Boston Flora

Month: October 2019

  • Friday, November 1, 7:30 pm – Space for Well-being: Japanese Spatial Concepts in Gardens and Architecture

    Why do we feel contemplative in Japanese gardens and architecture? Can our physical environment foster our mindfulness and well-being? Yoko Kawai, lecturer at Yale School of Architecture and co-founder of Mirai Work Space, discusses the mind-body-space relationship found in Japanese gardens and architecture that is instrumental to mindfulness. Japanese spatial concepts like ma (in-between-ness), utsuroi (transience) and yugen (the unknown) are examined as key concepts. Tea gardens and teahouses are introduced as traditional examples from which we can learn for the contemporary mindful environment. The event is the opening lecture of the Chrysanthemum Show in the Lyman Plant House and Conservatory at Smith College, and begins at 7 pm on November 1. The show will run from Sunday, November 2 – Sunday, November 17. Free and open to the public. For more information visit https://garden.smith.edu/events

    Yoko Kawai, PhD, is a lecturer at Yale School of Architecture. Her mission is to create “space for well-being” by utilizing the Japanese spatial concepts. She co-founded Mirai Work Space Alliance in New York to bring this idea to contemporary workplaces. She is also the cofounder and principal of Penguin Environmental Design in Hamden, CT, which focuses on incorporating landscape into architecture. Its works include a residential project that received CTC&G Award in 2015 and a Japanese garden at Frost Valley YMCA in 2014. Yoko has published articles in various scholarly journals, including Journal of Green Building and Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering.

  • Sunday, November 3 – Entomology Workshops: Pinning and Learning

    The Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street in Cambridge, will present three separate one hour Entomology Workshops in Pinning and Learning on Sunday, November 3, beginning at 10 am with instructor Mickey Alice Kwapis.

    The first session will work with butterflies. Learn about the anatomy and life cycles of insects and prepare your own beautiful butterfly specimen for display. Participants will explore the wild world of insects through a visit to the arthropod gallery, accompanied by an activity where you will learn to prepare and preserve a butterfly that you get to display in your home. Tools and illustrated instructions are provided for students to keep.

    The second session, from 11:15 – 12:15 will deal with Cicadas. Explore large tropical insects from an evolutionary standpoint with a hands-on look at gargantuan species. Utilizing sustainably sourced empress cicadas (8″+ wingspan), students will learn about insect development and anatomy by preparing and preserving specimens of their own. Each student will get to keep a set of illustrated instructions, tools, and their own finished specimen to display at home. With newfound knowledge, students will also get to explore the arthropod gallery to take in all of the subtle nuances of Earth’s invertebrate species.

    The third hour. from 1:00 – 2:00, deals with Atlas Beetles. Advance registration is required. The cost for the butterfly session is $35 for Museum members and $40 for nonmembers, and the Cicada and Atlas Beetle sessions are $45 for Museum members and $50 for nonmembers. Register at https://hmnh.harvard.edu/calendar/upcoming/event-audience/adults

    Cicada

  • Tuesday, November 5, 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Geniuses of Place Symposium

    Massachusetts Horticultural Society is thrilled to offer an afternoon of insight into Lancelot “Capability” Brown, Humphry Repton, and Frederick Law Olmsted, the people who became influencing factors and cultivated the foundation and appreciation of landscape design. Join us for an afternoon lecture series on the design principals of Brown, Repton, and Olmsted followed by a panel discussion. Facilitated by Ethan Carr, John Phibbs and local experts, the audience will have a chance to express their questions. Meet, mingle and enjoy the company of like-minded individuals at the reception following.  The event at The Gardens at Elm Bank will take place November 5 from 1 – 5, and is $85 for members, $100 for nonmembers. Register at www.masshort.org.

  • Friday, November 1, 7:00 pm – Fungipedia: A Brief Compendium of Mushroom Lore

    Local author Larry Millman presents his latest: an illustrated mini-encyclopedia of fungal lore, from John Cage and Terrence McKenna to mushroom sex and fairy rings. He will speak at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, on November 1 at 7 pm. For more information visit https://www.portersquarebooks.com/event/lawrence-millman-fungipedia

    Fungipedia presents a delightful A-Z treasury of mushroom lore. With more than 180 entries–on topics as varied as Alice in Wonderland, chestnut blight, medicinal mushrooms, poisonings, Santa Claus, and waxy caps–this collection will transport both general readers and specialists into the remarkable universe of fungi.

    Combining ecological, ethnographic, historical, and contemporary knowledge, author and mycologist Lawrence Millman discusses how mushrooms are much more closely related to humans than to plants, how they engage in sex, how insects farm them, and how certain species happily dine on leftover radiation, cockroach antennae, and dung. He explores the lives of individuals like African American scientist George Washington Carver, who specialized in crop diseases caused by fungi; Beatrix Potter, creator of Peter Rabbit, who was prevented from becoming a professional mycologist because she was a woman; and Gordon Wasson, a J. P. Morgan vice-president who almost single-handedly introduced the world to magic mushrooms. Millman considers why fungi are among the most significant organisms on our planet and how they are currently being affected by destructive human behavior, including climate change.

    With charming drawings by artist and illustrator Amy Jean Porter, Fungipedia offers a treasure trove of scientific and cultural information. The world of mushrooms lies right at your door–be amazed.

    Lawrence Millman is a mycologist and author of numerous books, including Our Like Will Not Be There Again, Last Places, Fascinating Fungi of New England, and At the End of the World. He has done mycological work in places as diverse as Greenland, Honduras, Iceland, Panama, the Canadian Arctic, Bermuda, and Fresh Pond in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he has documented 321 different species. Amy Jean Porter is an artist, illustrator, and naturalist. Her illustrated books include Of Lamb and The Artists’ and Writers’ Cookbook, and her artwork has appeared in such publications as McSweeney’s and The Awl.

  • Monday, October 28, 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm – Productive Resurgences: the Garden of the XXI Century

    Teresa Galí-Izard is a landscape architect who translates the hidden potential of places, exploring new languages that integrate living systems into design. She seeks to find a contemporary answer that includes non-humans and their life forms through exploring climate, geology, natural processes, dynamics and management. Hear her at Gund Hall Room 112 at the Harvard Graduate School of Design on October 28 at 12:30 pm (not noon as previously announced) for a free lecture, open to the public.

    Gali-Izard is Associate professor at the Harvard GSD. She was the chair of the department of landscape Architecture at University of Virginia 2013-2015, and is principal of ARQUITECTURA AGRONOMIA, a landscape architecture firm based in Barcelona since 2007. She has a large number of built projects in Spain such as Coastal Park,  Passeig de Sant Joan, and  Sant Joan Landfill restoration, in Barcelona  which won the European Urban Public Space award  in  2004. San Telmo Palace garden in Sevilla, Arriaga Lake in Vitoria, Odesa Park in Sabadell, Logroño Train Station park, Casabermeja Park in Malaga, Desierto Square in Bilbao, and Giner de los rios Garden in Madrid. Her latest projects are in London, Venezuela, Spain, Andorra, and Colombia.

    Galí-Izard is the author of The Same Landscapes. Ideas and Interpretations, published by Gustavo Gili in 2005.

    Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the events office at (617) 496-2414 or events@gsd.harvard.edu.

  • Saturday, October 26, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – The Light You Cannot See: Infrared Photography by Betsey Henkels

    Betsey Henkels uses the camera to explore the world in two ways–first by noticing and appreciating objects that she might otherwise overlook, and second, by transforming ordinary scenes into prints that are compelling and unexpected. To make these transformations, Henkels experimented with different techniques–she slowed down shutter speeds, threw subjects out of focus, tipped scenes upside down, and came in close.

    Then, she discovered infrared. Infrared is magical and mysterious. The photographer shoots images without knowing exactly what will show up in the print. Looking through the viewfinder of an infrared camera, only the light that’s visible to the eye is seen–not the “near infrared” light that the camera records. Henkels spent many hours in the Arboretum, photographing tree canopies, bark, and above ground roots, hoping to capture their spirits. She photographed them in infrared, which show green as white, darkens the sky, and makes clouds prominent. Strange colors are introduced, and a different fresh and surprising world of Arnold Arboretum trees is opened up, even to those of us who know and love them.

    This Arnold Arboretum exhibition in the Hunnewell building runs from October 25 – February 2, with an opening reception on October 26 from 1 – 3. Free and open to the public. For more information visit www.arboretum.harvard.edu.

  • Saturday, October 26, 9:30 am – 12:00 noon – The Art and Science of Mushrooms

    Learn about the science of mushrooms through observations of local fungi, and then try your hand at capturing different mushroom types. Artist and educator, Erica Beade, will introduce techniques for achieving more accuracy, volume, and texture in drawings, while Harvard scientist James Mitchell will provide an overview of local mushrooms based on specimens in hand. This Harvard Museum of Natural History program takes place Saturday, October 26 from 9:30 – 12 at the Museum at 26 Oxford Street in Cambridge. $55 Museum members/$60 nonmembers Click here: Advance registration required.

  • Saturday, October 26, 10:00 am – 11:30 pm – Dig, Divide, and Store: Dahlias After Summer

    On October 26 from 10 – 11:30, join Donna Lane, past president of the New England and Rhode Island Dahlia Societies, for a hands-on workshop where you will learn when and how to dig your dahlias, how to divide your underground treasures, and the various methods of storing them over the winter months. The class will take place at The Gardens at Elm Bank, 900 Washington Street in Wellesley. Mass Hort Members $12 / Non-Members $20. Register at https://masshort.org/education-events/dig-divide-store-dahlias-after-summer-2/

  • Sunday, November 3, 12:45 pm – 3:45 pm – Bark: Get to Know Your Trees

    Tower Hill Botanic Garden will host a lecture on November 3 from 12:45 – 3:45 with Michael Wojtech. Tower Hill members $42, nonmembers $56. Register at www.towerhillbg.org

    The traits typically used to describe trees-leaves, twigs, and buds-are often hard to see or seasonally absent. Join Michael for this indoor presentation and outdoor exploration of bark, which is always visible, in any season. As you hone your perceptive abilities you will learn about a system for identifying tree species by their bark, and discover why such a variety of bark characteristics exist. Why do some species have smooth bark, while on others it is thick and broken? Why does bark peel?

    Michael Wojtech is the author of Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast. As a naturalist and educator, Michael strives to share the science and wonder of trees in an accessible and compelling fashion. He writes, photographs, illustrates, and presents programs about the structure, growth processes, and ecology of trees-including their bark, buds, leaves, roots, and wood-for audiences at all levels of experience. He is especially interested in the process of discovery and engagement, and draws his greatest inspiration from sharing the sense of wonder, awe, and the recognition of beauty that result from these investigations.

     

  • 2019 Kickoff Announcement: Holiday Wreath Sale is Back!

    Very soon our Club members and past purchasers will receive the 2019 Holiday Wreath Order Form in the mail. We mail early, in October, to encourage you to check one holiday task off your list in a timely manner. Our annual benefit sale helps fund our participation in all the good projects we undertake, including pruning street trees and inoculating trees against disease. We help maintain public garden spaces around Commonwealth Avenue Mall statues and along edges of the Public Garden, in conjunction with The Friends of the Public Garden. We contribute to dozens of area-wide not for profit organizations, helping them manage and care for their public spaces. Monthly meetings, open to the public, educate the community and bring awareness to the serious ecological and climate problems of the day. Our second website, www.backbaytrees.org, keeps a record of every tree in the Back Bay, and serves to help the City of Boston in its public planning process. In the coming weeks you will hear about some of our endeavors in greater detail, but for now we encourage you to order from us, and consider giving wreaths as holiday gifts as well. If you are not on the mailing list for our order form, email info@bostonflora.com, or leave a message at 617-859-8865 and we’ll get one out to you. You may also order online at https://bostonflora.com/shop.