Boston Flora

Month: September 2021

  • Tuesday, September 14, 5:00 pm – Xochimilco: An Introduction to the Floating Gardens of Mexico City, Online

    The neighborhood of Xochimilco offers us the opportunity to understand the original ecosystem of the Valley of Mexico. Designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, the unique region of Xochimilco is a popular day trip for Mexico City visitors and locals alike. This Context Learning seminar on September 14 at 5 pm ET offers a wonderful introduction to the ecology, geography, and history of this fascinating region.

    In this seminar, we will talk about some of the native species of plants and animals that helped form an identity for the present-day megalopolis of Mexico City. We will discuss the way the Aztecs created a lake city with canals instead of roads that helped them improve their agriculture. We’ll continue our trip through time to discuss the way in which the neighborhood came to symbolize Mexican folklore, and we’ll discuss some of the most outstanding pieces of colonial and modern architecture that it has to offer.

    Led by visual artist and Mexico City resident Julio Pastor, this seminar will explore the wonderful canals and architecture remnant of the Aztecs. Designed to inform curiosity as well as future travels, participants will come away with an increased understanding of the ecological diversity and intriguing history beyond Mexico City. $36.50. Register at www.contextlearning.com

  • Wednesday & Thursday, September 22 & 23, 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm, and Friday, September 24, 8:00 – 12:30 pm – Plan it Native Landscape Conference, Online

    Deep Roots and its partners present the annual Plan It Native Landscapes Conference. This year’s event features live online content that can be accessed from anywhere, plus in-person Kansas City field trips for the best of both worlds! The conference takes place September 22-24, three half-days packed with interactive sessions, inspiring keynote speakers, and opportunities to connect with the native plant community.

    About Deep Roots

    Deep Roots is a not-for-profit organization comprised of multi-sector partners working to increase native plant landscapes. Our mission is to encourage the appreciation, conservation, and use of native plants in the heartland. Following in Olmsted’s footsteps, Deep Roots is an organization that focuses on the benefits of native landscape design and conservation while emphasizing the values of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Native landscapes contribute to improving public health, smart urban planning, and much more! Deep Roots’ partners consist of small and large businesses, municipalities, state government agencies, parks departments, not-for-profit organizations and individuals. Partners collaborate to share resources, opportunities, and create synergy to plant more native species and provide education that results in more native landscapes. In 2019, Deep Roots created the Plan It Native Landscapes Conference to help increase the collective native plant expertise of the region. In 2020, more than 560 people from 40 states and 4 countries attended online.

    Plan It Native 2021

    Plan It Native provides education relevant to professionals (a minimum of 9 CEUs are available for landscape architects), native plant enthusiasts, and home gardeners. Whatever your experience with native plants, you will find resources to grow your knowledge. You’ll learn from speakers who understand your challenges and provide expert advice to help you advance.

    Plan It Native is organized into three tracks:
    • Design & Business – From formal to naturalistic, from the greenhouse to the retail counter to your front yard, these sessions will help you create more beautiful and beneficial projects.
    • Land Stewardship & Management – Sessions on the establishment, restoration, and management of native woodland, wetland, riparian, and prairie.
    • Policy & Communications – A new track for this year, these sessions will help you build awareness and action for native plants within your community.

    With daily keynote speakers, and a wealth of virtual networking opportunities, Plan It Native is far more than just a webinar! Along with 18 concurrent sessions in the three tracks, attendees will also enjoy keynote sessions from these notable experts:

    Nancy R. Lee, founder Social Marketing, Inc.
    Nancy Lee has more than 30 years of professional marketing experience, with special expertise in Social Marketing, the proven discipline for behavior change for social good.

    Wambui Ippolito, Horticulturist and Landscape Designer
    She is the 2021 Best in Show award winner at the Philadelphia Flower Show. She is the first Black woman ever to win and first solo female Major Exhibitor to do so.

    Dr. Peter Raven, President Emeritus, Missouri Botanical Gardens
    Author of numerous leading textbooks and several hundred scholarly articles, Dr. Raven has been a tireless champion of sustainability and biodiversity, earning him the plaudit of “Hero for the Planet” from Time.

  • Thursdays, September 16 – September 23, 5:30 pm – 8:30 pm – Northeast Ethnobotany

    Plants shape our lives in many ways: they provide food, fiber and medicine among other uses. This two-part Berkshire Botanical Garden class, led by ethnobotanist and ecologist Drew Monthie, will explore some of the indigenous and European ethnobotanical practices of the Northeastern US and their historical context. The phytochemistry of plants (their chemical constituents) and their use as medicine will also be a topic of exploration, along with the ethics of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). Students will complete a short research project with a focus on one of the ethnobotanical topics mentioned above. The class meets Thursdays, September 16 – 323, from 5:30 – 8:30 .

    Instructor Drew Monthie has operated Ecologic Consulting LLC, specializing in plant-driven design and consultation since 1998. He is based in the Shirt Factory building in Glens Falls, NY. He has been growing plants since the age of 4 and was influenced by his parents and grandparents who always had vegetable and perennial gardens. He worked in nurseries during high school and attended the BOCES horticulture program. After high school, he attended SUNY Cobleskill School where he earned an A.A.S. in Plant Science. After owning and operating a nursery/landscape business for about a decade, he returned to college to earn his B.S. in Ecology and then an M.A. in Ethnobotany. He has been teaching and designing courses as a Professor in the Natural Sciences for SUNY Empire State College for the last decade in the areas of study of horticulture, botany, ethnobotany and ecology. He is also a photographer, and you can find some of his photographic work on his other website: http://StarflowerStudioNY.com.

    BBG Members: $145, Non-Members: $160. Register at www.berkshirebotanical.org.

  • Saturday & Sunday, September 11 & 12, 8:00 am – 4:00 pm – Field School: Bees and Other Pollinators

    Early fall is a magnificent time to explore outer Cape Cod; empty beaches, agreeable weather and an abundance of pollinating insects.

    Raise your awareness about the vital role bees and other insects play in our environment. Animals pollinate about 75% of all the food, fiber, beverages, and medicine used by humans, and insects, especially bees, are the primary pollinators. Emphasis of this course will be on the natural history, biology, and identification of pollinators including the often unnoticed but hard-working native bees. Learn about their habitat requirements and conservation issues.

    This two-day course on September 11 and 12 from 8 – 4 will include an online evening lecture and time in the field spent searching for the diverse assortment of pollinators found on Cape Cod, including Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary and the surrounding natural communities.

    Please be prepared for spending time outside in sunny, open environments and off-trail in search of insects. We recommend wearing light-colored clothing and pack long pants and close-toed shoes for time in the brushy habitats. Bring plenty of drinking water and sunscreen, and possibly even a wide -brimmed hat. Binoculars, a 10X or 20X magnifyling glass (or jeweler’s loupe), and backpack in which to carry items is also recommended. Pack a brown bag lunch for each day, light daytime snacks will be provided. Like bees, we need sustenance!

    * Please note: the hours listed on the schedule may vary from the sample schedule in the field school brochure and are subject to change based on tides, staff, optimal wildlife sightings, and other variables. A detailed schedule will be prepared and sent to registrants in advance.

    Due to COVID protocols, participants will need to provide their own transportation to field trip locations around the Cape.

    This course is one of serveral Cape Cod Field Schools offered. Visit www.massaudubon.org/wellfleetbay/fieldschools.

    Instructions and Directions:

    Advance registration is required and is accepted on-line, over the phone, or through the mail. Payment in full is due upon registration. Upon registration you will receive a confirmation letter, then 2-3 weeks in advance of your course you will receive an email with detailed information related to the class.

    Due to COVID protocols, participants will need to provide their own transportation to field trip locations around the Cape.

    $325 for Mass Audubon members, $350 for nonmembers.

    Cancellation received less than 30 days before starting date may result in forfeit of entire course fee. If we can fill your spot with another registration then your balance is returned, less the $50 nonrefundable administration fee. The sanctuary reserves the right to cancel any course with a full refund to registrants.

    For a complete listing of Field School courses visit http://www.massaudubon.org/wellfleetbay/fieldschools Registration is required. Register now with our secure payment portal.

    For more information, contact:

    Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary P.O. Box 236, State Highway Rte. 6 South Wellfleet, MA 02663 wellfleet@massaudubon.org

  • Sunday, September 12, 10:15 am – 12:15 pm – Painting Marvelous Mushrooms

    This Tower Hill Botanic Garden course on September 12 from 10:15 – 12:15 with Carol Schwartz is focused on learning and applying botanical illustration skills. It is an all levels workshop but it is encouraged that participants have some basic illustration experience. During this workshop, take a short walk along the wooded paths at Tower Hill and find just the right mushroom to paint. Snap a few pictures, then back in a classroom learn about how to use watercolors to create a beautiful mushroom illustration. Carol will provide tips, tricks and guidance for your illustration.

    Required Materials (Not Provided With Registration)

    1. Watercolor or mixed media paper pad, 9″ x 12″, such as Canson XL or Strathmore 400 Series
    2. No. 2 pencil and an eraser
    3. Watercolor set, pan or tubes, suggested brands include Winsor & Newton, Pelikan, Raphael, Royal Talens Van Gogh, Koi
    4. Three watercolor brushes; one small round brush size 0 or 1, one medium round brush size 2-5, one large round brush size 6-8

    Carol graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute, attending her senior year at Rhode Island School of Design. She earned her MFA in Illustration from the University of Hartford, Connecticut in 2014. Her education equipped her to be diverse and adaptable, with work appearing in 60 picture books and countless magazines, newspapers and advertisements.

    $30 Member Adult; $40 Adult (Registration includes admission to the Garden) Register HERE.

  • Wednesdays, September 8 – September 29, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm – Unforgettable Gardens: Norfolk, Online

    Enjoy a series of four online talks organized by The Gardens Trust in partnership with Norfolk Gardens Trust, Wednesdays from September 9 – September 29. Register through Eventbrite HERE. Sixteen pounds for the entire course of four sessions.

    ‘When the biting North Sea winds blows across Norfolk in the depths of Winter, it can sometimes be hard to imagine the beauty of the county’s gardens at the height of Summer. But … Norfolk is home to some of the most wonderful gardens in the country’.

    These were the first two lines written by HRH the Prince of Wales, in his Foreword for the Norfolk County Gardens Trust’s gazetteer published in 2013. Of the 320 gardens included in the book, four have been selected to form the September series of Unforgettable Gardens talks. The gardens include the grand and beautiful gardens at Houghton; Great Yarmouth’s Venetian Waterways beloved by generations on holiday and recently rescued from decline; Norwich’s secret Victorian gem, The Plantation Garden; and lastly the Royal gardens at Sandringham, a garden fit for a Queen.

    Week One will explore Houghton with Professor Tom Williamson, and Richard and Rosie Ernst. Week Two deals with Great Yarmouth’s Venetian Waterways Renaissance with Darren Barker, Week Three covers the Plantation Garden with Dr. Lesley Kant Cunneen, and the series concludes with Martin Woods speaking on Sandringham park and Gardens.

    North Sea

  • Monday, September 13, 12:00 noon – 1:30 pm – Robin Winogrand: In Search of Geographical Re-enchantment, Online

    The replacement of the unique and specific with the generic is a sign of our times. Cities make no exception. In the name of the modern, new and improved, the luring richness, unexpected and uncontrolled are being standardized out of our urban landscapes. The result is often a sterile built environment with scary resemblance to architectural renderings that has little to do with the unfolding of human experience.

    Robin Winogrond will show a series of her recent projects in Switzerland and Germany, most often on the urban periphery, which increasingly focus on sussing out the poetic potential of the banality of our contemporary urban landscape. What in a place engages our imagination or leaves us cold? Using a narrative approach, the projects become testing grounds to re-enchant each specific site with the power of its own inherent qualities, expressing the underestimated oddity of place that our contemporary urban landscapes contain.

    Robin Winogrond, landscape architect and urban designer, is co-founder of Studio Vulkan Landscape Architecture, in Zurich, Switzerland. She was partner from 2014-2020, a period in which numerous international competitions and prizes were won, most notably the recently completed Zurich Airport Park. While continuing the collaboration with Studio Vulkan, she is working independently and internationally on projects, juries, lecturing, teaching, and publishing. She is currently teaching at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

    Robin Winogrond works on a wide variety of scales and themes, with a focus on built works as well as large-scale open space and urban design schemes, and site-specific installations. Her work, at once atmospheric and pragmatic in nature, seeks to design but also build powerful experiences of slippery matters such as atmosphere, imagination, the psychology of social space, multifaceted identity of place, and embodied experience. Combining these with the pragmatic nature of building, the projects search to understand and interpret the diverse demands, contradictions and countervailing expectations of the contemporary landscape, especially on the increasingly banal urban periphery, using this productive tension as a driver for developing innovative and experimental design strategies that interpret the conditions of the site and its users.

    The Harvard Graduate School of Design’s Fall 2021 Public Programs are all virtual and require registration.

    Click here to register for Robin Winogrond, “In Search of Geographical Re-enchantment”. The event will also be live streamed to the Harvard GSD YouTube page. Only viewers who are attending the lecture via Zoom will be able to submit questions for the Q+A. If you would like to submit questions for the speaker in advance of the event, please click here. Live captioning will be provided during this event.