Boston Flora

Month: February 2026

  • Tuesday, March 11, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Unlocking the Mysteries of Native Plant Selection

    Kim Eierman, author of The Pollinator Victory Garden, will speak on March 11 at 7 pm in parson at the Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway in Cambridge, as part of Grow Native Massachusetts’s free public lecture series. No registration required.

    When choosing native plants, you have to ask the right questions to get the best results. Kim Eierman will help you sort out the mysteries and complexities of native plant selection including:  Am I buying a genetic clone, and does it matter? What are local ecotypes and where can I buy them? Are native cultivars ok? Are dwarf nativars ecologically-useful? What’s the tradeoff with double flowers? Which native plants require pollination partners (i.e. are dioecious) and how do I source them? What are the pros and cons of planting native seeds vs. live plants? Get the answers you need to make your native landscape both beautiful and eco-beneficial.

    Kim Eierman is the Founder of EcoBeneficial LLC and author of The Pollinator Victory Garden: Win the War on Pollinator Decline with Ecological Gardening. She is an ecological landscape designer and environmental horticulturist specializing in native plants.  Based in New York, Kim teaches at the New York Botanical Garden and Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and is a Steering Committee member of The Native Plant Center.

  • Thursdays, February 26 – March 19, 5:30 pm – 8:30 pm – Container Garden Design

    Acquire knowledge of the skills required for beautiful and successful container gardens with Jenna O’Brien, owner of Viridissima Horticulture and Design. Get to know the plants that thrive in containers and how to care for them. This three session class at Berkshire Botanical Garden in West Stockbridge will cover practical aspects of gardening with style in containers throughout the New England garden season. Considerations will include container selection, siting, planting, growing, controlling pests, and maintaining moveable gardens. The course will be held Thursdays, February 26 – March 19, from 5:30 – 8:30. BBG members $215, nonmembers $240. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/container-garden-design

    Jenna O’Brien has been working in Berkshire gardens for over 20 years. She is also a member of the BBG Horticulture Advisory Committee and the Education Committee. Jenna specializes in container gardening, perennial garden design and care, country estate garden management, and Berkshire Garden Style.

  • Friday, February 27, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Eastern — Gardens Illustrated: The New Beautiful, Online

    Gardens Illustrated is today’s most popular gardening periodical, thanks to its lavishly photographed features on contemporary, forward-thinking gardens that focus on irresistible plants and clever designs. In The New Beautiful, the editors at Gardens Illustrated highlight over fifty of their favorite gardens in a mix of scales and in a variety of climates t appeal to garden enthusiasts from the United States, United Kingdom, and around the world. Join this talk to explore a range of garden scales, from small city spaces aiming to bring biodiversity deep into the built environment, to country estates photographed with a new lens on ecology and sustainability that were created by today’s top garden designers.

    Stephanie Mahon is Editor of Gardens Illustrated. She is a multi-award-winning garden editor, writer, and author. This lecture was presented by the Garden Conservancy and was thought to be one of the most interesting online talks of last year. Register for this American Horticultural Society opportunity to hear Stephanie on February 27 at 2 pm. $15 for AHS members, $20 for nonmembers.

  • Monday, February 23, 6:00 pm – Globalization in a Glass: The Rise of Pilsner Beer Through Technology, Taste and Empire

    Join Malcom Purrinton on February 23 as he discusses his book, Globalization in a Glass:The Rise of Pilsner Beer through Technology, Taste and Empire.

    Malcolm F. Purinton is a Food and World historian whose work focuses primarily on the sociocultural relationships of empire, trade, and technology in the history of beer and brewing. His first book Globalization in a Glass: The Rise of Pilsner Beer through Technology, Taste, and Empire (Bloomsbury Academic Press, Food History Series, 2023) examines the development and spread of this light golden lager beer and how it became the only truly global style of beer.

    He is also the author of a chapter on the history of European beer in nineteenth century South Africa in “Alcohol Flows Across Cultures: Drinking Cultures in Transnational and Comparative Perspective” (Routledge) and has a regular column on the Boston beer scene with the northeast beer periodical, Yankee Brew News.

    In highlighting the evolution of consumer tastes through changing hierarchical relationships between the British metropole and colonies, as well as the evolution of business organizations and practices, Globalization in a Glass contributes to ongoing debates about globalization, empire, and trade. It argues that, despite the might and power of the British Empire as a colonizing force, the effects of globalization, imperial trade networks, and colonial migration led to the domination of the most popular Continental European style of beer, the Pilsner, over British-style ales.

    The Boston University Food & Wine talk will begin at 6 pm at 808 Commonwealth Avenue , Room 124, in Boston. Reserve your free tickets through Eventbrite

  • Thursday, February 26 – Sunday, March 1 – Flora in Winter

    How do you represent a suit of armor with roses? A portrait with peonies? A raging storm with tulips? This winter, come closer to the art you thought you knew, reimagined in floral arrangements throughout the Worcester Museum of Art galleries. Admission tickets to Flora in Winter, February 26 – March 1, are available at the door only. Saturday, 4–7 pm, enjoy a flora evening out with extended hours, music, and drinks. Included with Flora in Winter 2026 Saturday admission.

    Salisbury Giving Society Patrons are invited to a special evening on Thursday, February 26 from 4:30 – 7:30, to tour and experience Flora in Winter 2026. Email KatySullivan@worcesterart.org or call 508-793-4325 to learn about joining the Salisbury Giving Society or to RSVP to this event.

    For complete information visit https://www.worcesterart.org/flora-in-winter/

  • Saturday, March 21, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm – Gardeners Gathering

    Celebrate the start of the gardening season! The 50th Annual Gardeners’ Gathering brings Boston-area growers of all kinds together for a free day full of informative workshops, engaging exhibitors, networking, and inspiration.

    ¡Celebre el inicio de la temporada de jardinería! La 50º Reunión Anual de Jardineros reúne a productores de todo tipo del área de Boston para un día gratuito lleno de talleres informativos, expositores atractivos, networking e inspiración.

    If you are interested in tabling at this event, click here.

    If you are interested in having an ad in the program, or sponsoring the event, click here.

    If you are interested in volunteering, click here.

    If you are interested in presenting a workshop, fill out this form.

    The program is sponsored by The Trustees and is free and open to all. The event takes place in Shillman Hall at Northeastern University.

  • Thursday, February 26, 12:00 noon – 1:00 pm Eastern – The Maze: Jesuits, Emperors, and the Invention of the Western Style Gardens in China, Online

    In a special three-part virtual series for the Garden Conservancy this winter, Professor Andrew Hui explores fascinating yet overlooked history of the Western Gardens at the Chinese Emperor’s Summer Palace in the eighteenth century. Over the course of three episodes, he will explore the unexpected story of how these vast gardens came to be designed by Jesuit priests and how they influence the development of Europe’s own gardens.

    Part 2: The Maze: Jesuits, Emperors, and the Invention of the Western Style Gardens in China

    February 26, 2026 I 12 noon Eastern

    In the early eighteenth century, Jesuit missionaries astonished the Qing court by designing a European-style maze in the Summer Palace. What began as a playful mimicry soon expanded into an entire quarter of Western-style gardens: fountains, cabinets of curiosities, and perspective vistas unlike anything in China before. This lecture tells the story of how Jesuits, armed with mathematics, hydraulics, and the technique of linear perspectives, became imperial garden makers—and how their creations embodied wonder, diplomacy, and power at the meeting point of two civilizations.

    Andrew Hui teaches at National University of Singapore and is the author of three books: The Study: The Inner Life of Renaissance Libraries (2025), A Theory of the Aphorism from Confucius to Twitter (2019, translated into 4 languages), and The Poetics of Ruins in Renaissance Literature (2017). His newest project is The Emperor’s Maze: The Jesuits in China and the Making of a Global Age (under contract, Penguin Press).

    Andrew is an experienced public speaker who has lectured widely, including recent talks at Yale, Oxford, and Brown universities, as well as online for the Medici Archive Project, the Smithsonian, and the 92nd Street Y.

    You will receive the webinar link directly from Zoom. A recording of this webinar will be sent to all registrants a few days after the event. We encourage you to register, even if you cannot attend the live webinar. Register at https://www.gardenconservancy.org/events/web26-the-emperor-s-western-maze-and-the-making-of-a-global-garden

  • Sunday, March 1, 12:30 pm – 2:30 pm Eastern – Learn to Draw and Paint Flowers, Online

    Wild Wonder presents an online class on March 1 from 12:30 – 2:30 Eastern time with John Muir Laws entitled Learn to Draw and Paint Flowers. Registration for the live presentation may be found at https://www.wildwonder.org/events.

    John will share his best tips and tricks for drawing and painting flowers learned through his 40 years of teaching and illustrating.

  • Saturday, March 7, 9:30 am – 4:30 pm – From Willow to Basket: Crafting Functional Art

    Create a beautiful, functional willow basket while learning the foundational techniques of stake-and-strand weaving on Saturday, March 7, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Berkshire Botanical Garden. Designed for beginner and intermediate weavers, this hands-on class is taught by Heleny Cook, a Williamstown-based basketmaker who grows her own willow and forages wild materials for her work. Alongside guided instruction, Heleny will share insights into the joys and challenges of cultivating willow and working with natural materials. A wonderful introduction to the art of traditional basketry and a chance to create something beautiful and useful. Perfect for holding bread rolls, chips or everyday odds and ends, your finished basket will measure approximately 8 inches in diameter and 5 inches tall. All materials will be provided for an additional fee of $25 per person. Bring lunch to have during a break in the day.

    Heleny Cook learned willow weaving by studying with experienced makers in Ireland, England, Canada, and across the United States. Her work is grounded in traditional techniques, shaped by years of practice, and informed by the material itself. She teaches because sharing skills keeps the craft alive. Heleny has led workshops at Hancock Shaker Village and Bon Dimanche Studio in Great Barrington, where students learn by working directly with willow and building a solid foundation through hands-on making.

    Add your name to a wait list by registering https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/willow-basket-crafting-functional-art

  • Monday, March 9, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm – Curated Cuisine: Boston’s Booming Coffee Culture

    A trio of Boston’s leading coffee roasters joins WBUR’s Dianna Bell at WBUR CitySpace on March 9 from 6:30 – 8:30 for a conversation exploring the city’s evolving specialty coffee scene.

    Curated Cuisine is a monthly series examining all things edible, from the chefs cooking the food to the writers reviewing the recipes. Meet the people shaping the food industry, both local and national and enjoy a post-show bite inspired by the conversation.

    Dunkin’ may have captured the meme culture but there’s a bursting world of flavor brewing in Boston’s coffee scene. If you ask local coffee roasters they can likely tell you about farmers they’ve met in Guatemala or Ethiopia, the elevation from which their beans were grown or about the washed or natural process before drying. While Bostonians may drink iced coffee year-round, there is an evolving and evermore discerning palate in the bustling neighborhood coffee shop akin to a wine enthusiast’s interest in a grape’s terroir. Join Dianna Bell, WBUR arts and culture senior editor, in a conversation with three pioneers in the Boston coffee scene.

    Panelists

    George Howell — Founder and owner, George Howell Coffee

    Pack Katisomsakul — Owner, Newbery Street Coffee Roasters

    Jaime van Schyndel — Founder, barismo

    Guests will enjoy coffee tasting and can purchase items from local coffee roasters George Howell Coffee, Newbery Street and barismo. Tickets (from $12.51) available from Eventbrite HERE.