Daily Archives: October 28, 2022


Thursday, November 10, 10:00 am – The Boston Committee of The Garden Club of America Fall Lecture and Luncheon: The Importance of Conserving Plant Diversity in New England

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/


Wednesday, November 2, 1:30 pm – Unforgettable Gardens: Somerleyton Hall: Peto’s Scenes of Enchantment and Wentworth’s Curiosities

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.


Wednesday, November 2, 2:00 pm – 2:30 pm – Plant Inventory on Hemlock Hill

Join Kyle Port, Manager of Plant Records, on November 2 at 2 pm to learn how plant inventory work is being tackled on Hemlock Hill at the Arnold Arboretum. Participants will travel less than a quarter mile over gravel, woodchips, and pavement. Meet at the bottom of Hemlock Hill Summit Road near Tsuga canadensis 1230-98*A. See map at website https://arboretum.harvard.edu/events/event-signup/?id=59014 for on-site location.

Arnold Arboretum Landscape Talk – Plant Inventory on Hemlock Hill