Boston Flora

Month: May 2020

  • Tuesdays – Fridays through June 19, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon and 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Family Planting Days

    Join Peabody Essex Museum’s Head Gardener Robin Pydynkowski for a unique hands-on gardening experience. With over an acre of land for safe social distancing, the Ropes Mansion Garden provides an opportunity to connect with nature, learn about planting, and help beautify one of Salem’s historic outdoor spots. Participating families will be assigned a section of an annual bed to plant with the freedom to create their own design, all while learning the basics of gardening!

    To ensure safe distancing, each two-hour planting session is limited to two families (with a maximum of four individuals per group) and face masks are required. No experience or tools are necessary, just bring a willingness to dig in and get your hands dirty. Everyone is welcome back this summer to visit the garden to see and savor the flowers of their labors.

    In this unique outdoor classroom experience, students will:

    • Use their senses to explore and investigate the world around them.
    • Learn about parts of plants and their functions: roots, seeds, leaves, stems and flowers.
    • Discover tips for proper spacing and how to “place and face” the plants for the best presentation as to how they will be viewed.

    Location: Ropes Mansion Garden, 318 Essex St., Salem
    Free for all; Recommended for ages 5 and up
    Limited number of spaces available
    To register or if you have questions, please email ticketing@pem.org or call 978-238-0410. Please include your preference of date and time in your email.

  • Thursday, June 4, 4:00 pm – Introduction to Invasive Plants Webinar

    What makes a plant “invasive”? What invasive plants should we be concerned about? Join North County Land Trust’s Executive Director, Anna Wilkins, on June 4 online at 4 pm Eastern as she shares her knowledge and experience in managing invasive plant species in woodland and field habitats. This presentation will cover the basics about invasive plants and how to ID some of our most common “offenders”. Basic control techniques and informational resources will also be shared.
    For more information and to register please visit https://northcountylandtrust.org/events/invasiveswebinar

  • Saturday, June 6, 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm Pickup, 6:30 – 8:00 pm Virtual Dinner

    The Boston Community Gardens team wants to bring the taste of spring to you in your homes! We have curated a vegetarian menu featuring some of the best early spring treats – tender greens, herbs, vegetables, and flowers.

    On Saturday, June 6th, you come pick up your bundle of ingredients, at the SW Corridor Community Garden in JP*. That evening, you will be invited to a live Zoom cooking class where we prepare the menu together.

    Menu:

    • Violet syrup soda (can be made into a cocktail)
    • Farrow salad with assorted garden fresh micro greens, spring roots, feta, and chive blossom vinaigrette
    • Spring vegetable frittata
    • Blossom shortbread and foraged floral tea

    Staples required: cooking oil, milk/yogurt (dairy or non dairy), salt & pepper

    (*if this pick up location is not workable for you, please let us know) This event was rescheduled for June 6 so please disregard any page when registering that says May 30. Trustees members $34, nonmembers $42. Contact 617-233-1743, or email arabiyah@thetrustees.org. Register at http://www.thetrustees.org/things-to-do/metro-boston/event-55993.html

  • The World’s Oldest Living Things TED Talk

    What do you think is the oldest living thing on Earth? Tortoises, clams, the dirt under your feet? Artist Rachel Sussman has a few suggestions that you might not have even thought of. We thank Emma Witbeck of Tower Hill Botanic Garden for locating this fascinating TED Talk, which can be accessed at http://www.oldestlivingthings.com/

  • The Secret Language of Trees TED Talk

    Ever since Tower Hill hosted the Growbots exhibition back in October 2019, Marketing and Communications Assistant Emma Witbeck has been thinking about how plants communicate. Well, Camille Defrenne and Suzanne Simard provide the answer for trees, animated into a wholesome video that shows how connected a forest really is. Watch at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4m9SefyRjg

  • Tuesday, June 23, 10:30 am – 12:00 noon – Explore the Teaching Herb Garden

    Susan Leigh Anthony and Lucy Dean, members of The New England Unit of the Herb Society of America, will lead a program in The Teaching Herb Garden at The G3 from 10:30 – noon. They will point out several of their favorite plants, and share stories and methods of harvesting, history, lore and plant uses.

    The Teaching Herb Garden is divided into theme beds, which radiate from the center and include: fragrance, dye, culinary, native American, medicinal, edible plants and flowers, and a Colonial theme garden. A collection of Salvia plants was added in 2006. Along one side, a rectangular bed is planted with sweet violets and groundcover plants. On the opposite side of the garden, we feature the “Herb of the Year.” Another bed features an Ecumenical Garden. The plants in this garden have religious or symbolic importance in the five major religions, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism. On either side of the teaching arbor, the beds are overflowing with roses and lavender and the perennial border is a visual delight. Planter/benches hold fragrant herbs that welcome visitors to touch and feel and to also smell the herbs.

    The Massachusetts Horticultural Society hopes you can join us for this program highlighting one of our most interesting gardens led by the people who maintain and care for it. At the end of the talk there will be a brief Herb Search for attendees. $15 for Mass Hort members, $25 for nonmembers. Register at http://masshort.org, or call 617-933-4973.

    Image result for Teaching Herb Garden Mass Hort

  • How To Grow a Forest in Your Backyard

    The second in Tower Hill Botanic Garden’s recommendations for plant themed TED talks is How To Grow a Forest in Your Backyard. If you are looking for something beyond just a small, sporadic garden, why not grow an entire forest! Engineer and eco-entrepenuer Shubhendu Sharma has turned forest creation into a career and an art, but anyone can start their own wooded paradise with a little helping hand from Mother Nature. Forests don’t have to be far-flung nature reserves, isolated from human life. Instead, we can grow them right where we are — even in cities. Eco-entrepreneur and TED Fellow Shubhendu Sharma grows ultra-dense, biodiverse mini-forests of native species in urban areas by engineering soil, microbes and biomass to kickstart natural growth processes. Follow along as he describes how to grow a 100-year-old forest in just 10 years, and learn how you can get in on this tiny jungle party. Visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjUsobGWhs8

  • Sunday, June 7, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Collections Up Close: Vines Take the Stage

    Vines twine and twirl, grasp and cling, as well as offer beautiful flowers and unique fruits. Join the Arnold Arboretum on June 7 at 1 pm for a tour with Leventritt Shrub and Vine Arboretum Horticulturalist, Greg LaPlume, to hear about the Arboretum’s variety of vines, their maintenance, and those that would work well in your own garden. There will also be family activities to discover these special members of our woody plant collections. 

    Additional details to come.

    This is a drop in activity. The event will be taking place in the Leventritt Shrub and Vine Garden. Street parking is available on Arborway Road.

    In case of inclement weather, contact 617.384.5209. As with all activities scheduled in this age of Covid-19, please call in the event this event must be cancelled.

    Clematis ‘Westerplatte’ 334-2006*A

  • Wednesday, June 3, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm – Let Them Eat Flowers: The Gardens of Paris Webinar

    Paris gardens were originally inspired by the classical and romantic styles found in Italy and England. Over the past two hundred years, designers have created a uniquely Parisian look to the gardens, as they have become a cultural way of life. Today, Paris boasts of more than 400 private and public gardens, each one appreciated for its distinct place in the fabric of the city.

    The Ecological Landscape Association online tour will begin with such well-known parks as Luxembourg, Tuileries and Bagatelle, smaller gardens such as Monceau, Rodin, and Carnavalet, and also a few surprises such as Promenade du Plantee, Hotel du Sully and Mosque du Paris. In Paris, a park is almost never a mere plot of grass reserved for leisure, and a garden is rarely a random selection of flowers and plants. Parisians pride themselves in making their city’s parks and gardens places of elegance, artistic detail, and symmetry– even the romantic gardens have been carefully planned to imitate nature.

    CeCe Haydock graduated from Princeton University (BA English) and received a master’s degree in landscape architecture from the SUNY School of Environmental Science and Forestry. After working for the New York City Parks Department, she joined the firm, Innocenti and Webel in Locust Valley, NY, before starting her private practice. In 2007, she did research as a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy in Rome on Edith Wharton and Italian villas. She has lectured and written on historic Italian, French, and American gardens for Old Westbury Gardens, Maryland’s Ladew Topiary Gardens, Princeton University, and numerous garden and horticultural clubs. A trustee of Planting Fields Arboretum and a member of the International Council of The Preservation Society of Newport County and a visiting lecturer at the New York Botanic Garden. CeCe is currently expanding her private practice to include landscape sustainability.

    The free online tour will take place June 3 at noon Eastern time, and you may register at https://www.ecolandscaping.org/event/webinar-let-them-eat-flowers-the-gardens-of-paris/

  • Thursday, June 4, 5:30 pm – 8:00 pm – Gardening for Butterflies and Moths

    Learn how to attract butterflies and moths to your garden and cater to their unique lifecycle requirements in this Arnold Arboretum June 4 program focused exclusively on lepidopteran-friendly gardening techniques. Colin McCallum-Cook will describe the food plants required by caterpillars, the flowers needed to provide nectar, and importantly, the habitat requirements for successful overwintering of cocoons in the garden. The session will take place in the Hunnewell Building from 5:30 – 8:00 and is $25 for Arboretum members, $32 for nonmembers.

    Lepidopteran conservation in New England is more important than ever, as many formerly common species are now threatened with extirpation.

    Colin McCallum-Cook will also show you how to use citizen science applications to monitor species in your garden and contribute valuable data to the cause of lepidopteran conservation. To register call 617-384-5277, or visit http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu. As with all programs scheduled in this age of Covid-19, please call in advance to confirm the course will be able to be held as scheduled.