Get ready for a blast from the past with New England Botanic Garden’s annual orchid exhibition on February 8 – March 16. Pixels + Petals combines the vibrant world of retro video games with the delicate beauty of orchids in a one-of-a-kind experience. Thousands of living orchids in bloom will be artfully showcased throughout the Garden’s two subtropical conservatories. Rewind, flash back, and immerse yourself in pixelated charm as nostalgia and nature unite. Join us during daytime hours or experience the exhibition in a different light during our special Orchids After Dark events.
On opening weekend, February 8 -9, Be among the first to experience the stunning orchid displays and nostalgic works of art of Pixels + Petals, An Orchid Exhibition. Enjoy live music in our subtropical conservatories and a curated artisan vendor market. Included with general admission.
On Fridays and Saturdays, February 14 – March 15 from 6 – 8, enjoy Orchids After Dark (21+). Experience the retro charm of Pixels + Petals, An Orchid Exhibition after-hours. Enjoy live music, drinks, and light bites while exploring our stunning orchid displays and curated ambience. Ticket price includes one free beverage and a unique night out. Members: $20, Non-Members: $30
For garden makers and visitors alike, the beauty or symbolism of a garden may kindle a sense of connection to a larger world, physical or imaginary. Garden creation begins in the imagination as a quest for meaning. On February 6 at 5 pm Eastern, Jane Roy Brown and the Native Plant Trust will explore the process of imagining a garden that holds personal meaning and look at examples of types of gardens that fulfill meaning-making for their creators or for visitors. The class is online and is $17 for members and $20 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.nativeplanttrust.org/events/the-meaning-of-gardens/
Using his book Understanding Perennials as a starting point, Bill Cullina tackles the thorny subject of garden design in an innovative way. In this fun and informative Mt. Cuba Center talk, he explores such things as the reasons for big leaves, variegation, red foliage and flowers and ways to create more satisfying designs without breaking the budget. He looks at life beyond the color wheel, and the importance of healthy soil and reveals some of his best horticultural secrets while weaving together aesthetics, psychology, botany, and ecology. Both beginning gardeners and seasoned pros will be able to learn from and enjoy this talk. Bill Cullina is the F. Otto Haas Executive Director of the Morris Arboretum. He is a well-known author, lecturer, and authority on North American native plants. His books include Wildflowers; Native Trees, Shrubs, and Vines; Native Ferns, Mosses, and Grasses; and Understanding Perennials.
Looking into the rear garden at 3 Bush Road, Kew. Plants included Fatsia japonica, Dicksonia antarctica, Phyllostachys nigra, Musa bajoo and Eriobotrya japonica.
The 2025 Daffodil Festival on Nantucket, April 24 – 27, includes art shows, a pet show, tours, exhibitions, contests, lectures, and, of course, the Garden Club’s annual Nantucket Daffodil Flower Show. There are activities for all ages, and faithful festival-goers dress up for the occasion and participate enthusiastically. In addition to the Antique Car Parade, window decorating contest, and the famous ‘Sconset Tailgate Picnic, the Nantucket Island Chamber of Commerce organizes a Daffy Hat Contest, a Children’s Parade featuring decorated bikes, strollers, wagons, and other self-propelled vehicles, and a family picnic at Children’s Beach. The Pine Woods Morris Dancers perform throughout the day at various outdoor locations. For complete information and schedule visit https://daffodilfestival.com/. Make reservations now, since lodging can be tight at the last minute.
Black ash (Fraxinus nigra) is directly under threat by the emerald ash borer. Recently, Native Plant Trust has received funding to collect seed from black ash populations in northern New England for conservation purposes. This January 30 online course will summarize those findings, along with black ash general ecology, habitat and identification information, cultural importance, and conservation considerations. Led by Erik Sechler, the session is $26 for NPT members, $30 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.nativeplanttrust.org/events/black-ash-conservation-in-new-england/
Thinking outside the “phlox,” coloring outside the lines. Yes, you are an artist in your garden. You will discover plants and art in public and private gardens—from quirky and magical to the elegant and innovative.
This Chicago Botanic Garden class on January 28 will be taught online via Zoom. All registrations must be submitted online two days before your class starts. Registered students will receive login instructions one day in advance. $32 for CBG members, $40 for nonmembers. Register at www.chicagobotanic.org
Designed landscapes are typically defined as places laid out for artistic effect or aesthetic purposes, somewhere to contemplate and admire. Yet many people have a much more active relationship with outdoor spaces, engaging with them for jogging, cycling, ball games, playgrounds and carnival rides. They are places to play.
This Gardens Trust series will examine the relationship between historic designed landscapes and organized recreation. We’ll be exploring children’s outdoor play, a world-famous theme park set among a Grade 1 Regency landscape, a Premier League football stadium that was once a Victorian pleasure ground, an early 18th-century estate that is now a golf course, and a Victorian public park which was opposed by local workers despite its claimed recreational and health-giving benefits.
This ticket (register HERE) is for this individual session and costs £8, and you may purchase tickets for other individual sessions, or you may purchase a ticket for the entire course of 5 sessions at a cost of £35 via the link here. (Gardens Trust members £6 or £26.25). 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 2 weeks) will be sent shortly afterwards.
Week One: Who amongst us doesn’t hold parks and gardens at the heart of their childhood memories? And so it has been for garden-lovers for many hundreds of years. In this light-hearted lecture, Linden Groves will take us by the hand for a skip through the history of play in gardens and parks. Together, we’ll sail boats and roll hoops in 18th century estates, then crowd onto Giant Strides and swings in public parks from the 19th- and 20th centuries, before taking a look at play in historic parks and gardens today.
Linden Groves is fascinated by the ways people experience historic parks and gardens, with a particular interest in how children have played in them through the centuries. She has researched the subject for English Heritage, the National Trust and the Royal Parks and is currently writing a book on the history of playgrounds. Linden is the author of the influential Beyond the Playgroundbooklet (The Garden History Society, 2010), and has worked with Battle Abbey, Walmer Castle, Sudbury Children’s Country House, Land of the Fanns and the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, on how to engage families with historic places. She also runs HahaHopscotch, offering Traditional Garden Games for children in historic landscapes. Linden is Head of Operations and Strategy at the Gardens Trust. The image below is of the world-famous playground at Wicksteed Park, Kettering, courtesy of Linden Groves.
Join the Massachusetts Audubon Society on Sunday, February 2 at 8 am to observe resident birds and winter visitors in a unique urban habitat that is a favorite stomping ground for many bird species. A BNC naturalist will help us find and identify birds through field marks, sounds, and behaviors. Birders of all levels will enjoy these guided walks; beginning birders are encouraged to come! Most trails are flat and easy to walk, there are some that have an incline. This is a free event. Register at https://www.massaudubon.org/programs/boston-nature-center/94433-winter-bird-walk-at-millennium-park
The High Victorian Period saw a rejection of the aesthetic rules that had shaped the English Landscape Garden. No more appeals to the picturesque. Goodbye to the line of beauty. In their place came a brilliant, gaudy, do-what-you-like swagger of color and historic revivalism; occasionally successful, often searingly bad, but always interesting and now sadly overlooked. This talk will bring back some eccentric masterpieces of the age and follow their development from origins in Loudon’s gardenesque, to an eventual death under the crushing boot of good-taste and the Natural Garden. The Gardens Trust will present a lecture on January 28 online. This ticket is for this January 28 individual talk and costs £8 – Register HERE
Ben Dark is a writer, historian and ex-head gardener. He is author of The Grove: A Nature Odyssey in 19 ½ Front Gardens (Mitchell Beasley, 2022) and is currently writing a history of plants for the Bodley Head. His articles appear widely and in 2022 he won the Garden Media Guild’s Journalist of the Year award.
Jacqueline van der Kloet will share bulb basics, color combinations, seasonal care for bulbs including naturalizing them to become independent, layering bulbs, growing bulbs on a larger scale, and integration for constant blooms in the garden for the Berkshire Botanical Garden Winter Lecture 2025 on Sunday, February 16, at 2 p.m. Join her on the journey through her favorite spring, summer, autumn, and winter flowering bulbs, and case studies of her naturalistic garden designs from around the world, including the Netherlands, Japan, Germany, the UK, and the Lurie Garden in the United States, where she collaborated with leading plantsman, Piet Oudolf.
Growing Bulbs in the Natural Garden is a four-season guide to combining bulbs with perennials and grasses in a loose, carefree style, from a leading figure in the New Perennial movement. From the earliest snowdrops to alpine violets, tulips, alliums, late autumn crocuses, and many more, bulbs add interest and color to the garden throughout the year. Renowned naturalistic garden designer, Jacqueline van der Kloet, has mastered a casual, magical technique where bulbs emerge playfully among other plants, as if dancing freely among the perennials and grasses. Both friendly and accessible, van der Kloet will explore the recently published book; introducing bulbs as essential to any garden at any scale, inviting in pollinators, providing wonderful pops of color and personality, and extending a garden’s bloom time in the shoulder seasons.
Growing Bulbs in the Natural Garden provides unique inspiration and expert insight gained from van der Kloet’s vast career, using nature as a model. Indeed, growing bulbs in van der Kloet‘s style makes the garden appear as if nature had planted the bulbs herself.
Jacqueline van der Kloet is an internationally acclaimed garden designer and one of Holland’s best-known gardening authorities. She is a plant specialist whose advice is sought by designers and landscape architects. Her designs are prized for their beauty, naturalized schemes, bold uses of color. Van der Kloet’s client list includes some of the most prestigious public gardens in the world. In North America, she teamed with Piet Oudolf for innovative plantings at New York’s Battery Park, New York Botanical Garden, and Chicago’s Lurie Garden. Her work across Europe and Asia ranges from Holland’s famous Keukenhof, to the palace Huis ten Bosch in Nagasaki, Japan to the Newport Bay Club at Disneyland, Paris. Her work includes many private gardens and she frequently contributes to international exhibitions.
Also, please join us for a coffee and cookie reception after the lecture, to be held at the Lenox Middle High School in Lenox, Massachusetts. BBG members $40, nonmembers $55. Register at www.berkshirebotanical.org
