Container plantings offer the opportunity to introduce focal points of foliage and flowers where there is no ground space, and are particularly useful around a pool, on a terrace or flanking an entrance way. Interest in potted plantings still remains strong even after many years of popularity, but choosing an appropriate container, assembling beautiful and compatible combinations, and avoiding design clichés can be challenging. Led by designer Robert Clyde Anderson, the Berkshire Botanical Garden class will take place on April 29 from 11 – 12:30, and is $20 for BBG members, $25 for nonmembers. Register HERE
Instructor Robert Clyde Anderson provides a lively, enjoyably opinionated and informative illustrated talk based on his years of experience as a designer and in the retail gardening business.
Inspired by The Friends of the Public Gardens’ free public Untold Stories of the Public Garden tours, our first-ever Tulip Tours explore the history, horticulture, and sculpture of our nation’s first public botanical garden at arguably its most beautiful season.
Tours take place Thursday, April 27 at 6:00 p.m. and Tuesday, May 2 at 2:00 p.m. Each tour is limited to 25 participants. A $15 per person fee supports our work in the three parks. To register visit www.friendsofthepublicgarden.org
Art in Bloom returns to the museum galleries this spring. Come back to Fitchburg Art Museum and see flower arrangements and tablescapes crafted by local florists, garden clubs, and FAM staff interpreting the art in our collection. Beginning Thursday, April 28, there will be Hidden Treasurers Tours. On Friday, April 29 from 6 – 8, enjoy a festive champagne reception ($25 FAM members, $30 public). On Saturday there will be an artist talk with YoAhn Han at 2 pm. Fees to attend Art in Bloom are $15 for adults, $10 seniors and students, FAM members Free. For links to reserve tickets and purchase a spot at the champagne reception, visit https://fitchburgartmuseum.org/art-in-bloom/ Sponsored in part by Laurelwood Garden Club in Fitchburg. The Museum is located at 185 Elm Street in Fitchburg.
Learn how to make more flowers from one little plant or batch of bulbs to expand your spring garden, at this April 30 Wright-Locke Farm workshop from 2 – 3 at the Farm in Winchester.
Ferriss Donham will demonstrate how to divide muscari (grape hyacinth bulbs) and primula (primula vulgaris). You will divide your own in class as she assists. These perennials can be planted into your spring garden to bloom for many years to come, with the acquired knowledge of how to divide and share them in the future. Both plants make lovely fragrant cut flowers for a spring bouquet. As the dividing process can get a little messy, please be prepared to get some dirt on your hands! Free with suggested tiered donations (ages 18 and up) – Register HERE.
Melvin Edwards: Brighter Days showcases six monumental, abstract sculptures by the acclaimed contemporary African American artist Melvin Edwards (b. 1937). This traveling exhibition, first organized by the New York City based nonprofit Public Art Fund for City Hall Park in 2021 constitutes Edwards’ first thematic survey of outdoor sculptures and deCordova’s first outdoor solo exhibition in many years. Brighter Days, a title chosen by the artist, brings forth conversations on Black history and identity, and evokes Edwards’ optimistic view of our shared future.
Brighter Days offers a focused look at Edwards’ accomplishments in large-scale sculpture and public art through five sculptures from 1970 to 1996, and a sixth commissioned in 2020 for Brighter Days. These six works elaborate on his examination of race, labor, and the African Diaspora, and feature his signature use of abstract, representational icons like chains. To the artist, the chain possesses numerous meanings, ranging from its function as a “welded rope” for pulling, its use for bondage and constraints, and its more metaphorical association to linkage and connectivity. By fragmenting and breaking the links, Edwards creates nuanced interpretations of the chain, including its allusions to slavery and violence, as well as liberation and connection. All at once, Brighter Days encourages mindfulness of the past, while inspiring resiliency, overcoming, and connection.
A pioneer of abstract sculpture, Houston-born Melvin Edwards began his career in the 1960s after studying at the University of Southern California. Edwards gained notoriety from his first solo exhibition at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in 1965, where he uniquely blurred abstraction and symbolism to comment on social justice issues – an approach distinct from his Minimalist and Post-Modernist contemporaries. At this time, he initiated his renowned, ongoing body of work Lynch Fragments, a sculpture series investigating themes of racial violence, anti-war protest, and Edwards’ connections to Africa. Shortly thereafter, he exhibited at the Studio Museum of Harlem in 1969, and by 1970, became the first African American sculptor with a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Edwards has produced over 20 public works throughout his career for universities, public housing projects, and museums. Now living and working across multiple studios in two states and Senegal, Melvin Edwards continues to be a leading voice in sculpture, exhibiting nationally and internationally.
Art in Bloom returns to the MFA’s galleries on Friday, April 28, 2023. You won’t want to miss these beautiful interpretive floral arrangements of 45 artworks. Enjoy the creativity of professional floral designers and many talented volunteers. Cost is included in general admission, but on Member Night, Saturday April 29 from 6 – 9, Members and their guests enjoy an exclusive viewing of Art in Bloom, as well as access to the MFA’s galleries, including “Making Past Present: Cy Twombly,” “Hokusai: Inspiration and Influence,” and “Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina.” Separate tickets are required for this exclusive and fun event. Get tickets and learn more at https://www.mfa.org/event/special-event/art-in-bloom
This special tour on Sunday, April 23 with Historic Newton and the Wellesley Historical Society focuses on the rise and fall of industry in Lower Falls. Learn how the Charles River once powered nationally renowned paper mills. Also see the village that early residents built, including St. Mary’s Church and the one-time community hall that is now Lower Falls Wine Company (below). The tour lasts approximately 90 minutes and is recommended for adults and teens. Registration, $20 per person, $15 for Historic Newton and Wellesley Historical Society members, is required. Register here.
The Long Hill Garden Symposium, held over two days (Saturday May 6 & Sunday May 7), brings together an internationally renowned group of plant specialists and horticultural professionals. The fantastic line up of speakers have been featured on a wide variety of media outlets, from Oprah to Shark Tank and The New York Times to Fine Gardening. This unique event will be held across the Long Hill property in Beverly, Massachusetts with a theme of ‘thinking about the plant world in a creative way’. The event is broken down into two days: Day 1 features a series of guest speakers, all of which are included with lunch and tea/coffee for a single fee. Day 2 features a series of a la carte workshops, which are individually priced. More details can be found here: https://thetrustees.org/program/long-hill-symposium/
This year, following on from the Gardens Trust’s successful 2022 series on the rose, in partnership with the Historic Roses Group, the Gardens Trust is happy to announce a new rose-related lecture series, again with the HRG, this time including an international slant.
With speakers hailing from Iceland to Australia, via England, Italy and the USA, these talks are wide-ranging. We begin with a portrait of a popular 19th century rosarian who loved riding as much as roses, knew everyone on the literary scene, was a celebrity preacher and organized the first ever National Rose Show in London. An account of a hillside rose garden in Italy which started as a collection of pots on a terrace in Rome; how to grow roses in the Arctic Circle and ‘down under’ on a working Australia farm; the intriguing stories behind the names of some romantic heritage roses; and where to find a unique UN Food and Agriculture Organization collection of the other – edible – members of the rosaceae family continue the series. We finish with practical advice about training and pruning your climbers, whether roses or wisterias, from a professional horticultural gardener, the latest in three generations of market gardeners and a shows organizer and designer whose sumptuous stands have won medals for the Historic Roses Group at the Hampton Court Flower Show.
This ticket costs £28 for the entire course of 7 sessions or you may purchase a ticket for individual sessions, costing £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. Register through Eventbrite HERE or visit https://thegardenstrust.org/events-archive/page/3/
Week Two is The Other Rosaceae – Brogdale and the National Fruit Collection with Tom La Dell. The National Fruit Collection growing at Brogdale is the most comprehensive collection of fruit varieties in the world. It is the contribution of DEFRA (the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s collections of genetic diversity to secure the future of the world’s food crops. It is the only fruiting collection, providing public access to the National Fruit Collection and to a wide range of education programs on the heritage of the varieties held, fruit cultivation, and fruit in a healthy diet, plus guided tours, festivals and events. Tom will talk about the 4,000 apples, pears, cherries, plums and smaller collections, and how Brogdale Collections is working to maximize the public benefits of these wonderful collections. Future plans include a series of fruit gardens from Medieval to Renaissance (Italian Villas) to Baroque (Versailles) and the Victorian kitchen garden, to show around 400 historic varieties in their historic settings.
Tom la Dell is a landscape architect and ecologist, a trustee of the charity Brogdale Collections, a member of the Kent Gardens Trust and the HRG. Originally a plant scientist, Tom became a landscape architect instead of working with breeding food crops. His work has included all aspects of landscape architecture, often combined with his work as an ecologist. He has written extensively for the KGT and the Historic Rose Journal. His long-standing interest in garden history and plant heritage started with excellent lectures in the late 1960s.
Celebrate Earth Day with both plants and birds! Rachel Moon is a wildlife biologist who specializes in shorebird habitat restoration. Working at the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens in Fall, 2022, Rachel collaborated with the Botanic Gardens team to create bird-friendly habitats and inspired students and staff with knowledge about the birds of campus. Join Rachel for an enthusiastic, guided walk of her favorite outdoor garden areas, including the Edible Ecosystem, to watch for and learn about local birds. Meet at the WCBG Visitor Center. Free, but pre-registration is required. Email wcbgfriends@wellesley.edu.
