Boston Flora

Month: January 2022

  • Wednesday, February 2, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm – Between Wild and Cultivated: The Marginal Garden and its Care, Online

    The “marginal garden” explores the boundaries between the wild and the cultivated, particularly the interface of where native plant species meet naturalizing garden ones. Such places have ideally achieved a reasonably stable co-existence. Marginal gardens, including Innisfree, can be exciting and surprising, and can challenge our conceptions of both what ‘nature’ and ‘cultivation’ are.

    However, like any natural or semi-natural habitat they are never completely stable. Their creation and management requires the insights, knowledge and skills of both horticulture and ecology, and suggests strongly we need a new profession that brings these two areas, formerly separate, together. We also need to look critically and objectively at our management techniques, particularly for managing invasive species, and ask how these can be used to enhance the biodiverse marginal garden.

    Presenter Noel Kingsbury is a renowned planting-design consultant and writer on gardens and naturalistic planting, with over 20 books to his name. Noting that “few garden writers are as prolific or as influential,” Noel has been called ”the great chronicler of contemporary planting design…this generation’s Gertrude Stein.” His newest book, Wild: The Naturalistic Garden (Phaidon, March 2022) profiles gardens around the world including Innisfree. www.noelkingsbury.com

    This is the first in Innisfree Garden’s 2022 Lecture Series, Romanticism at Innisfree: Nature as Muse. The public programs will explore the wide-ranging cultural and artistic embodiments of Romantic ideals and their impact on Innisfree Garden. Held as a lunchtime virtual series on Wednesdays at 1 pm Eastern time, they are free to all Innisfree members, $15 for the general public, or $75 for the series (one free lecture) Register now.

  • Thursday, January 27, 1:00 pm – The Gardens of the Château de Valmer, Online

    Like its Loire Valley neighbor the Château de Villandry, the Château de Valmer dates back to the reign of François 1er. And like Villandry, the gardens at Valmer are laid out on a series of terraces that follow the slope of the hillside and end with the 2.5-acre/one-hectare ornamental kitchen garden (potager) that once fed 40 people and now grows edible plants and flowers to be enjoyed during the summer as well as vegetables to be preserved in tufa cellars during the winter. The château’s moat has become a separate garden. The domain also produces some excellent Vouvray wines! The Garden Conservancy is delighted to offer this virtual lecture on January 27 in partnership with the Alliance Française Chicago with communication support from the Federation of Alliances Françaises USA.  the French Heritage Society, the Historic Gardens Foundation, and WICE. $10 if a member of a sponsoring organization, $20 general public. Register HERE.

    Speaker Alix de Saint Venant and her husband Aymar are the fourth generation of their family to own the Château de Valmer since 1888.  Passionate about Valmer, Alix rediscovered the 17th century plan for the gardens, became a landscape gardener, and dedicated herself to the restoration of its Renaissance gardens. Alix is the co-author of Le Potager d’Alix de Saint Venant au château de Valmer (EPA, 2013). Finally, her son Jean is in charge of the 86-acre/35-hectare vineyard, taking over from his father and ensuring that the fifth generation will carry on the family tradition. 

  • Saturday, February 5, 11:30 am – 12:30 pm – Valentine’s Wreath Workshop

    Wright-Locke Farm in Winchester is holding a Valentine’s Wreath Workshop on Saturday, February 5 from 11:30 – 12:30. This is a fun opportunity to create your own decorative heart shaped wreath from natural, compostable materials. You will use twine, vines, ribbons, paper, sticks, dried flowers, and berries. $45. As long as it is safe to do so, these workshops will be in-person, at the farm. All necessary supplies will be provided and participants will go home with their own creations. Register at https://www.wlfarm.org/adult-education-programs/

  • Saturday, February 12 – Sunday, March 20 – Prismatic, An Orchid Exhibition

    Inspired by color and light, Tower Hill Botanic Garde has combined dazzling plant displays and vibrant art installations to bring you this year’s orchid exhibit, Prismatic! This experience begins as soon as you enter the lobby and continues throughout Tower Hill’s indoor spaces, including the Limonaia and Orangerie, which are adorned with 1,400 colorful orchids and sparkling works of art. Your journey also includes a walk through a rainbow in the Milton Gallery and a view of a shimmering George Sherwood sculpture in the Cafe.  

    This year’s theme is Prismatic. So, what do prisms have to do with orchids? The answer is light! Prisms capture light, which depending on the type of prism, separate visible light into spectral colors, like you see in rainbows. Plants, including orchids, utilize the energy of light for photosynthesis, which helps create the beautiful blooms you will enjoy during this exhibition. Combining these two elements allows us to create an exhibit that accentuates the power of light and highlights the beauty it is responsible for. This is an experience you will not want to miss!  

    Free with admission to the garden. Admission tickets must be reserved online in advance. All who are able must wear masks indoors at Tower Hill Botanic Garden until further notice. Tower Hill is following the mask guidance provided by the CDC. Click to reserve your admission ticket

  • Wednesday, March 16 & Thursday, March 17, 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Cannabis Symposium, Online (Early Registration Discount)

    With the increased legalization of cannabis throughout the United States this impactful plant is getting a lot of attention. With that attention brings lots of questions and curiosities. Tower Hill Botanic Garden is committed to exploring the horticultural components of the cannabis and hemp plant. This online symposium on March 16 and 17 from 6 – 8:30 will bring together experts in the fields of horticulture and science to help understand the many questions and topics surrounding the biology, applications, and care of this plant. The symposium is geared toward anyone with an interest in cannabis and hemp as well as professionals. Speakers include Monique McHenry, PhD, Pete Apicella, Maggie Kinsella, John de la Parra, and Ernest Anemone.

    $75 for Tower Hill members, $90 for nonmembers, $40 for students. Fee includes a gate pass for a future visit. Early Registration (before February 1) discounts available ($55/$70/$25) Register at www.towerhillbg.org

  • Thursday, January 27, 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm – Recording the Garden, Online

    Long-term gardening is easier when there’s a sense of continuity. Individual gardeners and community gardening teams can greatly benefit from recordkeeping to maintain consistency and direction over time. In this Native Plant Trust webinar on January 27 from 12:30 – 2, we discuss strategies to track what is planted in the garden and where, where plants came from, how well plantings survive over time, which gardening practices work best for a given location, and basic phenology concepts to help track the timing of plants’ life history events. Participants will also learn how to use garden records to track gardening experiments whose results can help inform future decisions about planting and maintenance. Led by Melanie Kenney, the program is cosponsored with the Ecological Landscape Alliance and is $18 for members of the sponsoring organizations, $23 for nonmembers. Register at http://www.nativeplanttrust.org/events/recording-garden/

  • Thursday, January 27, 6:30 pm – Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing America, Online

    Historian and filmmaker Laurence Cotton joins The Morven Museum & Garden virtually to present a “mini-travelogue” of select Olmsted landscapes across North America in this special evening event. Discover the extraordinary legacy of a true Renaissance man and how Olmsted’s philosophy, his writings and his designs are still relevant today.

    Mr. Cotton originated and served as Consulting Producer to the NEH-funded, nationally broadcast PBS special “Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing America.”

    He will present an information rich and entertaining talk about Frederick Law Olmsted’s life, career and legacy including those sites designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Senior, the two sons and the Olmsted Brothers landscape architecture firm. They left a huge imprint upon the landscapes of North America. Public parks, private estates and gardens, residential neighborhoods, entire community designs, and institutional campuses. Not only did Frederick Law Olmsted and his progeny found the field of American landscape architecture, they also were early proponents of urban planning. The Olmsted design philosophy addressed public health—physical and mental health, and issues of equity and access that are even more relevant to contemporary park managers and users. Frederick Law Olmsted foresaw the crucial role of the experience of nature in the urban setting and the very role that parks can play for the enactment of democracy in a multi-ethnic, multiracial society.

    Tickets are $10 for Morven members, $15 for nonmembers. Register HERE. Zoom link provided day of program. Recording link available to attendees following program.

    Image credit: Olmsted’s 1874 plan for the U.S. Capitol grounds in Washington, D.C. Architect of the Capitol

  • Wednesday, January 26, 12:00 noon – 1:00 pm – Engaging Landowners in Sustainable Stewardship, Online

    The decisions that private owners of woodlands and other natural areas make in the coming decade will play a large role in determining the sustainability of not only our New England landscape but across the country as well.

    How can we reach and motivate this audience to take specific actions that will benefit not only their own lands, but the larger landscape and community? This Ecological Landscape Alliance online presentation on January 26 at noon will share experiences and lessons from a multi-year landowner outreach project in the MassConn Woods, a rural, largely forested region on the border of central Massachusetts and northeastern Connecticut, as well as region-wide efforts to unite rural and urban communities in implementing natural solutions to climate change. We’ll discuss tools and resources for promoting climate change resilience and developing communications to motivate stakeholders across the country to take action in order to care for the places they love.

    Presenter Lisa Hayden  is the Outreach Manager for New England Forestry Foundation, where she works with steward volunteers and leads an outreach program in the MassConn Woods of south central Massachusetts and northeastern Connecticut. Collaborating with numerous partners, her recent grant-funded work focuses on creating and implementing communications tools about climate-informed forestry for land trusts and conservation partnerships. With a Journalism degree from the University of Connecticut and an MA in Urban & Environmental Policy & Planning from Tufts University, Lisa brings experience from The Nature Conservancy developing strategic messaging and blogging about how climate change affects people’s lives. A former journalist covering politics and environment in Connecticut and California, and a woodland owner herself, she is excited to be supporting land owners in her home area.

    Free to ELA members, $10 for nonmembers. Register at www.ecolandscaping.org.

  • Wednesday, January 26, 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm – Lost on the Freedom Trail: The National Park Service and Urban Renewal in Postwar Boston, Online

    Boston National Historical Park is one of America’s most popular heritage destinations, drawing in millions of visitors annually. Tourists flock there to see the site of the Boston Massacre, to relive Paul Revere’s midnight ride, and to board Old Ironsides—all of these bound together by the iconic Freedom Trail, which traces the city’s revolutionary saga. Seth C. Bruggeman of Temple University discusses the Freedom Trail’s role for tourism, how it was devised to lure affluent white Americans into downtown revival schemes, its success hinging on a narrow vision of the city’s history run through with old stories about heroic white men. When Congress pressured the National Park Service to create this historical park for the nation’s bicentennial celebration in 1976, these ideas seeped into its organizational logic, precluding the possibility that history might prevail over gentrification and profit. Professor Bruggeman will present his book on January 26 online through the Massachusetts Historical Society, and then be joined by experts with knowledge of the Freedom Trail today and in the past. Free. Register to attend online

  • Wednesday, February 9, 7:00 pm – Freshwater Mussels, Online

    Ayla Skorupa will speak on the topic of Freshwater Mussels on Zoom on February 9 at 7 pm. The talk is sponsored by the Athol Bird & Nature Club. Why is brook floater rare? Synthesizing potential threats to a freshwater mussel’s persistance. Register in advance for this webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_vVEzmvJIS2qR1KUOBeVQ2A  After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

    Ayla’s undergraduate education was in Marine Biology at Roger Williams University. After graduating with a B.Sc. she focused on research with plankton which led to an appointment as a Masters assistant at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks with Dr. Russell Hopcroft. She started studying under Dr. Allison Roy at the Department of Environmental Conservation at UMass, Amherst in Spring 2017.

    Her research interests focus on fresh water mussel, Unionidae, conservation. This includes the artificial propagation of rare or endangered species and determining what makes their ideal habitat.