Boston Flora

Month: March 2023

  • Tuesday, April 4, 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm Eastern – You are Here with Alexandra Cousteau, Online

    Ocean conservationist and environmental advocate Alexandra Cousteau will converse with Boston Public Library President David Leonard as part of the 2023 Lowell Lecture Series You are Here: Climate Change and What’s Next. Their 60-75 minute conversation will followed by an audience Q&A.

    Alexandra Cousteau builds upon the more than 60 years of global name recognition to engage people who expect to hear credible environmental information from the third generation of this pioneering family of explorers. Born into the family business, Alexandra joined her parents in Easter Island on her first expedition at just four months old. By the age of three, she had toured Africa, exploring Egypt, Tunisia, Uganda, and Kenya in the arms of her father. While many of those memories are now out of reach, the experience of those expeditions with her father’s crew has shaped her sense of purpose, her connection to the ocean, and her love of adventure. She could swim before she could walk and was one of the few who learned to dive with SCUBA from Captain Cousteau himself at the tender age of seven. Her childhood friends were the sea creatures that inhabit the rocky shorelines of the south of France. The ocean has been her guide ever since.

    This lecture is part of the Boston Public Library Lowell Lecture Series on climate change and what’s next and produced by GBH Forum Network. This event will begin at 6pm ET. Free. Register at www.wgbh.org for link.

  • Tuesday, April 4, 11:00 am – Hydrangeas and Heritage Museum and Gardens

    Mal Condone, the Curator of Hydrangeas at Sandwich’s Heritage Museums and Gardens will discuss Hydrangea care and introduce new cultivars for 2023. The talk is sponsored by the Andover Garden Club at the South Church Fellowship Hall, Central Street in Andover. Meetings are open to visitors. A donation of $10.00 (cash or check) at the door is appreciated. For more information on upcoming public meetings visit HERE

  • Tuesday, April 4, 5:30 pm – 9:00 pm – Tulip Mania

    The Massachusetts Horticultural Society is welcoming Jo Thompson, RHS Chelsea Flower Show multi-medal winner, over from England on her spring US tour. Inspired by her book The Gardener’s Palette: Creating Colour Harmony in the Garden, Jo will share her experience with finding, planning, and executing a garden color palette. Enjoy drinks (cash bar) and light bites for this exciting lecture during Mass Hort’s first ever Tulip Mania at the Garden at Elm Bank in Wellesley. Jo will be signing copies of her book, and it is available for purchase with your ticket. $55 – $70 – register through Eventbrite HERE.

  • Friday, April 14, 12:00 noon – 1:00 pm Eastern – Ask the Expert: Spring Gardening, Online

    Whether it’s a grand garden or a cozy corner, any yard can be a place to connect with nature around you. Learn how to transform your backyard into a lush paradise full of beauty at GBH’s next Ask the Expert: Spring Gardening event with public garden expert Karen Daubmann online on April 14 at noon Eastern. Bring your questions.

    Daubmann has worked for 25 years to create effective and longstanding change in public gardens. She joined Massachusetts Horticultural Society (MHS) in 2022, where she focuses on encouraging guests to connect and interact with gardens through art, nature and culture. Prior to joining MHS, she worked for 14 years at the New York Botanical Garden. She has been featured in Jennifer Jewell’s The Earth in Her Hands: 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants and has contributed essays for the exhibits Kusama: Cosmic Nature, 2021 and Frida Kahlo’s Garden, 2015.

    Register for this free virtual Ask The Expert event.We will email you the link to this virtual event once you have registered. GBH will be using Zoom Webinar for this event. Zoom is free to the public but will require a computer download. You can download Zoom here. If you already have Zoom you will not need to download the platform again. Register at www.wgbh.org

  • Monday, April 8, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm – Spring Pruning of Woody Ornamentals

    Spring is a great time to assess woody shrubs for shape, structure and winter damage. This Berkshire Botanical Garden workshop will focus on learning by doing. Ron and Kieran Yaple, owners of Race Mountain Tree Services in Sheffield, Mass., will demonstrate how to renovate, rejuvenate and shape shrubs and small ornamental trees for structure, health and optimal growth. Plants covered will include viburnums, lilacs, witch hazels, deciduous azaleas, sweetshrubs, crabapples, and ornamental cherries. Participants should dress for the weather, bring pruners, work gloves, and a lunch.
     

    Ron Yaple has developed a regional reputation as a premier arborist and dedicated and knowledgeable teacher of arboriculture. Kieran Yaple is a Massachusetts certified arborist and an International Society of Arboriculture certified arborist. He is also a Certified Tree Safety Professional and is pesticide-licensed in Massachusetts. He recently joined the board of directors of the Massachusetts Arborists Association. Register at www.berkshirebotanical.org $35 BBG members, $45 nonmembers.

    Crape Myrtle (not hardy in Massachusetts)

  • Tuesday, April 18, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm Eastern – “Everything in Balance”: Planning and its Role in Protecting Historic Gardens, Online

    Andrew Croft, Director, CBA Studios, a landscape, environmental and heritage practice, will present an online talk on Tuesday, April 18 entitled “Everything in Balance”: Planning and its Role in Protecting Historic Gardens, with particular reference to the royal Botanic Gardens, Kew World Heritage Site The program is sponsored by London Historic Parks & Gardens Trust.

    The talk is an overview of how the English planning system treats historic designed landscapes in terms of development within and around them. He will explore how change can harm or affect designed landscapes, particularly in terms of change around a site, and how the balance between potential harm and potential benefit is addressed in the planning system. This will highlight key considerations for people looking to influence development in and around historic gardens, supporting individuals and groups who wish to encourage appropriate consideration of designed landscapes by developers and local planning authorities.  He will draw on a range of case studies, but with a particular focus on recent developments and proposals around Kew Gardens.

    Andrew is consultant with extensive experience working on high profile conservation, destination and development projects. He has served as an expert witness at a number of planning inquiries relating to development around heritage sites, including parks and gardens. He has particular expertise in delivering complex projects for highly sensitive and significant places including many World Heritage Sites in the UK and internationally. Five pound fee. Register at londongardenstrust.org

  • Sunday, October 1 – Sunday, October 8 – A British Cheese Odyssey: London, Somerset, and Bath Sojourn

    Marc Hernandez, Formaggio Kitchen’s manager, buyer and expert cheesemonger, co-hosts this tour with Anna Juhl of Cheese Journeys. You’ll spend time with and learn from Britain’s most renowned artisan cheesemakers – all while staying in a beautifully restored English Manor. A day trip to the historic and food-loving city of Bath adds to this cheese lovers experience.

    This one-of-a-kind experience allows you to spend time with and learn from Britain’s best artisan cheesemakers all while staying in a beautifully restored English Manor. Meet up in London at Neal’s Yard Dairy (NYD). You’ll be introduced to the team at NYD for an insider’s tour and view of the British cheese world. Travel west for a 7-day stay at the Downton Abbey-style holiday at North Cadbury Court, one of the finest historic properties in Somerset, England. Enjoy chef-prepared meals, tour scenic farms, and witness Cheddar making firsthand. You’ll be guests at a grand dinner party as we host fifteen of England’s top cheese producers at the Court. Enjoy hands-on cooking demonstrations with French Chefs, indulge in a spa day, walk the historic grounds of Camelot and King Arthur, and explore the exciting food scene in the historic city of Bath.

    For complete itinerary and information, and to sign up, visit www.cheesejourneys.com

  • Thursday, April 6, 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm Eastern – New England Climbers, Online

    Native climbers are an ecologically and taxonomically varied group of plants. They range from rare and vulnerable species, such as Allegheny vine (Adlumia fungosa) and the American climbing fern (Lygodium palmatum, pictured below) to those proliferating due to forest fragmentation and warming climate, such as wild grapes (Vitis spp) and poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans). Learn about 50 climbers and become familiar with identification characteristics. This Native Plant Trust class will take place online on April 6 from 3 – 6 led by Neela de Zoysa. NPT members $60, nonmembers $72. Register at http://www.nativeplanttrust.org/events/new-england-climbers-2/ Please note: We do not make video or audio recordings of classes or programs available after the fact, because we believe education is interactive, with instructors and students building a community and culture of learning. Some programs may be recorded strictly for instructor-training purposes.

  • Monday, April 3 – Sunday, April 21 – 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge

    Food Solutions New England will host the 9th version of its food system-oriented free 21-Day Racial Equity Habit-Building Challenge from April 3, 2023 to April 23, 2023. Click here to register. When FSNE first developed this customized version of the Challenge, inspired by the work of Debby Irving and Dr. Eddie Moore, Jr., they intended it to have a food system focus. While many other organizations have been inspired by FSNE’s interactive and customized version, this is the one that focuses most deeply on food, food systems, agriculture, land access, and topics near and dear to the group’s Vision and Values.

    Each year, thousands of individuals and hundreds of officially participating organizations join in a shared journey of learning and charting a course of action to dismantle racism in our food system and our world.

    About the Challenge

    The 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge is simple. You commit to deepening your understanding of, and willingness to confront, racism for twenty-one consecutive days in April of each year and the Racial Equity Challenge will:

    • Raise your awareness, change your understanding and shift the way you behave.
    • Go beyond individual or interpersonal racism by helping to demystify structural and institutional racism and white supremacist patterns that are sometimes invisible to people.
    • Inspire you to act, on your own or with others in your organization, business, or group, to dismantle these systems, to make changes in your work and the world that can build true equity and justice for all.

  • Thursday, April 13 – Saturday, April 15 – National Garden Clubs Gardening School, Course 1, Series 12, on Zoom

    The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts announces the upcoming National Garden Clubs Gardening School Course 1, Series 12, on Zoom April 13 – 15. Full course with exam is $110, full course, no exam, $100, full course for non-club members $125. Deadline for registration April 1. There will be lectures by Dr. Judith Sumner, Professor of Natural Sciences, Assumption College, Kathi Gariepy, Massachusetts Master Gardener, educator, garden writer, and lecturer, and Joann Vieira, former head of horticulture at Tower Hill Botanic Gardens and current head of horticulture for Massachusetts Trustees of Reservations. For more information and to register visit https://www.gcfm.org/gardening-study-school or email lindajean.smith@comcast.net Topics will include Basic Botany, Soils, Techniques for Growing Outdoor Flowers, and Plant Propagation.