Boston Flora

Month: May 2022

  • Wednesday, May 25, 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm – Deer Defense: How to Co-exist with the Wiliest of Wildlife, Online

    There are lots of ways to garden without sacrificing all of your hard work to marauding deer. On May 25 at 5 pm online, the Barkshire Botanical Garden will explore Cornell research-proven methods in three categories: Barriers, Repellents and Alternative Landscape Choices, providing ideas for best-odds deer-resistant landscape plants. Recordings will be available for registered participants.

    Chris Ferrero is a gardening speaker, writer and consultant. She is a Cornell Master Gardener from Dutchess County, NY, where in addition to speaking and teaching classes, she has led demonstration garden renovations, organized regional events, and served on teams as a perennials specialist known for particular expertise in shade gardening, flowering shrubs, pollinator-approved planting designs, and native plants as alternatives to invasives. BBG members $12, nonmembers $18. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/deer-defense-how-co-exist-wiliest-wildlife

  • Through Sunday, June 5 – Hunt Country

    “Hunt Country,” a comprehensive installation of Hunt Slonem’s signature paintings of bunnies, butterflies, tropical birds and orchids, will run through June 5, in Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Leonhardt Galleries.

    Through his paintings, sculptures, and printmaking, Slonem celebrates his subjects as hallowed forces of nature. Speaking of his work in his book When Art Meets Design, he wrote, “There’s a spiritual message behind everything I do, and I’m fascinated by nature and its purity. I’m endlessly mesmerized by patterns in nature, which is why I use so much repetition just as in nature there is repetition in blades of grass, the leaves of trees, and feathers of birds.” 

    A collector and curator of objects, Slonem embraces a practice he calls “collectorating.” Works in this installation will showcase this practice, including his use of antique frames that embellish his work and become part of the piece.

    “Hunt Slonem is one of the most generous and popular artists in the contemporary art world, and I feel blessed to have been friends with him for decades,” said Joanne Leonhardt Cassullo, a member of the Board of Trustees for both Berkshire Botanical Garden and the Whitney Museum of American Art. “His ability to transform any ordinary space into an extraordinary sensory event with his colorful artworks and carefully curated furnishings makes him a perfect fit for the ongoing Art/Garden series at the Berkshire Botanical Garden. 

    Casullo notes that “Hunt Country” coincides with Slonem’s first full summer as a Berkshire resident. Indeed, last year, Slonem purchased the historic Searles Castle (originally known as Kellogg Terrace) in nearby Great Barrington, one of several palatial estates he has saved for the purpose of restoring. 

    An American Neo-Expressionist artist, Slonem has had more than 350 exhibitions at prestigious galleries and museums internationally dating back to 1977. His work is in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York; the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, D.C.; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, in New York, to name a few. 

    The Leonhardt Galleries are located at 5 West Stockbridge Road in the Garden’s Center House, considered one of the oldest structures in Stockbridge, and renovated in 2017 to include galleries, a botanical library, classroom, and teaching kitchen. 

    “Hunt Country” runs through June 5, with gallery hours daily, 10-4 p.m. Admission to the galleries is free with Garden admission.

  • Tuesday, May 24, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm – ‘A Heaven on Earth: William Morris’ Kelmscott Manor, Online

    Kelmscott Manor, Oxfordshire, is a rambling, limestone-built farmhouse that was the country home of writer and designer William Morris from 1871 until his death in 1896. It was also home to his wife Jane (‘Janey’), their children Jenny and May, and his friend, poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who shared it with them from 1871 until 1874. William Morris’s life and work as poet and designer, conservationist and socialist campaigner have made Kelmscott Manor internationally famous.

    Morris thought of it as ‘a Heaven on Earth’, and loved every aspect of its ancient stone architecture, its barns, and meadows, and the village houses and landscape around it. The house remained the home of Morris’s wife Jane until her death in 1913 Their daughter May bequeathed the house after her death in 1938 to the University of Oxford. In the 1960s it passed to the Society of Antiquaries of London. Kelmscott has undergone a major programme of research and refurbishment, including returning some lost colour schemes, and recreating lost hangings and hand blocked wallpaper. The house will re-open to the public in April 2022.

    Historian Jeremy Musson, FSA, author of the new guidebook on Kelmscott Manor will tell the story of the house and its remarkable owners, William and Jane Morris. He will illustrate the interiors and talk about the artistic and creative connections of this architectural treasure. This Royal Oak lecture will be live on May 24 at 2 pm Eastern, or you may rent a recording of the talk to watch between May 25 and June 6, at your convenience. $15 Royal Oak Foundation members, $20 nonmembers. Register at https://www.royal-oak.org/events/spring-2022/heaven/

    Jeremy Musson is a leading commentator and authority on the English Country House. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and sits on a number of boards and trusts including the Country House Foundation. He was awarded an M Phil in Renaissance History at the Warburg Institute, University of London, in 1989 and was Architectural Editor of Country Life from 1995-2007. Before joining Country Life in 1995, Mr. Musson was an assistant regional curator for the National Trust in East Anglia, curating historic houses such as Ickworth House, and at the same time setting up the research and interpretation of new sites such as, the ex-bomb testing range and nature reserve at Orford Ness in Suffolk. He has written and edited hundreds of articles on historic country houses, from Garsington Manor to Knebworth House. Mr. Musson also presented 14 programs on BBC 2, making up two series called The Curious House Guest, in 2005-07, and he also lectures and supervises for academic programmes with Cambridge University, London University and Buckingham University, and the Attingham Summer School. His books include Up and Down Stairs: The History of the English Country House Servant (2009), English Country House Interiors (2011), Robert Adam: Country House Design, Decoration & the Art of Elegance (2017), The Country House: Past, Present, Future: Great Houses of the British Isles (2018), and Romantics and Classics: Style in the English Country House (Rizzoli, 2021).

  • Wednesday, May 25, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm – Unforgettable Gardens: Gardening4Health – a GP Perspective, Online

    The Gardens Trust is delighted to partner once again with London Gardens Trust, this time to look at some slightly more unusual Unforgettable Gardens which highlight the value of gardening with all the senses. This ticket is for this individual session and costs £5, through Eventbrite by clicking 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 one week) will be sent shortly afterwards.

    Richard Claxton talks about his experience of Gardening for his own wellbeing – as well as the way it can benefit his patients, and the growing momentum of Therapeutic Horticulture across the UK.

    This event is being live streamed from the Francis Holland School near Sloane Square. Please see the London Gardens Trust website [here] if you would prefer this option (tickets available separately).

    Richard Claxton is a GP in Tonbridge, Kent, and a keen gardener. He is training in Garden Design – and has a special interest in designing gardens with the health needs of their users, both in residential and healthcare settings. He is passionate about the therapeutic benefits of green and horticultural activities, and curates a web-based directory of Therapeutic Gardens within the UK.

  • Saturdays, May 21 and June 18, 9:00 am – 2:00 pm – Boston Hazardous Waste Drop Off

    The City of Boston sponsors five Household Hazardous Waste drop-off days for Boston residents. Paper shredding (limited to 10 copy paper size boxes) and household electronics recycling is also available. The next two days are May 21, 2022, 9:00 am to 2:00 pm at Central DPW Facility – 400 Frontage Road – South Boston and June 18, 2022, 9:00 am to 2:00 pm at Central DPW Facility – 400 Frontage Road – South Boston For more information on what can be dropped off and what to expect: click here

  • New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill – New Name, New Garden

    You probably know this by now, but Tower Hill Botanic Garden is now New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill. The press release says :

    “Our new name is not about redefining who we are as a horticultural society and a Garden but embracing who we have become and opening up the possibilities to be more. Our members, visitors, and supporters have long cherished us as a beautiful place, a horticultural resource, and a place for recreation and rejuvenation. Now it is time to extend those opportunities to the whole region. In honor of our history and the fact that our Garden opened in 1986 on Tower Hill Farm in Boylston, we have kept “Tower Hill” as part of the name. As New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill, we want to keep delivering our mission: to create experiences with plants that inspire people and improve the world.” The new logo, an apple blossom in an arch, represents the historic apple orchard, a signature plant collection at the Garden. And the arch in the logo celebrates the beautiful arches that you can find around our Garden throughout its architectural features.

  • Friday, May 20 – Monday, May 30 – Heritage Museums & Gardens Rhododendron Festival

    Thousands of world-famous rhododendrons in over 100 varieties offer an explosion of spectacular blooms throughout Heritage Museums & Gardens, 67 Grove Street, Sandwich. Photograph yourself surrounded by walls of flowers, immerse yourself in the story of Heritage’s fascinating rhododendron legacy on a self-guided walking tour, learn proper plant care and pruning techniques at our hands-on Garden Discovery Cart, and take home one of these signature plants from the special plant sale. There’s even a fun activity guide highlighting these amazing plants designed just for kids and families. General admission tickets are date-specific. Tickets are valid for entry anytime between 10 am-4:30 pm.

    Along with our Rhododendron-themed activities, visitors are welcome to enjoy the entire grounds including our indoor and outdoor exhibits.

    Tickets include admission to:

    • The gardens (All gardens including the Treasured Trash exhibit)
    • Hidden Hollow
    • The Special Exhibitions Gallery, featuring the Creating Cape Cod exhibit
    • The J.K. Lilly III Automobile Gallery, featuring the From Carriage to Classic: How Automobiles Transformed America with highlights from the Creating Cape Cod exhibit
    • The American Art & Carousel Gallery, featuring Heritage Highlights exhibit
    • Wampanoag Wetu & Garden
    • Lilly’s Café
    • The Shop at Heritage

    Tickets can be pre-purchased online or on the day of at the ticket window. Heritage members free, nonmembers $21 ($11 Youth)

  • Friday, May 20, 12:00 noon – 1:00 pm – Ask the Expert: Honeybees, Online

    Honeybees are threatened. How can we protect them?  

    Did you know that George Washington was a fan of the honeybee? Travel back to the 18th century with our expert Dr. Christopher White as we dive into the history of liquid gold (better known as honey). We’ll also talk about how to protect honeybees, who face myriad threats today. Bring all of your questions!

    Dr. Christopher White leads multidisciplinary teams focused on sustainability, climate change impact, enterprise risk management and community resilience. He currently serves as a member of the United Nations Environment Program.

    In his spare time, Dr. White is a beekeeper with an apiary along the banks of the Potomac River in Maryland. Along with his wife and three children, Dr. White founded an artisanal honey company, Bee America, in 2011. From its earliest beginnings, Bee America has been committed to sweetening its customers’ lives with the goodness of pure American honey. The company is passionate about preserving the future of honey bees and their place in our world.

    Dr. White founded an artisanal honey company, Bee America, in 2011, committed to sweetening its customers’ lives by preserving the future of honeybees and their special place in our world. Join us on World Bee Day, May 20, at 12pm EDT as Dr. White discusses all of the ways that we can help save the lives of honeybees, despite their extreme daily challenges.  Get your tickets NOW and join the buzz about these busy workers.   Free.

  • Tree Sponsorship Opportunity in The Grove

    The Charlesgate Alliance is planting fifteen new trees this spring. After clearing the Boston Conservation Commission hearing on April 6th, they are now working with the Department of Conservation and Recreation and Cambridge Landscape to plant 15 new trees, mainly in The Grove area of the park where they will not be disturbed by construction in the coming years. These trees were chosen by Landing Studio with an eye both toward the location near the river as well as our larger plan for the park, where we hope to plant roughly 150 more. This will be a significant improvement: the first new trees planted in Charlesgate in many years. The Alliance in conjunction with the Emerald Necklace Conservancy will maintain the trees in perpetuity. So far we have 9 trees sponsored at $3,000 a tree. You can therefore sponsor a tree for $3,000 or just make a contribution toward the tree project. Only 6 trees are left for funding, although a contribution can be allocated to the next planting cycle if response is overwhelming. If you would like to help with this exciting program, click here and note that it is for the tree planting. You can also mail a check to Charlesgate Alliance c/o Emerald Necklace Conservancy, 350 Jamaicaway, Boston, MA 02130

  • Monday, May 23, 1:00 pm – The Rose: Hinton Ampner’s Exceptional Garden, Online

    The Gardens Trust, in association with the Historic Roses Group, will sponsor a Zoom lecture on May 23 at 1 pm Eastern time with John Wood. This ticket is for this individual session and costs £5. 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.

    Hinton Ampner is a National Trust property with a 14-acre garden set amid the rolling Hampshire countryside. The garden has an exceptional framework with wonderful vistas complemented by topiary and a great variety of plants including dahlias, roses and salvias, as well as woodland areas. Roses are grown at Hinton Ampner in many varied locations and styles: in formal beds, long borders, mixed with other plants or trained on walls, and clambering high into trees. In his talk John Wood, head gardener, will cover how he deals with restoring rose borders and what to consider when planting your roses. He will share some of his favourite roses and talk about the situations in which he uses them.

    John Wood has worked for the National Trust for 25 Years. Having started at Mottisfont to assist the head gardener, David Stone, with the restoration of the renowned Walled Rose Garden, it was there that he developed his love of roses. In 2000 John moved to Hinton Ampner. Here John and his team have restored the Walled Garden and continue restoring many of the large beds and borders. In his spare time John tends to his own collection of roses. He is a member of the committee of the Historic Rose Group, has helped build and staff the HRG’s award-winning stands at the Hampton Court Flower Show, also providing the spectacular bouquets of roses for display there and at RHS Wisley’s Plant Society weekend show. John is also an expert photographer and his images feature in HRG publicity.