Boston Flora

Month: May 2022

  • Wednesday, June 15, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm – Hardy Orchids 101, Online

    Orchids are perennial herbs that are native to every continent, except Antarctica. Hardy orchids are commonly those able to survive outdoors in winter. Learn how you can incorporate hardy orchids into your orchid collection and how to successfully grow them in your backyard. The June 15 Smithsonian Associates workshop features a demonstration on how to plant a Cypripedium orchid. The instructor is Barb Schmidt, and the class will be recorded. $30 for Smithsonian Associates members, $40 for nonmembers. Register, and access materials list, at www.smithsonianassociates.org.

    Pleione Tongariro

  • Thursday, June 2, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Deer-tolerant Landscapes, Online

    Sharing landscapes with deer can result in costly damage to plantings. Join Native Plant Trust online on June 12 at 1 pm to learn about deer behavior and natural preventative measures to safeguard your garden. We will also review a selection of “deer tolerant” plants and point out those considered “deer candy.” Cheryl Salatino is the instructor and the fee is $30 for NPT members, $36 for nonmembers. Register at http://www.nativeplanttrust.org/events/deer-tolerant-landscapes/

  • Wednesday, June 8, 10:30 am – 3:00 pm – Compote Arrangement, Online

    Learn the techniques and secrets for creating chic, vintage-inspired arrangements in a trendy footed container. Walk through the step-by-step process of crafting a lush, romantic centerpiece. The New York Botanical Garden online class will be held June 8 from 1:30 – 3:00, taught by Nsombi Woodson.

    Please note that we will ship flowers directly from Holland to your house for this class. Flowers will arrive a day or two before the class. You will get an email that indicates how you should condition the flowers to ensure they stay healthy. You will want to make sure to have a sharp pair of scissors or pruners to easily cut the stems. Otherwise, all materials needed will be common household items.

    $295 NYBG members, $309 nonmembers. Register HERE.

  • Monday, May 30, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm – Why the Rose, Online

    This talk is the final lecture in a series sponsored by The Gardens Trust in association with the Historic Rose Group. £5. Register through Eventbrite HERE. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards.

    I ask the rose, ‘From whom did you steal that beauty?’ The rose laughs softly out of shame, but how should she tell? Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi.

    In this talk, writer and horticultural historian Jennifer Potter sets out to answer the question posed by the Persian poet, mystic and scholar, Rumi, more than seven centuries ago. What makes the rose so special to so many cultures around the world? How to explain its transformation from a simple briar of the northern hemisphere into the western world’s favorite flower? Ranging widely across cultures and art forms, the talk tracks the rose’s shifting associations with love, sex, death and the great religions of East and West, overturning along the way many cherished rose myths.

    When first approached by her publishers to write a book about the rose, Jennifer Potter secretly wondered if we really needed another book on the rose. Quickly hooked by this most potent of flowers, she spent the next five years researching and writing The Rose, A True History (Atlantic Books, 2010), embarking on a journey that took her from the rose fields of Iran to the White House Rose Garden. The author of four novels and six works of non-fiction, she wrote a celebrated biography of the John Tradescants: Strange Blooms, The Curious Lives and Adventures of the John Tradescants (Atlantic Books, 2006), and followed her book on the rose with Seven Flowers and How They Shaped Our World (Atlantic Books, 2013), which has been translated into Chinese.

  • Saturday, June 4, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Weston Garden Club Tour

    Join the Weston Garden Club for a beautiful, fragrant garden experience featuring eleven unique gardens highlighting native plants, pollinators, garden rooms, water features, and more. Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 day of tour. Program pick-up and day-of-tour sales begin at 9:30 am on June 4 at the Josiah Smith Tavern, 358 Boston Post Road in Weston Centr. Gardens will be open from 10 – 4, rain or shine. For questions contact westongardenclubtour@gmail.com Online ticket sales may be purchased HERE.

  • Thursday, June 23, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Gardens in a Seaside Village Garden and Lifestyle Tour

    The Community Garden Club of Cohasset will host its inaugural Gardens in a Seaside Village Garden and Lifestyle Tour on Thursday, June 23, from 10 – 4, rain or shine. Pick up pre-paid tickets the day of the event at the Lightkeeper’s Cottage, 15 Lighthouse Lane in Cohasset. Purchase tickets ($45) now due to limited capacity, but day of event tickets, if available, will be $50. Purchase tickets by clicking https://www.communitygardenclubofcohasset.com/

  • Monday, May 30, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Iris Show

    Celebrate spring on this Memorial Day, May 30 from 1 – 4, with more than 200 beautiful irises on display at the Harvey Wheeler Community Center, 1276 Main Street in Concord.

    The gorgeous show is open to everyone after the judging and awarding of ribbons. For details. visit http://massirises.org/

    Check out the companion plants and vote for your favorite. Admire the floral arrangements. Buy some iris plants for your garden.

    The show is free, parking is easy, and the building is accessible.

  • Friday, May 27 – Survey Deadline for GrowBoston: The City’s New Office of Urban Agriculture

    GrowBoston is the City of Boston’s new Office of Urban Agriculture. The new office will be within the Housing Cabinet and will work to increase food production throughout Boston; develop and implement innovative food production strategies; provide technical assistance to prospective and existing gardens and farms; develop food production resources for gardeners, farmers, and other residents; and coordinate with other City departments to expand citywide urban agriculture. GrowBoston will also contribute to Boston’s efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change while addressing injustices inherent in the current food system.  The department’s main goal is to increase food production and support local food growers in Boston, including gardeners, farmers, beekeepers, and more. For more information, please visit https://www.boston.gov/news/food-and-urban-agriculture-initiatives-expanded

    GrowBoston is excited to learn more about gardeners in Boston and how to serve them through future City programs. GrowBoston has created a survey and hopes to reach as many current and prospective Boston gardeners as possible. To support the growth of GrowBoston, please consider taking their survey and sending it along to friends and neighbors (gardeners and prospective gardeners alike). You can access the survey link here: https://tinyurl.com/growbostonsurvey

    The survey takes 10-15 minutes to complete and the deadline to respond is Friday, May 27th, 2022. Please refer any questions to Kenzie Ballard at mckenzie.ballard@boston.gov.

  • Thursday, May 26, 5:00 am – The Nineteenth Century Garden: John Lindley, Online

    This Gardens Trust talk on May 26 is the fifth in the Gardens Trust’s 2nd series on Victorian Gardens on Thursdays @ 10.00 GMT. £5 each or all 6 for £30. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards. Register through Eventbrite HERE

    John Lindley (1799-1865) was a leading figure in both horticulture and botany in mid-nineteenth-century Britain. For decades, he held three jobs simultaneously: Horticultural Society secretary, professor of botany at University College London, and director of the Chelsea Physic Garden. A prolific writer, he was a pioneering orchidologist and author of standard works on botany and horticulture.

    But perhaps Lindley was most influential as editor of the Gardeners’ Chronicle. Founded in 1841, the weekly Gardeners’ Chronicle circulated widely in Britain and the colonies. It numbered Charles Darwin among its contributors and closely followed current affairs. It notably raised the alarm and tracked the progress of the calamitous potato blight. Kate Teltscher assesses the contribution of Lindley – ‘a man who’, to quote the Athenaeum, laboured ‘with the steam power of twenty’. She explores too the significance of the Gardeners’ Chronicle as a forum for social, scientific and colonial debate.

  • Tuesday, May 24, 5:00 am – A Gardening Philanthropist: Lady Henry Somerset, Online

    The late nineteenth century is considered to be the golden age of British women’s philanthropy and an equally golden age of gardening. This Gardens Trust talk on May 24 at 5:00 am will explore how and why some women incorporated gardening into their philanthropic agency. We will focus on Lady Henry Somerset and her use of gardens to rehabilitate women suffering from substance abuse, as seen in her work Beauty for Ashes published in 1899. A recording link will be sent for you to watch over the coming seven days. £5. Buy tickets HERE

    Leanne Newman has an MA in Garden and Landscape History and is a PhD candidate at the University of Southampton researching the use of gardening and landscape by women philanthropists in the period 1880-1920.