Boston Flora

Month: April 2020

  • Monday, April 20, 2020 – Thursday, April 15, 2021 – Designing with Native Plants – CANCELLED

    This Native Plant Trust online course teaches the basics of designing with native plants and shows how to incorporate native plants into the garden and landscape. Discover the variety of native plants found throughout New England and learn how to design a visually interesting landscape that also supports biodiversity. You can complete the course at your own pace. Access begins April 20 and runs through April 15, 2021. $80 for NPT members, $98 for nonmembers. Register at http://www.nativeplanttrust.org/events/designing-native-plants-1/

  • Saturday, April 25, 9:00 am – 12:00 noon – Annual Muddy River Cleanup of Charlesgate – POSTPONED

    Join the Emerald Necklace Conservancy and partners throughout the Charles River watershed for the Annual Charles River/Muddy River Cleanup on Saturday, April 25, from 9 – noon. 

    Give back to your community and enjoy the beauty and wildlife of the Emerald Necklace parks while picking up litter, removing invasive species and assisting with park maintenance.

    Registration for the Muddy River Cleanup is open. All volunteers must indicate their preferred park on the on line form. All non-profit, family and individual volunteers must indicate the size of their volunteer group. A donation of $5 per volunteer is requested for non-profit, family and individual volunteers.

    Please contact Julia Damiano, Land Stewardship Coordinator, with any questions.

    Register on line at https://www.emeraldnecklace.org/event/mrc2020/

  • Saturday, April 11, 11:30 am – 2:00 pm – Dahlia Tuber Sale and Q & A – CANCELLED

    The New England Dahlia Society’s expert growers return to Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive in Boylston, on Saturday, April 11 from 11:30 – 2 to sell tubers and answer all of your dahlia questions. Learn how to plant dahlias, watch them grow over the summer, and bring your blooms back to Tower Hill for the annual Dahlia Show, September 26-27. Free with admission to the Garden. For more information visit http://towerhillbg.org.

    Image result for dahlia flower

  • Thursday, April 9, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm – Caring for Carnivorous Plants – CANCELLED

    Are you interested in pitcher plants, Venus fly traps, and sundews, but unsure how to care for one at home? Come to Tower Hill Botanic Garden on April 9 at 6:30 pm and learn carnivorous plant care techniques from Dave Sackett, the President of the New England Carnivorous Plant Society.

    The NECPS was founded in 2003 by John Phillip Jr. and their first meeting was held in Providence, RI. Since then the group has met monthly to talk about a shared passion for carnivorous plants. Tower Hill members $15, nonmembers $20. Register at www.towerhillbg.org

  • Thursday, April 30, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Charlesgate in Bloom – Cancelled

    The 3rd Annual Charlesgate in Bloom benefit for the Charlesgate Alliance will take place on April 30 from 6 – 8 in The Somerset Lobby, 400 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston.

    This memorable evening for the Charlesgate community will feature wine, signature cocktails, hors-d’oeuvre, a silent auction and music.

    RSVP is required on or before April 30th. Cost per ticket is $90 (and up – sponsorships are available) and benefits The Charlesgate Alliance.

    A portion of the proceeds will be used to employ Project Place to clean the Park. To purchase tickets, click here.

  • Tuesdays, May 5 – 26, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm – Spring Studio Focus – Cancelled

    Sarah Roche helps you capture some of spring’s most beautiful specimens in watercolor, in a four session course on Tuesdays, May 5, 12, 19, and 26, from 9:30 – 12:30 in the Cheney classroom at Elm Bank, 900 Washington Street in Wellesley. Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens members $195, nonmembers $245. Register at 781-283-3094, or email wcbgfriends@wellesley.edu.

  • Wednesday, April 15, 1:00 pm – Webinar: Pollinator Ecology

    On Wednesdays at noon, Ecological Landscape Alliance invites you on A Walk in the Garden, a virtual weekly diversion as we adjust to the restrictions that the COVID-19 virus has forced onto our lives.

    Presented as free webinars to gardeners everywhere, these presentations invite garden and landscape experts to share gardening tips, beautiful images, and inspiration. We hope anyone who is isolating, quarantining, or sheltering-in-place will find comfort and collective strength with a communal walk in the garden.

    On April 15 at 1 pm EDT, join Rebecca McMackin on a virtual walk on Pollinator Ecology. Many of the plants you grow have, at the very least, one pollinator partner who helped shape the evolution of their flowers and distribution. From bees, to butterflies, to birds, to bats, pollinating animals are responsible for much of the fruits and vegetables we rely on. On this virtual walk, you will learn the basics of pollination ecology as well as how to maximize food production by encouraging both native and exotic pollinators. Yes, we will discuss honey bees, but we will also cover the exciting world of tomato buzz pollination, the rotten world of fly pollination, and the beautiful life of the squash bee. By the end of the day, you will be able to “read” flowers and come to know the true desires of the organisms you cultivate. Register at www.ecolandscaping.org.

    Rebecca McMackin is Director of Horticulture at Brooklyn Bridge Park in Brooklyn, NY. She is an ecologically obsessed horticulturist and garden designer. By day, she is the Director of Horticulture for Brooklyn Bridge Park, where she manages 85 acres of diverse parkland organically and with an eye towards habitat creation for birds, butterflies, and soil microorganisms. In her imaginary free time, Rebecca writes about landscape management and pollination ecology, as well as designs the occasional garden. She sits on the boards of Metro Hort Group and Ecological Landscape Alliance, and is a NOFA-certified Landcare Professional as well as an ISA-certified Arborist.

  • Saturday, April 25, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm – 33rd Annual Sheepshearing Festival: Postponed

    Gore Place, 52 Gore Street in Waltham, will hold its 33rd Annual Sheepshearing Festival on Saturday, April 25, from 10 – 5. Enjoy demonstrations of sheep-shearing, herding dogs, spinning, weaving, and gardening, on a beautiful 50-acre estate. There will be a large (more than 70 vendors) crafts fair, live entertainment, historic demonstrators, games and farm animals. Wagon rides and museum tours are available (additional charge).

    Shepherd Dave Kennard and his border collies are always among the main attractions. Once again, Dave will demonstrate how the collies control a flock of sheep by following a complex series of whistled commands. Every year, when the collies finally coax the flock through the obstacle course and into the pen, the audience gives the dogs a big round of applause!

    Master shearer Kevin Ford will demonstrate the traditional way of shearing sheep with hand-shears. Kevin is one of the few shearers still practicing this art and it’s a special think to see.

    Musicians, historic re-enactors, a puppeteer, traditional dancers, and performers from Circus Smirkus will entertain crowds throughout the day.

    Admission is $20 adults and teens; children 12 and under (with adult) and Gore Place members are free. Food vendors on site. Free parking. No dogs or other pets allowed. For more information visit www.goreplace.org. There will be an additional charge for wagon rides and house tours.

  • Tuesday, April 21, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm – Hashim Sarkis – Cancelled

    Hashim Sarkis is an architect, educator, and scholar. He is principal of Hashim Sarkis Studios (HSS), established in 1998 with offices in Boston and Beirut. In 2015, Sarkis became Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He will speak at the Harvard Graduate School of Design on Oxford Street in Cambridge on April 21 beginning at 6:30 pm in the Piper Auditorium in Gund Hall. Free and open to the public.

    Before joining MIT, Sarkis was the Aga Khan Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism at Harvard University. He has also taught at the Rhode Island School of Design, Yale University, the Ameircan University of Beirut, and the Metropolis Program in Barcelona.

    The architectural and urban projects of HSS include affordable housing, houses, parks, institutional buildings, urban design, and town planning. HSS has received several awards for its projects including for the Housing of the Fishermen of Tyre, Byblos Town Hall, and the Courtower Houses. The firm’s work has been exhibited around the world, including at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and at the biennales of Venice, Rotterdam, Shenzhen/Hong Kong, and Valparaiso. The work has also been published extensively, most recently in a monograph by Ness.docs. He recently was appointed curator of the 17th International Architecture Exhibition at the 2020 Venice Biennale.

    Sarkis earned a Bachelor of Architecture and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design, and a Master of Architecture and a PhD in Architecture from Harvard University. He is author, co-author, and editor of several books and articles on modern architecture history and theory, including The World as an Architectural Project; Josep Lluis Sert, The Architect of Urban Design; Circa 1958, Lebanon in the Projects and Plans of Constantinos Doxiadis; and Le Corbusier’s Venice Hospital.

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

    © Bryce Vickmark. All rights reserved. http://www.vickmark.com 617.448.6758

  • Saturdays, April 18, April 25, and May 2, 9:30 am – 11:30 am – The Art of Botanical Drawing – Postponed

    Explore the beauty and variety of plant forms using pencil, watercolor, and colored pencil. This three-session Harvard Museum of Natural History course will introduce botanical drawing techniques through close observation and practice with contour, gesture, foreshortening, shading, and color. All skill levels are welcome. Instructor: Erica Beade. Fees: $180 HMNH members/$198 nonmembers. Advance Registration required at  www.hmnh.harvard.edu. Classes meet at 26 Oxford Street in Cambridge on April 18, 25, and May 2, from 9:30 – 11:30.