Boston Flora

Month: April 2021

  • Tuesday, April 20, 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm – Finding Vanished Beningbroughs, Online

    Beningbrough Hall, 8 miles north of York, appears to the archetypal Baroque house, set in seemingly timeless, unchanging, parkland to match. However, over 30 years of National Trust archaeological research has and continues gradually to reveal how far that perception is from the truth, rediscovering the splendors and mysteries of medieval, Stuart and Georgian Beningbroughs no longer visible to the eye. Long term archaeological research, partly on its own merits but mainly arising from mitigation for the impacts of standard operational property needs, is the only available key to unlock the past of this estate with virtually no surviving archives.

    This ticket is for this individual session and costs £5, and you may purchase tickets for other individual sessions or you may purchase a ticket through Eventbrite for the entire course of 5 sessions at a cost of £20 via the link here.

    Mark Newman M.A., M.C.I.f.A, F.S.A., is the National Trust’s Archaeological Consultant for the east side of its North region, helping to advise and support the conservation of National Trust properties between Berwick and the boundaries of Great Manchester. He was first employed by the Trust on the project building the visitor centre at Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal in 1988 and has advised (as well as avidly explored) the property ever since. Mark’s work for the National Trust covers an enormous range of development and research projects spread across approximately 75 properties, many concerned with the archaeology of parks and gardens. The long-term perspective of the organization sets the scene for developing an exceptionally curious and accumulative research approach, put to full use in advising conservation.

  • Wednesday, April 21, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm – Unforgettable Gardens, Wales: Aberglasney, Online

    Aberglasney first captured the public imagination in 1999 when the TV series A Garden Lost in Time documented the rediscovery of the structures of a cloister garden dating from 1600, hidden and forgotten beneath a jungle of weeds. Once the archaeologists and historians had done their digging, the gardening could begin. With the new century Aberglasney has blossomed into one of Wales’ finest gardens. Around its historic core, the garden is making history with inspired and innovative planting and design, embracing sound ecological principles. Truly ‘a heritage garden of excellence’.

    This ticket is for this individual session and costs £5, and you may purchase tickets for other individual sessions via the links below, or you may purchase a ticket for the entire National Trust course of 4 sessions through Eventbrite at a cost of £16 via the link here.

    Penny David read history at Oxford and worked as a publisher’s editor in London, specializing in books on plants and gardens. In 1986 she returned to her Lampeter roots to work freelance, and soon became an active member of the Ceredigion branch of Welsh Historic Gardens Trust. She is author of A Garden Lost in Time ,about Aberglasney, two TV tie-ins accompanying Chris Beardshaw’s Hidden Gardens series and, most recently, Rooted in History: Celebrating Carmarthenshire’s Parks and Gardens (2017).

  • Wednesday, April 21, 12:00 noon – 1:00 pm – Creating Community with Our Insect Neighbors, Online

    Dr. Nancy Lee Adamson, East Region Senior Pollinator Conservation Specialist, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. Nancy supports habitat restoration on farms and in communities as a partner biologist with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Greensboro, NC. She loves sharing her passion for native plants and all the wildlife they support. She earned a PhD in entomology from Virginia Tech and an MS in natural resource sciences from the University of Maryland. Along with work inventorying natural areas, collecting native seeds, propagating native plants, and restoring riparian habitat, she was a farm hand at Wheatland Vegetable Farms, taught handicapped children in Tunisia with the Peace Corps, and helped the Itza-Maya protect their communal forest in Petén, Guatemala.

    Join Nancy and the Ecological Landscape Alliance on April 21 at noon online to learn about common insects in our communities and how to support them. Nancy will highlight the difference between solitary and social wasps and bees, “beneficial” insects in agriculture, and ways we can support insects in our neighborhoods and broader communities. While most of us are familiar with host plants for butterfly caterpillar specialists, she will also highlight plants and their specialist bees in the hope that you will help better document them via iNaturalist.org and Bugguide.net. Free to ELA members, $10 nonmembers. Register at www.ecolandscaping.org

  • Wednesday, April 21, 12:00 noon – 1:00 pm – The Science and Art of Tomato Culture Online

    Wednesday, April 21, 12:00 noon – 1:00 pm – The Science and Art of Tomato Culture Online

    For the last century the tomato has been America’s favorite garden vegetable–actually a fruit. Gardeners still have many questions about planting, feeding, watering, pruning and supporting their tomato plants. In addition new tomato health problems have challenged the grower. This Tower Hill Botanic Garden online program on April 21 from 12 – 1 will offer information and inspiration for growing this very popular plant.

    Christie Higginbottom has worked as a costumed interpreter at Old Sturbridge Village since 1981. From 1984 to 2004 she coordinated the historic horticulture program researching, planning and planting the re-created kitchen and flower gardens at the museum’s historic households. She also supervised the Village’s Herb Garden collection, a garden exhibiting over 300 varieties of historic herbs. From 2004 to 2006 she researched and developed a series of self-guided walking trails interpreting people and the environment in the early 1800s. She researched and designed the 2007-2009 exhibit “Taking Root: Gardening in Pots in the early 1800s.” Now retired from full-time work at OSV, she continues to work in costume part-time and to present garden programs for the Village. This program will be held virtually. Once you register you will receive a zoom link in the confirmation.

    This webinar will also be RECORDED and available for 1 month to all registrants. $10 for Tower Hill members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at www.towerhillbg.org

  • Monday, April 19, 1:00 pm – 12:30 pm – Historic Landscapes for All: Learning to Share, Online

    The second in a 10-part lecture of the Gardens Trust series, celebrating the voices beginning to be heard, online once a week on Mondays, may be heard April 19 at 1 pm Eastern.

    From 2018-20 the Gardens Trust ran a Lottery-funded project called Sharing Repton: Historic Landscapes for All. This helped us learn how to engage new and diverse people with historic parks and gardens but was only a small part of a much longer journey. This ticket which may be purchased through Eventbrite is for this individual session and costs £5, and you may purchase tickets for other individual sessions or you may purchase a ticket for the entire course of 10 sessions at a cost of £40 (students £15) via the link here.

    Linden Groves is the Gardens Trust’s Strategic Development Officer. Linden has worked for the Gardens Trust since its inception in 2015, and before that for both the Garden History Society and the Association of Gardens Trusts. She is passionate about helping everyone enjoy historic parks and gardens to the full and moving garden history out of its niche and into the mainstream.

  • Thursday, April 22, 10:00 am – 11:30 am – Freshkills Park, World’s Largest Landfill-to-Park Webinar

    For over 50 years, the City of New York sent most of its garbage to a single landfill in Staten Island…so much garbage in fact, that it became the world’s largest landfill and was on track to become the highest point on the East Coast. Today, that former landfill will achieve a much more celebrated global accolade — as the largest landfill-to-park in the world, and NYC’s second-largest park when complete.

    Join New York Adventure Club for a virtual exploration of Freshkills Park — originally a 2,200-acre landfill, Freshkills Park will be almost three times the size of Central Park, and the largest park developed in New York City in over 100 years once fully complete.

    Led by a Freshkills Park Alliance staff member, our digital showcase of this massive landscape will include:

    • An overview of Freshkills, from its days as the world’s largest landfill to the planned three-phase transformation into a public park
    • Rare archival footage of Fresh Kills landfill
    • A behind-the-scenes look at Freshkill’s state-of-the-art landfill engineering system
    • A discussion around the park’s plant and animal ecology that sustains on the grounds
    • Modern photos showcasing the sweeping views of the NYC skyline from the ‘hilltops” that were once garbage mounds

    Afterward, we’ll have a Q&A with the Freshkills Park Alliance staff member — any and all questions about Freshkills Park are welcomed and encouraged!

    Can’t make it live? Don’t worry, you’ll have access to the full replay for one week! $10. Register HERE

  • Monday, April 19 – Saturday, April 24, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Muddy River Cleanup

    The Muddy River Cleanup is a part of the Annual Earth Day Charles River Cleanup; this event takes place throughout the Charles River Watershed and builds on a national effort as part of American Rivers’ National River Cleanup® which, to date, has removed over 25 million pounds of trash from America’s waterways. From 2016 to 2019, the Annual Earth Day Charles River Cleanup was recognized by American Rivers for the Most Pounds of Trash Collected and Most Volunteers Mobilized.​

    The Charles River Cleanup brings together over 3,000 volunteers each year to pick up litter, remove invasive species and assist with park maintenance along all 80 miles of the Charles River. Residents are drawn to the popular Charles River Cleanup from a desire to give back to their community while enjoying the beauty and wildlife along the river. Volunteers hold onto the connections they establish during this day of stewardship by returning to the Charles to exercise, play and enjoy nature throughout the year. Register for the cleanup here!

    Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, The Emerald Necklace Conservancy has adjusted the traditionally one-day event to span a week (April 19, 2021-April 24, 2021) in order to promote social distancing among volunteers.

    All cleanup events will take place from 10:00AM-12:00PM throughout the week.

    Monday, April 19, 2021: Back Bay Fens, Olmsted Park

    Tuesday, April 20, 2021: Charlesgate, Jamaica Pond

    Wednesday, April 21, 2021: Justine Mee Liff Park, Olmsted Park

    Thursday April 22, 2021: Riverway, Franklin Park (Shattuck Picnic Grove)

    Friday, April 23, 2021: Charlesgate, Justine Mee Liff Park

    Saturday, April 24, 2021: Back Bay Fens, Franklin Park (Valley Gates)

    The Conservancy has been closely monitoring health and safety guidelines set by the City of Boston, the Town of Brookline, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts since the beginning of the pandemic. All programs and events that we have follow our Conservancy COVID-19 policies.

    All volunteers will be required to wear a face covering and practice social distancing during the event. We advise that volunteers who feel ill within 72 hours of the event do not participate.

    All volunteers will be required to sign a COVID-19 volunteer waiver, along with our standard volunteer waiver, in order to participate. In order to follow event size requirements, we will cap each cleanup site at 25 volunteers. For groups interested in participating that are over 25 people, we will require that they split their group between multiple cleanup sites. For more information visit https://www.emeraldnecklace.org/volunteer/muddy-river-cleanup-2021/?bblinkid=249471968&bbemailid=29894011&bbejrid=1903405101

  • Friday, April 16 – Season Opening of Green Animals Topiary Garden

    The Preservation Society of Newport County has announced the season opening of Green Animals Topiary Garden. On Friday, April 16 they will bring back the Stroll the Gardens & Grounds ticket introduced last year, allowing visitors to enjoy the outdoors at all open properties, and to bring a picnic. Green Animals will be open through October 31. For ticketing information visit http://newportmansions.org. The annual Easter Egg Hunt and Brunch at Rosecliff has been canceled, as has the Green Animals Children’s Party and Weekend of Coaching, due to the pandemic.

  • Tuesday, April 13, 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm – Oxfordshire’s Lost Wonders: Enstone and Hanwell and the Development of 17th C Science in the Garden, Online

    In the seventeenth century Oxfordshire was home to two remarkable gardens that shared a reliance on technology to indulge the enthusiasms of their owners and impress their visitors. The Enstone Marvels are well known, and recent archaeological research has been able to document some extraordinary survivals. The great gardens at Hanwell were the site of a community termed the New Atlantis and excavations there have uncovered remains of a ‘House of Diversion’ together with a unique assemblage of terracotta gardens urns from the period.

    This April 13 talk beginning at 5 pm Eastern is part of the Garden Trust’s online series exploring archaeology with a 17th century bias. This ticket is for this individual session and costs £5, and you may purchase tickets for other individual sessions or you may purchase a ticket for the entire course of 5 sessions at a cost of £20 via the link here.

    Stephen Wass is a researcher, about to complete his D. Phil. on the subject of seventeenth-century water gardens. In addition, he works as a commercial archaeologist. In this capacity most of his projects involve historic gardens and he is currently occupied with a series of archaeological investigations connected with the latest programme of restoration at Stowe Landscape Gardens near Buckingham. He is also working to set up a new research programme alongside the Oxfordshire Gardens Trust into the ‘lost’ Tudor and Jacobean gardens in the county.

  • Wednesday, April 14, 7:00 pm – Birding and Beyond in Cuba, Online

     Birding and Beyond in Cuba will allow us to “visit” a number of key bird-locations on the island – Viñales, Zapata, Guanahacabibes, Cayo Coco, Baracoa, Topes de Collantes, and Havana – as well as examine opportunities for “connecting” with our counterparts in Cuba. We will look at these fascinating birds, places, and people in terms of advancing bird-education, conservation, and responsible eco-tourism. Our two presenters wish to convey to you some of the birds, nature, and potential on the island, opportunities that can be found at one of our country’s closest neighbors. Presenters: Paul J. Baicich and Soledad Pagliuca. This Athol Bird & Nature Club virtual event is free.


    Register in advance for this webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_PAz9lD3LTFq1LHXuRVal7g 
    After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.