Boston Flora

Month: February 2022

  • Monday, February 14, 1:00 pm Eastern – The Life and Work of John Bradby Blake: From London to Canton and Back, Online

    The Gardens Trust presents a series on six online talks on Mondays through March 15 exploring the extraordinary life and work of John Bradby Blake (1745 – 1773). The lectures are £5 each or all 6 for £24, and you may register through Eventbrite by clicking HERE.

    In the February 14 session, Dr. Jordan Goodman, University College, London, will discuss aspects of Bradby Blake’s collaborative project in Canton and its posthumous continuation in London and look forward to the more detailed examination of his creative life and accomplishments in the following three lectures.

  • Saturday, February 19, 10:00 am – 11:00 am – The Eye of the Beholder: Is it Messy, or an Acquired Taste, Online

    Our obsession with tidy, “clean” landscapes is proving to be harmful to the things and the ones we love. How can we step away from the need for ‘neat’ and let nature play a role in how we perceive, design and maintain our human dominated lands? The rewards of gardening with nature, not against it, are a fabulous mix of process and perception. Edwina von Gal will discuss the reasons why we need to change the way we garden, the difference it can make, and how to make it all happen. Join her and the Berkshire Botanical Garden community online on February 19 at 10 am in a transformative commitment to actually do something incredibly effective about climate change and the loss of biodiversity.  

    Edwina von Gal has been principal of her eponymous landscape design firm since 1984,  creating landscapes with a focus on simplicity and sustainability for private and public clients around the world. She has collaborated with noted architects such as Maya Lin, Frank Gehry, Annabelle Selldorf, and Toshiko Mori, on projects for Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Richard Serra, Larry Gagosian, Robert De Niro, Jann Wenner and many others in the environmental, design and art communities. Edwina’s work has been published in most major publications. Her book “Fresh Cuts” won the Quill and Trowel award for garden writing.  In 2008, while designing the park for The Biomuseo Panama, she founded the Azuero Earth Project, promoting native species reforestation on Panama’s Azuero Peninsula, perhaps the first of its kind to work without synthetic chemicals. In 2013, she created the Perfect Earth Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising consciousness about the dangers of toxic lawn and garden chemicals, and the importance of planting native species, to protect the health of people, their pets, and the planet.  In 2021 she launched a new initiative, Two Thirds for the Birds, a call to action to landscape and environmental professionals to make all their projects habitat friendly. She is currently converting her own property, Marshouse, into a laboratory and teaching center for Whole and Healthy landscape practices.  

    Edwina received the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art’s Arthur Ross Award in 2012 and is the 2017 recipient of Guild Hall’s Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Award for the Visual Arts. In 2018 she received the NY School of Interior Design’s Green Design Award and The Isamu Noguchi Award, as well as the Conservator Award from Quogue Wildlife Refuge in 2020. She lectures regularly about nature-based landscape solutions.

    $30 for BBG members, $35 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/winter-lecture-eye-beholder-it-messy-or-acquired-taste Thank you avenuemagazine.com for the image below.

  • Wednesday, February 16, 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm – Dahlias for Days, Online

    Have you ever fallen in love with a flower before? If not, dahlias just may be the flower to change that for you! Dahlias are a tremendously diverse flower. While they are native to Central America, they can grow fabulously in New England with proper care. In this class you will learn about this spectacular flower with insight on how to grow from tubers. Specific topics Including variety selection, planting, plant support techniques, cut flower treatment, plus the most challenging part — tuber division and storage. Join Berkshire Botanical Garden on February 16 at 4 pm online to learn more about this divine and prolific plant just in time to plan your dahlia orders. Soon enough you will be trading dahlia tubers with all your gardener friends.    

    Jacqueline Maisonpierre is an organic farmer, public health educator and avid dahlia grower. She fell in love with dahlias her first year farming, and like many dahlia growers just can’t seem to get enough. She has worked as an organic vegetable farmer in New England for the past ten years in a variety of settings, ranging from large rural farms to tightly managed, no-till urban plots. As of this year she is the proud owner of her own homestead in North Haven, CT, where she is starting a cut flower farm. She grew 400 dahlia plants in 2021 and can’t wait to grow more!

    $10 for BBG members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/dahlias-days

  • Monday, February 21, 9:30 am – 11:30 am – Maple Sugaring at Wright-Locke Farm (Sold Out)

    Join Wright-Locke Farm staff on February 21 at 9:30 am for a close look at some majestic maple trees. Learn to identify the various species, and taste sap right from the bucket. We’ll discuss the history of maple sugaring and just how sap is turned into syrup. We’ll boil down a small amount of sap so you can watch the process See who can tell the difference between 100% maple syrup and the commercial stuff made mostly of corn syrup. Children ages 10 and up are welcome to join a registered adult. Click on to http://www.wlfarm.org/adult-education-programs/, or email events@wlfarm.org to be put on a wait list or to receive notification of extra March dates which currently are being added.

  • Thursday, February 24, 9:30 am – 11:30 am – Drawing Trees, Online

    Explore the variety and elegance of tree forms using pencil and paper. In this Harvard Museums of Science and Culture webinar, we will focus on capturing the shapes and volume of trunks and branches as well as techniques for drawing foliage in this online workshop. Groups will be limited to twelve, allowing ample time for individual feedback. All skill levels are welcome.

     $30 members/ $35 nonmembers. Register HERE.

  • Sunday, February 27, 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm – Botanical Gardens World Tour: Innisfree and Fairchild Tropical Garden, Online

    Smithsonian Associates invites you to indulge in a colorful midwinter escape as horticultural experts lead a series of virtual visits that highlight the beauty of notable botanical gardens in settings as far-flung as Shanghai, the Hudson River Valley, and Australia. In vibrant visuals they explore how each garden has taken a unique approach to design and interpretation as they all celebrate plant collections, conservation, education, and the distinctive environments and landscapes in which they bloom. On February 27, the third and final installment will feature Innisfree and Fairchild Tropical Garden.

    Travel from the scenic Hudson River Valley to subtropical peninsular Florida to visit two diverse gardens. Developed between 1930 and 1960, Innisfree was the private garden of Walter and Marion Beck and drew its inspiration from scroll paintings of the 8th-century Chinese poet and painter Wang Wei. With the help of landscape architect Lester Collins from Harvard University, the garden journey was shaped to lead visitors through individual “cup” garden scenes inspired by the Chinese paintings, which meld seamlessly into one large cup around a glacial lake.

    Fairchild Tropical Garden in Coral Gables (below) melds a sublime subtropical landscape with important plant collections and horticultural excellence, as well as research, conservation, and education. Palms are a particular specialty, with an outstanding collection of over 400 species. An internationally important collection of more than 3,700 cycads is displayed in sweeping beds under spreading oaks. The conservatory features orchids, aroids, and bromeliads. The garden is set against a backdrop of lakes in a park-like setting.

    Presenter C. Colston Burrell is a lecturer, garden designer, and photographer. The author of 12 gardening books, he has twice won the American Horticulture Society Book Award.

    $25 for Smithsonian Associates members, $30 for nonmembers. Register HERE.

  • Thursday, February 17, 10:00 am – Garden Club of the Back Bay February Meeting – A Growth of Trees: A Journey Through Time, Online


    No single view of a tree is a fixed snapshot in time that tells the complete story. Join Michael Wojtech and discover how trees grow, reproduce, and interact with their environment across days, weeks, seasons, and years and over varying scales—from the intricate details of buds, flowers, leaves, and bark that we use for species identification to the collaborative roles of trees in ecosystems. Learn more about the function and experience the beauty of characteristics such as peeling bark, overwintering buds, lobed or toothed leaves, flowers by the thousands, and seeds that fly on the wind. This Garden Club of the Back Bay meeting will take place February 17 at 10:00 am.

    Michael Wojtech earned his Masters degree in Conservation Biology at Antioch University New England, where his coursework brought a welcomed, intense immersion into the natural history and ecology of the plants, critters, and other organisms in the landscape. As a naturalist and educator, he strives to share the science and wonder of trees in an accessible and compelling fashion. He writes, photographs, illustrates, and presents programs about the structure, growth processes, and ecology of trees—including their bark, buds, leaves, roots, and wood—for audiences at all levels of experience.  

    Michael previously presented to the Garden Club of the Back Bay in 2013, when he spoke to us about his book, Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast.  We are delighted to bring Michael back to speak to us  again!  To learn more about Michael Wojtech, visit his website at http://knowyourtrees.com. Please rsvp by February 11th by clicking HERE.  A ZOOM link will be sent a few days before the program.  The program will not be recorded.

  • Thursday, February 17, 6:30 pm – Swan House: A Collaboration in Classicism, Online

    Morven Museum & Garden’s exciting Grand Homes & Gardens Distinguished Speakers Series returns with another stellar lineup. This year we travel to the Roaring 20’s starting at Innisfree in New York, then south to Swan House in Georgia, down to Ca’ D’Zan on Florida’s west coast; finally arriving in Miami’s Vizcaya. Held live in Morven’s Stockton Education Center, adjacent to the Museum, and simulcast on Zoom, in February and March, this illustrated lecture series brightens winter up and down the coast.

    In person program includes light refreshments tailored to the theme of each week’s featured lecturer. Online virtual program includes recipes for make-at-home fare.

    On Thursday, February 17 at 6:30, we will visit Swan House with Jessica VanLanduyt, Senior Vice President of Guest Experiences, and Sarah Roberts, Vice President of Goizueta Gardens. Completed in 1928 for prominent Atlantans Edward and Emily Inman, Swan House is most recognized for its grand design. Noted classicist Philip Trammell Shutze, designed Swan House in collaboration with interior decorator Ruby Ross Wood and homeowner Emily Inman. Originally intended as an adult home for entertaining and retirement, the home went through several stages as the Inmans’ lives changed the ways in which the family used the home. Hear from both Jessica VanLanduyt and Sarah Roberts about Swan House, its gardens and its enduring legacy in Atlanta.

    Pricing ranges from $15 – $90. Register HERE.

  • Tuesday, February 15, 7:00 pm – 8:15 pm – Native Meadows: Let’s Get Real, Online

    Wildflower meadows were introduced to the American gardening public in the 1960’s along with tie dye tee shirts and kaleidoscopic acid trips. But just like those 60’s acid trips, the colors never lasted. Alternatively, by planting site-adapted native perennials, managed according to the ecological processes that govern open field vegetation in the wild, long-lived vibrant meadows can be consistently achieved. In this August 12 online presentation by Larry Weaner, plant selection criteria, planting procedures, and management techniques will be illustrated through a series of residential case studies, including some over two decades old. $25. Register at www.ndal.org

    NDAL (New Directions in the American Landscape) was founded in 1990 by Larry Weaner, and has presented programs throughout the US focusing on innovative theory, practical application, and an expansive vision of “Natural Design.” Programs also draw from a variety of disciplines, including agriculture, anthropology, history, and fine art. In 2016, NDAL received the first Regional Impact Award from the Native Plant Trust. This talk is cosponsored by the American Horticultural Association, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and Wild Ones – Native Plants, Natural Landscapes.

  • Friday, February 11, 9:00 am – 10:00 am EST – Women, Botany, and Art: From the Garden to the Easel, Online

    In this highly illustrated Berkshire Gardens Trust talk on Friday, February 11, Dr Twigs Way will present an overview of the role of female artists in floral and botanic art from the 16th to the 19th century. Including discussion of the lives and works of female artists including Giovanna Garzoni, Maria van Oosterwijck, Rachel Ruysch, Elizabeth Blackwell, Mary Moser, Mary Delany (and Queen Charlotte); and Augusta Withers and Sarah Drake. 

    Floral art has been often dismissed as a ‘pleasing pastime’ for ladies of leisure, but this talk will explore how an association with floral and botanical works enabled women to enter the male-dominated worlds of art and science. Twigs will consider themes including perceived divisions between floral and botanic art, the amateur and the professional, the role of royal patronage and scientific studies, and of course the vexed question of marriage

    ​Twigs Way is a garden historian, writer and researcher. Twigs is fascinated by the past and intrigued by the role of flowers, gardens and landscape in art and culture of all kinds. Her talks and books reflect that endless curiosity, with books on plants and gardens exploring themes of symbolism and meaning, class and gender, art and literature:  every plant has a tale to tell, every garden a past.  

    Twigs is an accredited Arts Society lecturer and her history of the Chrysanthemum in art and culture was published by Reaktion in 2020. She is currently working on the “equally golden daffodil”.

    ​Booking: Please book online. The tickets are £5 each.  We will send you a Zoom link for the lecture a few days before the 11th February. The lecture will last approximately 1 hour, followed by questions. The lecture will NOT be recorded.  

    ​Queries: Please contact Janet by email at bgtmembership@gmail.com

    Still Life with Bowl of Citrons, late 1640s.By Giovanna Garzoni