Boston Flora

Thursday, November 13 & Friday, November 14 – Historic New England Summit 2025, Live and Online

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New England’s largest conference about our collective roles in creating livable and resilient communities. Summit discussions focus on New England while addressing topics that resonate nationally and globally as we work together to transform preservation into an accessible and essential ethic in community sustainability.

2025 Summit Themes Include:
Civic Action
Authenticity & Access
Culture Building
Climate Resiliency
Preservation as Transformation


Join us November 13 and 14 at the historic Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut. Can’t make it to New Haven? Join us via livestream!

Summit Early Bird Registration is ON now. Visit summit.historicnewengland.org

Friday, June 6, 7:30 pm – 10:30 pm – Glow in the Park

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Kick summer off in style with music, dancing, games, your favorite Greenway food trucks, craft beverages, and more. Our annual young professionals fundraising event, Glow in the Park, lights up the night every June, and it’s your chance to support the Greenway Conservancy and have a blast while doing it. Funds raised at Glow in the Park support the Conservancy’s work to connect neighborhoods and people through nature, public art, and community-led programming in ways that are sustainable, equitable, and welcoming. This year’s date is June 6, and tickets ($125) are available at https://www.rosekennedygreenway.org/glowinthepark

Now On View – Emeralds

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Emeralds is a new, intimate collection of stunning crystals, gemstones, and jewelry on display in the Earth & Planetary Sciences Gallery at the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture,

Highly coveted by a wide variety of cultures, emeralds have played a significant role in shaping human history, helping to facilitate trade and even build empires. From rough stones to sophisticated jewelry, emeralds continue to captivate with their beauty and historical significance, symbolizing luxury and power across cultures and eras. While emeralds are rare, they can be found in countries throughout the world, including Colombia, Madagascar, and Egypt, to name a few. Emeralds formed inside rocks millions of years ago. Those from South Africa are known to be about 2.9 billion years old, while Colombian emeralds date back over 48 million years! The unique characteristics of emeralds provide valuable insights into the processes that formed them. With the use of new AI technologies, scientists are making major advances in unraveling their stories and tracing their origins. Below: Metamorphosis  Brooch created by Wallace Chan Emerald 16 pcs 52.44 tcw Diamond, Ruby, Amethyst, Citrine, Blue Topaz, Crystal, Butterfly Wings, Mother of Pearl, Tsavorite Garnet, Sapphire, Yellow Diamond, 18K White Gold, Titanium. On loan from George and Sherry Huang Collection

Friday, June 10, 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm – Annual Summer Solstice Fundraiser at Wright-Locke Farm

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Summer is nearly here, and Wright-Locke Farm in Winchester is thrilled to welcome the season with one of its most beloved traditions, the Summer Solstice Fundraiser. Join them under the magical lights of the historic 1827 Barn for an unforgettable evening filled with community spirit, great food, and meaningful support for one of Winchester’s most treasured assets. This annual event gets better and better, with live performances by talented musicians from the Winchester Community Music School. gourmet bites by internationally acclaimed chef Saba Wahid, live and silent auctions, and farm inspired cocktails upon arrival. Thank you to Shepherd Financial Partners for sponsoring this event. Tickets may be purchased at https://www.wlfarm.org/solstice/ $100 each or 4 for $350.

Saturday, June 7, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Grass Menagerie

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Grasses are an integral component of naturalistic plantings, the garden style popularized by New York City’s High Line and the “Dutch Wave.” But with names like Schizachyrium, Spodiopogon, and Hakonechloa, they can be bewildering to even experienced gardeners. Join plantsman Robert Clyde Anderson at Berkshire Botanical Garden on Saturday, June 7, from 1 to 4 p.m., for an overview of the most useful and beautiful species and cultivars for our climate, with an emphasis on their ecological value, distinguishing characteristics, and design possibilities. This three-hour session will include an illustrated lecture, handouts, and an on-site walkabout on the BBG grounds, as well as time for questions and shared experiences. BBG members $50, nonmembers $70. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/grass-menagerie

Robert Clyde Anderson is a garden designer, consultant and writer who found his way to the Hudson Valley after a New York City career in illustration and book design. A native of Louisiana and a lifelong gardener, he has designed and maintained gardens in Columbia County as well as working in area nurseries, most recently at Pondside Nursery in Hudson for five years and before that, at Loomis Creek Nursery in Claverack for eight years. Robert makes his home in Stuyvesant, where he maintains a two-acre “laboratory” garden that includes shrub borders, a sunny, terraced xeric garden, a shady, wooded streamside area, a moist meadow planting, a kitchen garden, and a small flock of chickens.

Wednesday, June 4, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm – Gardens on Film: The Most Filmed County in England, Online

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Historic parks and gardens play a frequent – and frequently tantalizing – role in films and on TV. Where is the 18th century landscape that forms the background to scenes in Bridgerton? Which English country estate serves as Paris for both James Bond and Sherlock Holmes? Is that really a world heritage site being flooded for a scene in The Secret Garden?

Join The Gardens Trust on Wednesdays in May for behind-the-scenes at some of the locations used in costume dramas, children’s adventures, murder mysteries and much else. We’ll hear from a location manager on choosing the right gardens for shoots and from a garden historian on films in her own county, as well as the experience of three major players who regularly manage film crews in their historic landscapes – the National Trust, the Royal Parks and English Heritage. This ticket costs £35 for the full series of five talks or you may purchase a ticket for individual talks, costing £8. To sign up, visit Eventbrite UK HERE. Ticket holders can join each session live and/or view a recording for up to 2 weeks afterwards. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days (and again a few hours) prior to the start of the first talk.

Buckinghamshire has been described by VisitEngland as the ‘most filmed county in England’. The range of productions in which the county’s historic parks and gardens can be seen is certainly extraordinary, ranging from the perhaps predictable Midsomer Murders and a number of James Bond films, to the less expected, such as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Home to 46 registered parks and gardens, including Stowe, West Wycombe and Cliveden, Buckinghamshire does have some fabulous material on which to draw. This June 4 talk will identify some of the many film locations across the county, and explore the featured gardens, along with some garden history and wider context to this county that’s always ready for its close-up.

Dr. Victoria Thomson’s professional background is in town planning and historic conservation, and her work has included stints in local and national government, a government agency, academia, and the third sector. Her personal and research interests are very much focused on historic parks and gardens, and particularly on their protection. A trustee of the Gardens Trust, and a member of the Buckinghamshire Gardens Trust, she’s been interested of late in how often her home county appears on screen.

Monday, June 2 (Time to be Announced) – Insectopolis

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Peter Kuper will introduce his new book, INSECTOPOLIS, at the Harvard Bookstore, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge on Monday, June 2. To confirm time, click https://www.harvard.com/events Peter Kuper’s work appears regularly in The New Yorker, The Nation, and Mad , where he has written and illustrated “Spy vs. Spy” for over 26 years. He is the co-founder of World War 3 Illustrated, a political comix magazine now in its 45th year of publication. He has produced over two dozen books including Sticks and Stones (winner of The Society of Illustrators gold medal), The System, Diario de Oaxaca, Ruins (winner of the 2016 Eisner Award) and adaptations of many of Franz Kafka’s works into comics including The Metamorphosis. His most recent graphic novels include Kafkaesque (winner of the 2018 Rueben award and 2022 Lucca award for short stories) and an adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.Translations of his work have appeared in Greece, Italy, France, Spain, Slovenia, China, Brazil, Poland, Sweden, Israel, Germany and Mexico.

Peter has lectured extensively throughout the world and teaches Harvard University’s first class dedicated to graphic novels. He was the 2020-21 Jean Strouse Fellow at The New York Public Library’s Cullman Center and received a 2022 Yaddo residency. His Exhibition INterSECTS: Where Arthropods and Homo sapiens Meet was on display at the New York Public Library Jan. 14- Aug 13th 2022. INSECTOPOLIS, a graphic novel on the history of insects, will be published by W.W. Norton MAY 2025. He is the winner of the 2024 RFK Journalism Award in cartooning.

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

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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

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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

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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.