Boston Flora

Month: August 2025

  • Tuesday, May 20 – Friday, May 30, 2026 – Ireland in Bloom

    Embark on a breathtaking springtime voyage through Ireland and Northern Ireland with the American Horticultural Society and tour leader Keith Tomlinson on May 20 – 30, 2026. Cruise around the Emerald Isle aboard the intimate, 72-cabin Exploris One, and discover a rich tapestry of historic gardens, sweeping coastal landscapes, and native flora at their seasonal peak. Explore UNESCO World Heritage sites and charming seaside towns, while enjoying guided excursions that spotlight the region’s horticultural traditions and natural beauty. Throughout the journey, experience the warmth of Irish hospitality and the vibrant renewal that defines spring in this lush, storied land.

    Customize your journey with excursion options at select ports, including walking excursions exploring Ireland’s natural wonders.
    Delight in the natural beauty of Ireland’s celebrated gardens, from the wooded grounds of Glenveagh Castle and the grand Mount Stewart estate near Belfast to the charming Salthill Gardens in County Donegal. Conclude with a visit to Kylemore Abbey, where a stunning Victorian walled garden awaits amid the wild landscape of Connemara National Park.
    Experience the jewels of Ireland’s famed Atlantic Coast including the dramatic Cliffs of Moher and the bogs and grasslands of Connemara National Park.
    Dock overnight in Belfast and Galway for opportunities to dine ashore and to enjoy the cities’ lively atmospheres and famed music scenes.
    Discover Belfast’s intriguing history including a visit to Titanic Belfast, a state-of-the-art museum on the site of the yard where the ill-fated ship was built.
    Travel along the Northern Ireland’s Antrim coast to the world heritage-listed Giant’s Causeway, the site of some 40,000 hexagonal basalt columns.

    Visit www.ahsgardening.org for a complete program brochure and registration opportunity.

  • Now Through Friday, September 26 – The Green World of Brown

    This dynamic, mixed-media, free to enter exhibition, The Green World of Brown, presented by The Landscape Foundation (UK), explores how the most celebrated English landscape designer and early environmentalist Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown (1716-1783) remains the ‘Great Influencer’.

    The Green World of Brown focuses on a new direction to the Brown story by showing the works of a board spectrum of creative people influenced by Brown over the last 300 years in over 60 estates and public parks that are still enjoyed today.

    Artists and craftspeople: painters, sculptors, poets, photographers, landscape designers, architects, engineers, musicians, even writers, editors, playwrights, actors and filmmakers, have all been inspired by Brown’s holistic, innovative, naturalistic approach to landscape, architecture and interiors.

    The Green World of Brown opens at Weston Park, within one of Shropshire’s best-loved landscapes, Weston Park and explores how Brown’s philosophy developed in his lifetime. A creative mix of visuals will help visitors experience both the dramatic scale of Brown’s stunning panoramas and the detail of his designs. Both historical and contemporary media and editorial will include paintings, text, stills, video and projection. Several drawings and plans, including Brown’s, will be on display through September 26.

    Center stage is the relationship photography has had with Brown’s landscapes and architecture. Visitors will be able to get up close and personal to a collection of analogue and digital photography inspired by Brown’s work from the earliest pioneers, including Fox Talbot’s photography at Lacock Abbey (courtesy of the National Science and Media Museum Bradford) to the most advanced ground and drone photography in the world today. Alongside contemporary women photographers, a small tribute will highlight photographic heroines, Anna Atkins, Lucy and Charlotte Bridgeman, whose accomplishments in breaking new ground in 1800s photography have been often overlooked.

    From the main avenue of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show to the terraces of Chatsworth and Trentham, this exhibition will be the first to highlight designs of highly acclaimed 21st century landscape architects who have worked alongside Brown including Tom Stuart Smith, Piet Oudolf, Kim Wilkie, Dan Pearson, Nigel Dunnett and XA Tollemache.

    The Green World of Brown Community Project for students from local schools will run alongside this exhibition. The exhibition has been purposely designed in a sustainable way, mainly displaying existing media and artworks, thanks to the support of various archives. Informal interviews with some of our diverse, creative contributors will be posted under greenworldofbrown on social media on Insta, Facebook and TikTok.

    The Rose Paterson Art Gallery is open daily and is free of charge to enter. For complete information visit https://weston-park.com/capability-brown-exhibition/

  • Wednesday, September 10, 6:00 pm Eastern – Information Session for The Henry Lee Fund for Boston Parks 2026 Grant Cycle, Online

    Are you passionate about your local park and community greenspaces? Ready to start a park project, or have an existing park project that just needs that little push to completion? Launched by The Friends of the Public Garden in June 2024, the Henry Lee Fund provides grants to help seed local neighborhood groups and organizations to make impactful enhancements in our beloved parks and greenspaces. The application period is open now. Grant applications are due by Monday, November 3 at 5 pm. Grant awardees will be announced in January, 2026. Register for the Zoom September 10 information session HERE.

  • Sunday, September 7, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Full Corn Moon Stroll

    The full moon in September is called the Full Corn Moon because it kept skies bright into the night for harvesting corn. We won’t be harvesting corn, but join Bout Boutwell at Wright-Locke Farm in Winchester on September 7 at 7 pm to learn more about the moon’s phases, and for a beautiful moonlight stroll through the fields and into the woods. We’ll return to the barnyard to share full moon stories and there may even be a special treat! Tiered pricing $15 – $35. Register at https://www.wlfarm.org/adult-education-programs/

  • Tuesday, September 16 & Thursday, September 18, 9:30 am – 1:30 pm Eastern – Birds, Bugs & Botanicals, Online

    In this two-day online Massachusetts Horticultural Society class with Tara Connaughton, we’ll draw and paint birds & bugs with botanical subjects using ink and colorful washes of watercolor. We’ll focus on gathering and using different references, drawing techniques, as well as composition methods for using various references to incorporate flowers, branches and other botanical elements into our illustrations. Class lessons will also include different ways to use ink with watercolor, painting and color mixing techniques, and inspiration for creating beautiful ink and wash illustrations that are full of life. The class takes place September 16 and 19 from 9:30 – 1:30 Eastern.

    Tara Connaughton is an artist and art instructor living on the coast south of Boston, MA (where she finds much of her inspiration). She is a graduate of the Certificate in Botanical Art & Illustration Program at Wellesley College Botanic Gardens. Her botanical and nature-inspired paintings have earned multiple awards, and she has exhibited her work through local and regional galleries and venues. She uses her passion for painting and love of nature to inspire others to create and connect with the world around them. MHS members $145, nonmembers $180. Register HERE

  • Boston Parks Department Announces New Design for Kenmore Mall

    After almost 7 years of prodding, planning, public meetings, and budget issues the Boston Parks Department will be implementing this new design for the Kenmore Mall this fall. This is the last block of the Mall that has Landmark status and it has long been “left out”. This new design will upgrade the paving, electrical service and lighting, and add irrigation. New trees will be planted, the Lombard Light repositioned and new seating and planting beds installed. There may be a role for Garden Club members to help out with the new perennial beds. Stay tuned. This one-acre block of the Commonwealth Avenue Mall is located in Kenmore Square west of Charlesgate. The park includes lawn, trees and brick plazas. For more information, and to sign up for updates, visit www.boston.gov

  • Saturday, September 6, 10:00 am – 3:00 pm – Rattlesnake Mountain Walk

    The New England Botanical Society is leading a walk on September 6 to Rattlesnake Mountain in Rumney, New Hampshire. The leader is Scott Bailey, retired US Forest Service ecologist. Rattlesnake Mountain is part of the White Mountain National Forest. There are cliffs of multiple lithologies, talus, and rich northern woodlands. The site is likely the northernmost station for white oak in the Merrimack watershed and contains good diversity of ferns, including Dryopteris fragrans. The trip will cover a moderate distance. Some areas may be challenging with steep and rocky sections. Register HERE. Free.

  • Tuesdays, September 16 – October 28 – Bringing Accessibility Awareness to Public Gardens Workshop Series, Online

    In collaboration with Chax, the American Public Gardens Association presents a series of awareness-building content. Training will be targeted for APGA members and other professionals seeking to learn about best practices in accessibility. Chax will use a lecture-based education style, with demonstrations and examples specifically from public gardens and art spaces.

    One Session Only: $60 Members | $175 Non-Members
    Two Sessions: $110 Members | $325 Non-Members (Save $10)
    Full Workshop Series: $175 Members | $595 Non-Members (Save $65)

    Register, and find more information, HERE.

  • Monday, September 15 – Sunday, September 21 – Harvard Climate Action Week

    Registration is now open for Harvard Climate Action Week 2025 (September 15–21), a series of in-person and online events organized by Schools and centers across the University that will explore solutions to the most complex and challenging dimensions of climate change. Capping the week, the Salata Institute’s three-day Harvard Climate Symposium will convene leaders from government, business, the nonprofit sector, and academia to discuss actions to enhance climate resilience and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Learn more and Register at https://salatainstitute.harvard.edu/hcaw/

  • Tuesday, September 16, 5:00 am – 6:30 am Eastern (but recorded) – Accessing the Archives: William Andrews Nesfield

    This five-part Gardens Trust online series is presented in partnership with the Garden Museum, to celebrate the Museum’s acquisition of the archives of the eminent landscape designer William Andrews Nesfield (1793–1881). The extensive papers were previously held by the designer’s descendants in Australia.

    A former soldier and skilled watercolorist, Nesfield was the first to describe himself as a landscape architect. He designed over 250 sites, characterized by formal, Italianate parterres, grand fountains and intricate statuary near the house, with more naturalistic landscapes beyond. By 1840 the gardening journalist JC Loudon was praising his painterly landscape designs as so successful ‘that his opinion is now sought out by gentlemen of taste in every part of the country.’ With changing fashions, his popularity fell away – but the acquisition of his archives gives us chance to consider again the artistry of his style and the significance of his designs.

    Four talks, rich with archive material, will explore some of Nesfield’s most important commissions across the country. The series will conclude with a roundtable discussion reconsidering Nesfield, and how his archives can help us dig deeper into his importance and relevance today.

    The first talk on September 16 will explore both the creation of the Avenue Gardens at Regent’s Park (1863-65), still sometimes known as the Nesfield Gardens, and their restoration, undertaken by the Royal Parks in 1993-96.

    William Andrews Nesfield laid out the formal Avenue Gardens in the south-east corner of Regent’s Park in 1863-64, within the broader John Nash landscape of the park. He worked in conjunction with two of his sons – William Eden who, as architect, designed a gardener’s lodge on the edge of the gardens, and Arthur Markham, who prepared the planting plans and implementation of the works. Within a few years the design was hailed as ‘among the most popular and attractive gardens in the public parks of the metropolis… tastefully embellished with flowers and ornamental-leaved plants.’ Of all the London parks, it was ‘the great show-place for flowers.’

    Following a period of drift and decline, the Royal Parks commissioned Land Use Consultants in the mid-1990s to research and prepare designs for the restoration of the Avenue Gardens, based closely on Nesfield’s original plan of 1863.

    Lecturer Richard Flenley was a Principal and later Chair of Land Use Consultants [LUC] from 1970 until formal retirement in 2011. He led a wide range of planning and design projects including as an advisor to the Royal Parks. Since nominal retirement, he has focused mainly on voluntary work including trusteeships at Pitzhanger Manor in Ealing, 2014-18; the Quadrangle at Shoreham, Kent, 2007-19; and at Kelmarsh Hall, Northants, where he was also Chair of trustees up to July 2023. He is currently a Board Member of the Royal Parks Guild and an advisor on the Gardens Committee for the Crown Estate Paving Commission.

    This ticket (register HERE) is for this individual session and costs £8, 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). 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.