Boston Flora

Category: Archives

  • Laurie Thomas Receives Mary Natale Citizenship Award

    Thomas High (below) presented the Mary Natale Citizenship Award to Laurie Thomas for her long standing work including the promotion of our urban green space in the Back Bay. She is a leader of the Garden Club of the Back Bay, where she coordinated two inventories of the front yard and alley trees. Laurie was central in the creation of the Club’s Back Bay Trees website (Backbaytrees.org) which educates our residents on the importance of preserving our green canopy.  Laurie is also a leader on the Gibson House Board of Directors, where she co-chairs the Museum Committee and is also  is a key member of NABB’s Architecture Committee, where she combines her environmental and preservation knowledge, with plain old good sense to evaluate the many proposals the Committee considers every month. Her many contributions have made the Back Bay a better place for us all. Laurie is also one of the Garden Club’s premier wreath decorators, which is no small feat – an artist, a conservationist, and wonderful person.

  • Wreath of the Day, From the Archives – Happy New Year

    Today we wish you all a Happy New Year. It’s 2021 and we all hope the coming year brings health and a resumption of some of our cherished activities and traditions, if not immediately, at least by summer or fall. We intend to be back decorating in December, and will be planning accordingly. These posts over the past month have brought back many happy memories but are certainly bittersweet. We miss each other. Continue to be careful, please, and enjoy the many online activities which have blossomed in response to lockdowns. We will continue to keep you up to date on many of the possibilities to learn and enjoy.

    Thank you to long time customer Julie Mathisen, our closing sponsor for Wreath of the Day posts. From our Wreath Volunteers: “See you all next year!”

  • Wreath of the Day, From the Archives – Champagne Dreams

    New Year’s Eve has traditionally been a day in our Wreath of the Day posts when we illustrate a wreath with lots of bling – it’s a celebration night, after all. This year we are (hopefully) not carousing, at least at parties or in crowds, so we are showing off some more subtle approaches to the color champagne. Please stay safe, and stay indoors tonight if you can.

    Thanks go to Laurie Thomas for her sponsorship of Wreath of the Day. Laurie is not only one of our most talented decorators but is renowned for her beautifully round and balanced designs.

  • Wreath of the Day, From the Archives – We Don’t Do These Anymore

    Originally, we offered three sizes of wreaths – standard, large, and extra large, and we offered a fully decorated option for all three. The order forms were complicated, to say the least. Decorating an extra large wreath took half a day, and the weight of the decorations usually resulted in a wreath that was less round and more oval. Our decisions to simplify came gradually. First, we dropped extra large wreaths except by special order. A few years later, we dropped the fully decorated option for our large wreaths – the time commitment was too daunting. We lost a few customers but retained our volunteer base, who were in open rebellion over having to decorate large wreaths, especially matched pairs. Below is member Judith Fleming holding a very large fully decorated wreath from years ago, and below, a more modestly sized standard wreath which more than fills a space and is a pleasure to create. Large wreaths with magnificent bows are still on offer, and some people with wide doors have found them to be a terrific option.

    Elizabeth Johnson of Charles River Square in Beacon Hill is today’s Wreath of the Day Sponsor and we thank her heartily for her continued support!

  • Wreath of the Day, From the Archives – Charitable Repercussions

    Each year we donate many gift certificates to other not for profit organizations for auction or raffle, including certificates to each member and affiliate club in The Boston Committee of the GCA. The proceeds from their raffles benefit The Blossom Fund, which was created to fund public projects of horticultural impact in the Greater Boston area. Our cancellation this year puts the Committee in the position of having to raise additional funds through increased donations, so if you are able and so inclined, please visit their site and make a year end gift (and tell them we sent you!) Below is Milton Garden Club member Beverly Van Orman picking up her winning wreath in 2010, and a more recent example of a winner’s wreath. We confer which each gift certificate holder to determine color and decoration preferences, which are often quite a challenge. These orders are some of our favorites to execute.

    Thank you to Susan Sloan and Arthur Clarke, today’s generous Wreath of the Day post sponsors, who themselves are active in many of Boston’s charitable organizations, and understand well the challenges of today’s economy.

  • Wreath of the Day, From the Archives – The Fall of Copper

    Trends come and go – it’s why they’re called trends, we suppose. A few years ago we began to offer copper as a ribbon and accent option and the response was dramatic. People wanted to try it, and sometimes asked for copper and gold in combination, As years went on, the copper orders became fewer and fewer. We think it’s because when viewed from afar, copper can just look brown, as if you’ve hung up a dead wreath. Indoors and up close, it’s something completely different, but for outside door use, we’d recommend a more traditional choice.

    We are grateful to the 165 Commonwealth Avenue Trust and to Patti BiFulco for their contribution to our 2020 Holiday Wreath Project, even without receiving a wreath, and they are today’s Wreath of the Day Sponsors.

  • Wreath of the Day, From the Archives – Beyond Christmas

    There is something a little unsettling about wreaths hung on doors and still lingering in February. There are many reasons to leave wreaths in place after, say, Epiphany, or in our household, Superbowl Sunday. Sometimes, people are away. Weather can play a part – who wants to be up on a ladder in single digit temperatures and ice on the ground? Laziness may play a tiny part, if we’re totally honest. A winter theme wreath solves this dilemma. Until spring comes, your neighbors can’t be too judgmental if the wreaths shown below are still on display.

    Member Patti Quinn, our Wreath of the Day Sponsor today, hangs her wreath in her fireplace as a winter accent, and always requests her wreath be winter themed, often without even a bow. The look can last a long time.

  • Wreath of the Day, From the Archives – The Advantages of Storage

    The Garden Club of the Back Bay rents a storage facility where we keep leftover ribbon, mechanical apparatus, tools, extra glittery balls and accessories, and substantial cones and seedpods. Anything too delicate, like grasses and dried flowers, don’t survive a year in a dry box very well. But if you look at the wreath below, with the exception of the base balsam wreath, all the decorations could easily have come out of our storage bins. Cones, especially when painted, are pretty much sealed and shatterproof. An advantage here is, should our orders be more extensive than the amount of our fresh greens, we can improvise. Also, a wreath like this one will last much longer in a hot city unit than an all natural wreath with a variety of pines and holly. Don’t be afraid to keep some of the decorations from a wreath you may buy or make yourself for recycling next year. A bowl filled with gold pine cones makes a handsome table centerpiece. The gorgeous bow will top a tower of presents or cookie tins. The gold and red balls can go onto next year’s Christmas tree. It’s all a matter of storage, and how much closet space you can dedicate to the purpose.

    Margaret Pokorny, co-chair of the wreath project, is today’s Wreath of the Day post sponsor. She still has much of our material stored in her New Hampshire barn, so the transition to rented storage is as yet incomplete.

  • Wreath of the Day, From the Archives – Merry Christmas

    The Garden Club of the Back Bay wishes you all a very Merry, and Safe, Christmas. We hope that next year brings families together again, with comfort and warmth. To those who have this year lost loved ones, our hearts go out to you, and you are in our thoughts.

  • Wreath of the Day, From the Archives – Warming Up the Silver

    We receive a fair number of orders for silver wreaths – silver bow with silver accents, silver bow with all natural accents, glamorous glitz with silver, but the challenge is to make the wreath warm and inviting, rather than cold and harsh. Different colored silver spray paints can cause problems. Some make leaves, such as magnolia leaves, look like radiators instead of sterling. Pine cones turn gray. One solution is a judicious addition of gold accents to the silver, which immediately lifts the design into another sphere. Below are some examples – the wreaths still read “silver” but the pitfall of the gray wreath is avoided.

    Thanks today are extended to customer Donald Denniston, who each season purchases a wreath for his condominium, with the specification that the decorations be tight and controlled, since the door is an “active” door, opened and closed often. We try to keep the glitter off the floor.