Boston Flora

Month: December 2023

  • Saturdays, December 16, and January 13, 10:00 am – Winter Walks at Polly Hill Arboretum

    In every season the Polly Hill Arboretum on Martha’s Vineyard offers something of beauty and interest to visitors. At this time of year, plants display unique textures, structure, cones, and berries. The Arboretum is offering staff-led winter walks on three Saturdays, December 16 and January 13, beginning at 10 am.

    In order to help prevent the spread of the COVID-19 and RSV viruses, each tour is limited to 12 or fewer adults (no children under 12, sorry). Please do not attend a tour if you don’t feel well, or if you have recently been exposed to someone with a known case of COVID-19. Guides will wear masks, and we ask that all visitors wear masks for the duration of your time on the Arboretum grounds, for the safety of yourselves, other visitors, and our volunteer docents. Please practice social distancing between other visitors and your tour guide.

    To register, visit www.pollyhillarboretum.org. Sorry, we cannot allow groups larger than the allotted number of slots. No children under 12. No dogs. Free for members, $5 for nonmembers.

    Please check your email (the address you signed up with) on the evening prior to your tour to make sure you have not received a cancellation notice. Cancellation may result from inclement weather, or at the discretion of the Arboretum for any reason deemed appropriate by staff.

    If you need to cancel or reschedule, please email info@pollyhillarboretum.org 24 hours prior to your scheduled tour (excluding weekends). This will allow us to fill unused slots or cancel tours that have insufficient registration. We appreciate your consideration in notifying us.

  • Mondays, January 8 – February 12, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm – Introduction to Gardening, Online

    Welcome to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s winter Introduction to Gardening series. This series consists of 6 individual lectures over the course of 6 weeks. Lectures take place on Zoom on Monday evenings at 6:30 pm. Save by purchasing the whole series. Lectures will be recorded and posted to the class webpage within 48 hours of the class. Recordings will be made available until November 2024. Register at https://www.masshort.org/

    This series will cover the following topics: Siting, Water, Soil & Light, Setup: Tools, Fencing, Beds, Seed Starting and Planting, Diseases, Maintenance & Dealing with Pests, and Overview of Perennial Crops

    Urban gardening is about growing food and ornamentals in small spaces.  Whether you have a huge yard without the time or desire to tend it all, or an apartment with no outdoor space at all, this talk will give you tips and techniques to start and maintain a garden you can call your own.

    Instructor: Gretel Anspach is a Lifetime Master Gardener with the Massachusetts Master Gardener Association, a Trustee of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and a recently-retired systems engineer for Raytheon. Gretel helped to establish and maintain two food production gardens that have provided fresh produce to the Marlboro Food Pantry for the last eight years. 

    $156 Mass Hort Members
    $195 General Admission

  • Tim Johnson Named Chief Executive Officer of Native Plant Trust

    The Board of Trustees of Native Plant Trust today announced the appointment of Tim Johnson as its new Chief Executive Officer. Native Plant Trust is the nation’s first plant conservation organization and the only one solely focused on New England’s native plants. Johnson joins Native Plant Trust from Smith College, where he was Director of the Botanic Garden and Professor of Practice.

    Johnson will lead the conservation and horticulture organization, including 45-acre Garden in the Woods in Framingham, MA; Nasami Farm, a native plant nursery in Whately, MA; and expanded seed-processing and storage facilities
    to support the new Northeast Seed Network, a regional initiative led by Native Plant Trust to create a sustainable source of seed to meet the increased demand for native plants. Johnson brings a background in environmental horticulture and biological science to a long-standing career in conservation and botanic garden administration and leadership, pillars of Native Plant Trust’s mission and organization.

    At Smith College, Johnson expanded the impact of scientific programming and conservation science research, mentorship and education. He oversaw the financial management of the renowned botanic garden, and guided the development of organizational vision in alignment with mission. He grew the botanic garden’s fundraising capacity, led strategic planning including the first comprehensive plan in its 128-year history, and restructured and strengthened internal and external communications. He modernized links to the college curriculum, oversaw membership growth, audience diversification and founded the garden’s germplasm conservation collections by partnering with Botanic Gardens Conservation International. Prior to his role at Smith, Johnson was Head of Preservation and

    Seed Bank Manager at Seed Savers Exchange, an international non-profit that stewards America’s culturally diverse and endangered garden and food crop legacy through the preservation and collection of 27,000 heirloom seed varieties.

    A native of Wisconsin, Johnson focused his studies on biology and environmental horticulture, earning a Bachelor of Science in biological sciences at the University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire and a PhD in environmental horticulture from the University of Florida. The appointment is the culmination of a national search, and follows the retirement of Executive Director Debbi Edelstein in January 2024 after fifteen years of distinguished service to the organization. Johnson will begin his role as CEO at Native Plant Trust on January 29, 2024.

  • Wednesday, January 10, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm Eastern – Wild Plant Culture, Online

    Native edible and medicinal plant species can be integrated into gardens and ecological restoration projects to create habitats that support (and include) humans as part of local ecosystems. We’ll consider stewarding edible and medicinal plant species in native habitats such as riparian corridors and glades and discuss how a habitat-based approach translates to yards, parks, and farms. We’ll explore the prospect of changing our foodways to patterns that favor native diversity, rewarding restoration and stewardship.

    This January 10 Mount Cuba Center program takes place online beginning at 6 pm Eastern on Wednesday, January 10, 2024. Field botanist, native plant grower, and restoration practitioner Jared Rosenbaum, author of Wild Plant Culture: A Guide to Restoring Edible and Medicinal Native Plant Communities asks whether we can honor native ecosystems and lifeways as we restore habitats that support humans, other animals, and native plants alike. $25. Register at www.mtcubacenter.org

  • Sunday, December 17, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Holiday Open House at The Gibson House

    The Gibson House Museum is the only house museum in Back Bay. Since 1957, it has told the story of the Gibson family’s daily life during the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through their everyday possessions, decorative objects, and furnishings. On Sunday, December 17, from 1 – 4, the house will be decorated for the holidays as it would have been decorated when the Gibsons were in residence. This year, we have two new, historically appropriate trees: a tabletop goose-feather tree and an eight-foot Noble Fir with LED candles that give a sense of what lit wax candles were like during the Gibsons’ time. Light seasonal refreshments will be served. For more information visit www.thegibsonhouse.org. No reservations necessary!

  • Saturday, December 16, 12:00 noon – 4:00 pm – Winter Frolic at Hall Tavern

    Enjoy the company of family and friends at Historic Deerfield’s Winter Frolic on December 16 from noon to four. The venue is the Hall Tavern at 80 Old Main Street in Deerfield. A fun afternoon of games, singing, dancing, and sweets is planned for you. Play old fashioned parlor games, learn English country dancing, make and take a spice sachet, sample historic hot chocolate (not what you’ll expect), and make molasses popcorn balls. Tickets Free for members, $7 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.historic-deerfield.org/events/winter-frolic-at-hall-tavern/

  • Friday, January 5, 9:30 am – 3:30 pm – Graphite Studies: Form, Pattern, and Texture

    In this one-day Massachusetts Horticultural Society class with Carol Ann Morley, we will look at how to approach simple and complex forms to draw. We begin with distinguishing the underlying structure of form and how to define it from the surface details of pattern and texture. There will be graphite drawing exercises to achieve the basic forms of a sphere and the concave and convex shapes of curved surfaces and tonal application of graphite for smooth, patterned, and textured surfaces of specimens.  Carol Ann Morley is a professional illustrator and dedicated teacher of botanical illustration. She is a former coordinator of the Botanical Art Illustration Certificate Program at The New York Botanical Garden. Her work has been widely exhibited and published in Science magazine, Animal magazine, and many Brooklyn Botanic Garden and NYBG publications.  $125 for MHS members, $165 for nonmembers. Register at http://www.masshort.org/

    Date: Friday, January 5, 2023 (Snow Date: Thursday, Jan. 11th)
    Time Frame: 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.  EST 

  • Thursday, January 4, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm Eastern – National Parks of Washington State: North Cascades, Olympic, and Mount Rainier, Online

    Journey with Smithsonian Associates to high volcanoes, ancient temperate rainforests, glaciers, and big rivers in these geographically and topographically interrelated national parks. Among the most unique public lands in the country, these parks harbor a dazzling array of habitats and recreational opportunities.

    Naturalist Keith Tomlinson discusses the region’s geologic evolution, biological diversity and unique hydrology from glaciers to the sea. His tour highlights ways to access and enjoy these extraordinary natural treasures and covers conservation priorities in all three parks. 

    Chris Williams, Interpretive Park Ranger with the National Park Service working in Olympic and North Cascades National Park, will join the program as a guest speaker. This program is presented on Zoom on January 4 from 7 – 8:30 pm Eastern. $25 for Smithsonian Associates members, $30 for nonmembers. Register at https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/tickets/national-parks-washington-state

  • Debbi Edelstein to Retire as Executive Director of Native Plant Trust

    Native Plant Trust, the nation’s first plant conservation organization and the only one solely focused on New England’s native plants, announced on December 8 that Debbi Edelstein will be retiring as executive director at the end of January after fifteen years of service. The organization is concluding a nationwide search for her successor and is expected to make an announcement shortly. Edelstein has led the 30-person nonprofit since February 2009 and has inspired her team to significant achievements and new initiatives in conservation, ecological horticulture, and education. Edelstein’s many accomplishments reflect her lifelong commitment to making the world a better place. During her tenure, the organization expanded its work to save rare and endangered plants, undertook important restoration projects, developed the first master plan for the 45-acre Garden in the Woods in Framingham, Massachusetts, and launched the nation’s first online botany courses a decade ago. She also set a research agenda that resulted in the publication of the Go Botany website, four books, and two major research reports, “The State of New England’s Native Plants” (2015) and “Conserving Plant Diversity in New England” (2022).

    In addition, she developed a successful new business model for the native plant nursery in Whately, MA, and expanded seed- processing and storage facilities to support the new Northeast Seed Network, a regional initiative led by Native Plant Trust to create a sustainable source of seed to meet the increased demand for native plants in the restoration and nursery sectors.
    She is the lead author of Native Plant Trust’s new fifteen-year vision document, which describes the organization’s opportunities—and obligations—in addressing the twin environmental crises of our era, climate change and the loss of biodiversity.

  • Thursday, January 4, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm Eastern – Introduction to Herbal Medicine, Online

    Are you interested in bringing the natural benefits of herbs and herbal remedies into your life? Discover the differences between herbal medicine and homeopathy, the three major branches of herbalism, and the fascinating history of herbal medicine. Learn how to choose and store herbs, how to properly take herbal medicines, and how to make and use several common herbal remedies that help reduce stress. This New York Botanical Garden online class with Karine Gordineer takes place Thursday, January 4 from 6 – 8 Eastern time.

    Karine Gordineer is a Master Herbalist, Certified Plant Spirit Healing Practitioner, Shamanic Practitioner, Certified Reiki Master/Teacher, and Educator with over 28 years-experience in herbalism and the healing arts. Her introduction into herbalism, shamanism and Earth healing practices began as she learned from her father, who was of Algonquin heritage and taught her the secrets of the medicinal plants and the healing ways of her ancestors. Both her matrilineal grandfather and great-grandfather were herbalists as well. Karine is the founder of Green Girl Herbs & Healing, an herbal remedy and healing company.

    $65 for NYBG members, $70 for nonmembers. Register HERE