’s Superheroes: Life at the Limits offers a fascinating lens on the breathtaking diversity of the natural world and the incredible power of evolution to shape exceptional responses to the challenges, and opportunities, of life on Earth. Multi-sensory experiences, immersive scenic displays, and hands-on interactive components bring exceptional creatures to life!

    Nature’s Superheroes: Life at the Limits is organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York, and sponsored by Bank of America. Free with admission. For more information visit https://www.mos.org/exhibits/natures-superheroes

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