Boston Flora

Month: May 2025

  • Tuesdays, May 27, June 24, and July 27, 12:00 noon – 1:00 pm – Climate Change Book Club

    Do you want to know the name of that elusive yellow flower? Are you looking for an excuse to dance in the park like no one is watching? Are you a cardboard sculpture fanatic, looking to make a bumble bee puppet? Frozen with existential dread about the inclement heat and rising tides due to climate emergency?

    Join the Greenway Public Art throughout the summer for a series of pop-up art making parties along with a monthly Climate Fiction Book Club hosted by our Eco-Art Cart in Dewey Square! For our first read we will be discussing Octavia E. Butler’s iconic 1993 speculative fiction novel, The Parable of the Sower. This work serves as a main source of inspiration for artist Misa Chhan, who will be installing work in Auntie Kay & Uncle Frank Chin Park on The Greenway later this month. In the novel, which is set in a post-apocalyptic Earth heavily affected by climate change and social inequality, a main tenet of the fictional Earthseed religion is, “All that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you. The only lasting truth is Change. God is Change.” The June selection is The Seep by China Porter, and July is Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh.

    Come to discuss what you make of these ideas, stay for the community! Make sure to check your local library or independent bookstore to grab your own copy of the book before May 27.

  • Saturday, May 31, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Tree Identification Walk at the Harvard Forest

    Come learn how to identify trees with Elodie, our Education Assistant at the Harvard Forest. Meet at the Fisher Museum, 324 N. Main Street in Petersham, on May 31 at 1 pm. We will practice basic native tree ID through bark, twig, bug, and leaf while walking the trails at Harvard Forest. Not only will we become more familiar with the trees in our landscape, but we will also learn about the important research at Harvard Forest and what we are discovering about these different species. This will include a 1.5 mile level walk on open trails. Please email Elodie at eeid@fas.harvard.edu for any questions or accessibility needs. RSVP not required. This event will occur rain or shine; it will be canceled in the event of lightning/thunder. https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/event/tree-id-walk/

  • Sunday, June 1, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm – Green Immersion

    That human beings benefit from exposure to the natural world is well documented, both empirically and experientially, yet our society does not formally acknowledge the importance of connecting with nature. The Japanese concept of shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing, provides Westerners with a way to reawaken our connection with nature through guided sensory experience. In a similar green immersion at Garden in the Woods, Native Plant Trust writer-editor Jane Roy Brown will guide a contemplative 2 hour walk that includes pauses to write, sketch, and meditate. The event takes place June 1, and is $45. Register at https://www.nativeplanttrust.org/events/green-immersion-ss2025/. Thank you Crabtree & Evelyn for the photo.

  • Sunday, June 8, 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Garden Tour with Jess Zander

    Tour a celebrity garden on Sunday, June 8, from 3 – 5 pm. Social media favorite and founder of You Can Do It Gardening, Jess Zander is opening the gate to her stunning home garden, and you are invited. To support on of her favorite nonprofits, Wright-Locke Farm, Jess is offering a rare behind-the-scenes look at the garden she’s lovingly cultivated over the past 15 years. As a dedicated farm board member, Jess dreamed up this unique opportunity for fellow garden lovers to explore what’s blooming, discover her favorite plants, and get inspired by her evolving garden projects. Light refreshments will be served, and all proceeds go directly to Wright-Locke Farm. $75. Register at https://www.wlfarm.org/garden-tour/

  • Saturday, May 31, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm – Dragonfly Field Trip

    Join Athol Bird & Nature Club President Dave Small on May 31 in search of early season dragonflies (and butterflies) starting at the Mount Grace Land Trust Eagle Reserve in Royalston, Massachusetts. As time allows, a look at nearby Birch Hill WMA and Millers River will be included. Meet at 10 am at the parking area for Birch Hill opposite 69 Winchendon Road in Royalston. There are no facilities in the general area, so please be self-contained with food, water, snacks, insect repellant, sunscreen, binoculars, camera, bug net, and shoes for wading in shallow water. The program is free and open to all. For additional information contact Dave Small at Dave@atholbirdclub.org

  • Saturday & Sunday, May 24 & 25, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm – Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club Plant Sale

    On Memorial Day weekend, join the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club for its annual plant sale at the Old Mill, 690 Edgartown Road in West Tisbury. All proceeds benefit the Club’s civic projects. For more information visit https://www.marthasvineyardgardenclub.org/

  • Saturday, June 7, 10:30 am – 12:30 pm – Eco-tour – Native Shrubs and Shrublands: Lessons from Nature

    The Ecological Landscape Alliance will sponsor a tour on June 7 at 10:30 am in Brimfield. Join Dan Wilder for a tour of one of his favorite (and unknown) sites with fantastic shrub diversity in Brimfield, Massachusetts. We will explore a shrub-dominated community to discuss the role of shrubs in natural landscapes and see what lessons we can employ in residential landscapes. Location will be confirmed after reservation. Dan Jaffe Wilder is an ecologist, horticulturist, and botanist with over fifteen years’ experience working with native plants and their associated ecology. His work has ranged from classrooms to nurseries to botanical gardens to wildlife refuges specializing in native plant ecology, propagation, wildlife habitat construction, and native edible landscapes. Dan is currently the Director of Applied Ecology for the Norcross Wildlife Foundation whose mission is to protect, enhance, and expand wildlife through conservation, education, and support. A prolific photographer and author Dan’s book Native Plants for New England Gardens was released in 2018.

    FREE for ELA members $10 for non-members. Register at https://www.ecolandscaping.org/event/eco-tournative-shrubs-and-shrublandslessons-from-nature/

  • Sunday, June 1 and Saturday, June 21 – Garden Conservancy Open Days with COG Design: Save the Dates

    Join The Garden Conservancy on Sunday, June 1 for a special partnership with COG Design. The three sites are Hood Bike Park, Charlestown, from 10-12, Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, from 2-4, and COG designer Shoma Haque’s Jamaica Plain garden from 10-4. Tickets and complete information will be available at https://www.gardenconservancy.org/. On June 21, head to New Bedford to Abolition Row Park from 12 – 2.

  • Thursday, May 28, 7:00 pm – Creating an Eco-Friendly Urban Garden

    Unlock the secrets to developing an eco-friendly garden in even the smallest spaces with our comprehensive presentation. Dive into essential gardening basics, innovative design strategies, and sustainable plant selections to transform your urban environment into a green sanctuary.

    Join the Burlington Garden Club on May 28 at 7 pm in the Murray-Kelly Room at 61 Center Street in Burlington for a free lecture by Master Gardener Shoma Haque. Tailored for both beginner and intermediate gardeners, we’ll explore solutions to common gardening challenges while offering fresh perspectives on maintaining lawns in an environmentally-conscious way. Join us to cultivate your green thumb and create a vibrant, sustainable garden that thrives in any urban setting.

  • Tuesday, May 27, 5:00 am – 6:30 am Eastern – Spirit of Place at Great Dixter, Online

    The Gardens Trust’s final series of A History of Gardens will consider developments of the recent past. Starting with the arrival of the sleek, functional style of Modernism after the first world war, the talks will move on to explore contemporary thinking on the challenges of conserving and restoring historic parks and gardens, the rise of ecological perennial planting, the reappearance of allusive gardens and how a garden’s ‘spirit of place’ can guide sustainable plans for the future.

    Themes and exemplars in garden-making are more difficult to identify without the benefit of distance and time. But considering recent ideas and approaches is bound to bring a thought-provoking end to our History of Gardens. This ticket link is for the sixth series of 5 talks in our History of Gardens Course at £35 or you may purchase a ticket for individual talks, costing £8 via the links on the website. (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 5 for £26.25). Ticket holders can join each session live and/or view a recording for up to 2 weeks afterwards. Ticket sales close 4 hours before the first talk.

    Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days (and again a few hours) prior to the start of the first talk (if you do not receive this link please contact us) and a link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 2 weeks.

    The final talk on the series on May 27 is Spirit of Place at Great Dixter with Fergus Garrett. Great Dixter is a vibrant, pioneering and immersive Grade 1 garden, originally home to the great gardener and garden writer Christopher Lloyd, with a 15th century house restored by Sir Edwin Lutyens. It is in the vanguard of ornamental planting, gardening for biodiversity and horticultural education. In this talk, head gardener Fergus Garrett will discuss how understanding the spirit of Dixter – exploring the site’s history, sense of place and famed creativity – is helping him and his team map a sustainable way forward for this historic garden in the face of the climate emergency and loss of biodiversity.

    Fergus Garrett has held the position of Head Gardener for the internationally acclaimed Great Dixter Garden in Northiam, East Sussex, UK since 1993. After Christopher Lloyd’s death in 2006, Fergus took over the position of CEO of The Great Dixter Charitable Trust.