Experience the beauty of autumn at Mount Auburn during this fall walking tour led by Visitors Services Assistant, Jim Gorman. We will visit some of the more colorful trees in our landscape in addition to looking for plant and shrubs putting out their fall fruits and nuts.
Free, but registration required HERE. To request an accommodation or for inquiries about accessibility, please contact friends@mountauburn.org or 617-607-1980.
Experience a deeper connection to Mount Auburn Cemetery with free access to all our public programs and discounts on special events by joining the Friends of Mount Auburn. Our robust roster of programs each year is made possible through your generous support. Funding for programs has been provided in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
Ask most people to describe the greatest days of British garden history and they’ll probably end up talking about the grand gardens of Edwardian England where lots of staff worked on maintaining huge flower borders, vast kitchen gardens and seemingly endless shrubberies. In other words the sort of garden that has been labelled the Golden Age of gardening in Britain. Is that a realistic view? By the late C19th Britain had moved from being a rural to an urban nation. Cities expanded but nostalgia for the countryside was widespread, while new suburbs developed a culture of their own. Technology and mechanization continued to change life, usually but not always for the better, but there were also constant calls to return to traditional methods, which were reflected in gardens. While nurseries filled our gardens with huge numbers of new plants from round the world, at the same time there was greater interest in wild flowers and natural planting. This affected garden styles and designs, and everything became possible – from imitation exotic Japanese gardens to reimagined “Tudorbethan” parterres and blowsy labor-intensive herbaceous borders. At the same time interest in horticulture spread right across the social scale as seed companies enabled anyone with a little space and a few spare pennies to take up gardening for themselves.
So while it’s true that in many ways this truly was a Golden Age it’s also true that it contained within it the seeds of its own destruction.
This ticket is for the entire course of 6 sessions. or you may purchase a ticket for upcoming individual sessions, costing £5 via the links found at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-c19th-garden-part-4-tickets-445595426917Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days (and again a few hours) prior to the start of the first talk (If you do not receive this link please contact us), and a link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 1 week.
On November 3, the first talk in the series will look those artists who created the impression that the period leading up to the Great War was the Golden Age of British gardening. As we have seen in previous lectures gardens were never a major subject for artists until the mid-C19th but then they takes center stage. This is partly because of a growing interest in gardening and partly because art was now becoming more commercialized. Many garden artists worked in watercolor, a much more affordable medium for the growing number of middle class collectors. There were more artists societies, more commercial galleries and exhibitions of living artists work and more opportunities for their work to be used in colour in books, magazines and prints.
In the last series we saw the work of artists like Myles Birkett Foster and Frederic Walker who painted prettified and idealized versions of the gardens of the rural poor, but from the 1880s onwards they were joined on the gallery wall by those of artists like George Elgood and Arthur Rowe who preferred the gardens of the rural rich whose country house estates combined nostalgia for old-fashioned gardens with historical revivalism in architecture. Their paintings were romantic in style, lush and soft in colour and light and its gardens of the Golden Age are their creation
After a career as a head teacher in Inner London, Dr David Marsh took very early retirement (the best thing he ever did) and returned to education on his own account. He was awarded a PhD in 2005 and now lectures about garden history anywhere that will listen to him. Recently appointed an honorary Senior Research Fellow by the University of Buckingham, he is a trustee of the Gardens Trust and chairs their Education Committee. He oversees their on-line programme and writes a weekly garden history blog which you can find at https://thegardenstrust.blog
On November 8 enjoy the third in the Gardens Trust series on gardens of the French Riviera. This ticket is for this individual session and costs £5, or you may purchase a ticket for the entire course of 4 sessions at a cost of £16 via the link 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.
This lecture takes us from the Impressionist desire to catch light effects with a focus on Renoir at Les Collettes where he saved its ancient olive groves and entertained fellow artists. In direct contrast Beatrice d’Ephrussi represented all Renoir disliked, she dynamited part of Cap Ferrat to create a world of colourful, geometric gardens, hiring and firing a legion of architects and gardeners. The landscape of the Fondation Maeght (below) presents and represents the heart and soul of contemporary art and sculpture, a canvas of light and shade that is at the same time an inspiring setting. If contemporary art serves its purpose it should evoke excitement (or horror) and excite your critical faculties which leads us into the contrasting studio gardens of Arman and Bernar Vernet. The former by invitation and the latter still his atelier and inspiration.
Caroline Holmes is an experienced and accomplished lecturer working for a wide range of organisations including leading tour and cruise operators. She is an Accredited Lecturer of The Arts Society and is also a Course Director for the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education. Her own gardens are open to the public and have featured in many magazine articles and on television in both Britain and Japan. Since the 1990s she has been researching, writing about and lecturing on the Riviera. Caroline is author of 12 books, her latest being Where the wildness pleases – the English garden celebrated (2021).
Enjoy behind the scenes stories of Nigella Lawson’s “life in food.” A resident of London, she is an internationally renowned food writer and TV chef whose successful television programs have made her a household name around the world.
In 1998 she published her first cookbook, How To Eat, The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food. She now has twelve bestselling books to her name, including her latest, Cook, Eat, Repeat: Ingredients, Recipes, and Stories. Her books have sold more than 12 million copies worldwide.
Her first TV series, “Nigella Bites” aired in 2000, followed by a string of successful series broadcast in the UK, USA, Australia and beyond.
The program takes place at the Emerson Colonial Theatre, 106 Boyston Street, Boston, on November 7 at 8 pm. Tickets range from $45 – $110. Call 888-616-0272 or visit www.emersoncolonialtheatre.com
In this Research and Academic Program talk at The Clark on November 15 at 5:30 pm, Jordan Reznick (Getty Research Institute, Bennington College) examines how the intergenerational manipulation of plant communities practiced by Indigenous peoples shaped the technological and aesthetic makeup of the photographic medium during the decades following the American invasion of California.
Presented in person in the Clark Museum auditorium at 225 South Street in Williamstown. This event is free with a reception in the Manton Research Center Reading Room starting at 5 pm. For more information and directions visit https://www.clarkart.edu/event/detail/2094-89824
Landscape designers nationwide believe in the many benefits of green stormwater infrastructure (GSI); but, for this strategy to succeed, the public must want these installations in their yards, parks, schools, and neighborhood streets. This Ecological Landscape Alliance online session on November 2 presents a study of public reactions to the appearance of GSI, focusing on rain garden installation within the municipal streetscape – technically a “public” space, but perceived by homeowners as part of their front yards. Public resistance to streetscape rain gardens can be found across the U.S. Some residents regard these rain gardens as “ugly pits,” while others think they “look great.” A community’s appreciation for rain gardens is critical to their cultural sustainability: negative reactions can stall and prevent implementation. The study interviews designers and municipal program managers of green streets projects in Kansas City, Missouri, and Montgomery County, Maryland, and builds upon existing research and theory transecting the fields of landscape architecture and environmental behavior. Data analysis reveals the drivers of public concern regarding appearance and potential design and participatory strategies. Register HERE.
Presenter Kate Cholakis is conducting research examining the intersections of sustainable stormwater management, landscape perception, and environmental behavior through the MSLA program at Penn State University. She teaches ecological design and planning within the Conway School’s graduate program, and her professional practice experience involves green infrastructure planning and design and ecological approaches to land management. Ms. Cholakis earned her BA in Architecture from Smith College and MA from the Conway School. She is a LEED Green Associate. Presenter Eliza Pennypacker is a Professor of Landscape Architecture at Penn State University. Since 2005 she has conducted research with Stuart Echols on “Artful Rainwater Design”: sustainable stormwater management that celebrates the rain in a way that is entertaining and enlightening. She and Echols have presented and published extensively on the subject, including their 2015 book, Artful Rainwater Design: Creative Ways to Manage Stormwater (Island Press).
On November 9 at 7 pm, The Athol Bird & Nature Club will host naturalist and birder Jeff Blanchard who will speak on Birding in the Land of the Midnight Sun. Participants can watch at the Environmental Center in Athol or online via Zoom. Free. The event will be held at the Millers River Environmental Center, 100 Main Street, Athol. To register for the Zoom link, email Dave@dhsmall.net, or visit www.atholbirdclub.org
Take deep breaths, slow down and leave your “to do” list behind. Experience the therapeutic benefits of horticulture while creating a seasonal cornucopia arrangement. The cornucopia, also called the horn of plenty, symbolizes abundance and nourishment, and is traditionally a horn-shaped container overflowing with produce and flowers. You can choose to design your cornucopia with a rich variety of colorful and fragrant autumn flowers, berries, wheat, herbs and ornamental grasses. Feel calm and refreshed with positive energy by focusing on being in the moment and engaging each of your five senses one at a time – sight, touch, sound, smell and taste – while interacting with sensory rich plant materials.
This New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill class will include an overview of the therapeutic benefits and power of horticulture to understand why and how it can be used personally, and for people of all ages and abilities. We will discuss the difference between therapeutic horticulture and horticultural therapy. You will learn about benefits including increased relaxation, decreased anxiety, stress relief, sensory stimulation, hope, improved cognitive abilities, engagement in life, connectedness, and physical exercise. It will be clear how plants and the natural world give you support when life gets overwhelmingly busy or stressful. We will spend approximately 40 minutes delving into this.
You will spend approximately 80 minutes designing and making a unique medium size festive arrangement in a cornucopia basket. You can place it on your Thanksgiving table, or other welcoming space in your home like the kitchen, family room, mantel or front hallway. Your arrangement can also make a lovely gift. Join Deborah Krause, Horticultural Therapist, in these relaxing sessions where you may leave with a smile, feeling of calm and peace, and pride in your creation.
Deborah Krause is a Registered Horticultural Therapist. She is passionate about wellness and the therapeutic benefits of horticulture for people of all ages and abilities. She has served in various capacities in the American Horticultural Therapy Association (AHTA) and the Northeast Horticultural Therapy Network (NEHTN), which she co-founded, and currently is on the Board of Directors. Deborah developed the horticultural therapy program at Perkins School for the Blind and was the horticultural therapist and coordinator of the horticulture center there for 40 years. She is currently a Program Coordinator at The Nature Connection whose mission is to improve the wellbeing of individuals and communities through the therapeutic use of nature. Deborah is the horticulture educator at the Memorial Spaulding School Garden where students grow produce to donate to food pantries. She presents webinars for AARP on adaptive gardening as we age. Deborah consults with non-profit organizations to design and facilitate therapeutic and educational horticulture and nature programs. Deborah’s popular classes for adults creating sensory rich seasonal flower and plant arrangements have focused on relaxation, stress reduction and positive thinking and she is honored and happy to continue to bring this to Tower Hill.
$70 Member Adult; $85 Adult (Registration includes admission to the Garden) All materials are provided. Register at www.nebg.org
As Director of Conservation, Michael Piantedosi leads the Native Plant Trust’s internationally recognized Conservation Department, which focuses on saving imperiled plants, restoring habitat, and documenting the state of New England’s plants. Michael oversees a team of conservation staff and many of the 1,500 trained volunteers who work throughout New England each year to monitor and protect rare and endangered plants, collect and preserve seeds to ensure biological diversity, detect and control invasive species, and conduct research. Michael is active in the Center for Plant Conservation network where the Native Plant Trust acts as a Participating Institution (PI). He is also the point of contact for listing New England rare plants on the IUCN Red List (the international list of rare and endangered species). Prior to joining NPT, Michael was Curatorial Horticulturalist at the Museum of Science, Boston, and held positions at the Woodman Horticultural Research Farm and the Center for Freshwater Biology. He recently co-authored the landmark publication ‘Conserving Plant Diversity in New England,’ ” a collaboration of NPT and the Nature Conservancy. The Boston Committee of The Garden Club of America invites its members to the Fall Lecture and Luncheon on November 10 beginning with a reception at 10 am, the lecture at 10:30, and luncheon at 11:30, at The Country Club in Brookline. Club members will receive an invitation through Eventbrite. For more information visit https://bostoncommitteegca.org/
The Gardens Trust, in partnership with the Suffolk Gardens Trust, presents a Wednesday series of four talks to highlight some aspects of the county’s rich gardening heritage. It is offered as a companion to the newly-launched co-operative project on ‘Suffolk’s Unforgettable Garden Story’ by The Gardens Trust and the Suffolk Gardens Trust, with funding by Historic England. This seeks to encourage research into the historic parks and gardens, public parks, cemeteries and other good examples of designed landscapes of Suffolk, with the overarching aim of adding layers of protection to these green spaces and to promote their future survival.
On November 2, Edward Martin will discuss Somerleyton Hall: Peto’s Scenes and Wentworth’s Curiosities. Somerleyton Hall, near Lowestoft in eastern Suffolk, has a wonderful Victorian garden, created for Sir Morton Peto, the railway entrepreneur and ‘father of Lowestoft’, by his architect, John Thomas, and the noted garden designer, William Andrews Nesfield. This is rightly graded II* by Historic England, but only recently has it been realized that it lies above the remains of extensive and perhaps even more wonderful gardens created there by Sir John Wentworth in the early 17th century. There is also an intriguing connection with that seminal figure of English garden history, John Tradescant.
Edward Martin is the chairman of the Suffolk Gardens Trust and a vice-president of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History. Now retired, he worked as an archaeologist with Suffolk County Council for many years, specialising in prehistory and historic landscape studies, and has lectured widely on the archaeology, history, landscape, buildings and gardens of Suffolk. His published works cover a diversity of subjects, from Bronze Age burial mounds, through medieval field systems to 18th-century gardens.
This link for a series ticket costs £16 for the entire course of 4 sessions or you may purchase a ticket for the individual session, costing £5 by clicking HERE. You will be routed through Eventbrite to purchase. 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.
