Boston Flora

Category: Berkshires

  • Friday, February 7 – Sunday, February 23 – Dreamscapes: Journeys into Nature

    Berkshire Botanical Garden will kick off its 2025 Art/Garden exhibitions with “Dreamscapes: Journeys into Nature,” opening Friday, February 7, in the Leonhardt Galleries. Gallery hours for the exhibition are Tuesdays through Sundays, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

    In this juried show featuring artwork by the Guild of Berkshire Artists, each artist was challenged to interpret their concept of what nature means to them. Is it colors, textures or the amazing beauty of life in nature? Does it reflect a reverence for the power nature can unleash or the fragility of every living thing? Is it the complexity as well as the simple beauty of spring tulips, fall leaves and sunsets? Each artist expresses their intent through drawing, painting, mixed media, photography, sculpture, textiles, glass, or ceramics. The results are as bountiful and often as dreamy as nature herself!

    The artists are:

    Carolyn M. Abrams, Karen J. Andrews, Donna Bernstein, Chelsea Bradway, Karen Carmean, Julian Craker, Keith Davidson, Mary O. Davidson, Anne Ferril, Kathryn Feuerbach, Gail Gelburd, Marion Grant, Nancy K. Harrod, Pat Hogan, Lynne Horvath, Robert Horvath, Caryn King, Christina Koldys, Pattie Lipman, Janet McKinstry, Sarah Morrison, Jaye Alison Moscariello, Rick Neilsen, Jeff Nestel-Patt, Wendy Holmes, Noyes Marilyn Orner, Alvin Joseph Ouellet, Barbara A. Patton, Ronald Piazza, Ingrid Raab, Paula Shalan, and Bruce J. Shickmanter.

    The Guild was formed in 2014 to support and promote its members through education, exhibits and community events while contributing to the cultural life of the Berkshires.

  • Sunday, February 16, 2:00 pm – 28th Annual Winter Lecture: Jacqueline van der Kloet

    Jacqueline van der Kloet will share bulb basics, color combinations, seasonal care for bulbs including naturalizing them to become independent, layering bulbs, growing bulbs on a larger scale, and integration for constant blooms in the garden for the Berkshire Botanical Garden Winter Lecture 2025 on Sunday, February 16, at 2 p.m. Join her on the journey through her favorite spring, summer, autumn, and winter flowering bulbs, and case studies of her naturalistic garden designs from around the world, including the Netherlands, Japan, Germany, the UK, and the Lurie Garden in the United States, where she collaborated with leading plantsman, Piet Oudolf.

    Growing Bulbs in the Natural Garden is a four-season guide to combining bulbs with perennials and grasses in a loose, carefree style, from a leading figure in the New Perennial movement. From the earliest snowdrops to alpine violets, tulips, alliums, late autumn crocuses, and many more, bulbs add interest and color to the garden throughout the year. Renowned naturalistic garden designer, Jacqueline van der Kloet, has mastered a casual, magical technique where bulbs emerge playfully among other plants, as if dancing freely among the perennials and grasses. Both friendly and accessible, van der Kloet will explore the recently published book; introducing bulbs as essential to any garden at any scale, inviting in pollinators, providing wonderful pops of color and personality, and extending a garden’s bloom time in the shoulder seasons.

    Growing Bulbs in the Natural Garden provides unique inspiration and expert insight gained from van der Kloet’s vast career, using nature as a model. Indeed, growing bulbs in van der Kloet‘s style makes the garden appear as if nature had planted the bulbs herself. 

    Jacqueline van der Kloet is an internationally acclaimed garden designer and one of Holland’s best-known gardening authorities. She is a plant specialist whose advice is sought by designers and landscape architects. Her designs are prized for their beauty, naturalized schemes, bold uses of color. Van der Kloet’s client list includes some of the most prestigious public gardens in the world. In North America, she teamed with Piet Oudolf for innovative plantings at New York’s Battery Park, New York Botanical Garden, and Chicago’s Lurie Garden. Her work across Europe and Asia ranges from Holland’s famous Keukenhof, to the palace Huis ten Bosch in Nagasaki, Japan to the Newport Bay Club at Disneyland, Paris. Her work includes many private gardens and she frequently contributes to international exhibitions.

    Also, please join us for a coffee and cookie reception after the lecture, to be held at the Lenox Middle High School in Lenox, Massachusetts. BBG members $40, nonmembers $55. Register at www.berkshirebotanical.org

  • Saturday, February 8, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Kitchen Witch’n: Herbal Remedies from Your Garden

    Your kitchen is more powerful than you think! In this Berkshire Botanical Garden workshop with Kimberly Geisler on Saturday, February 8, from 1 to 3 p.m., discover how common herbs and ingredients from your pantry, fridge and spice cabinet can be made into natural remedies for everyday ailments. We’ll explore kitchen-based solutions for cold and flu relief, stress, headaches, first aid, digestive upsets, and other ailments. Join us to unlock the healing potential hidden in your kitchen, and support wellness from the heart of your home.

    Kimberly Geisler is a clinical and folk herbalist, medicine maker and educator at Transcending Roots Apothecary. Kimberly opened an apothecary and community space centered around herbal education in Philadelphia in October of 2019, which has since transitioned into a cooperatively owned healing center, The Sacred Path. Kimberly has now settled in the forests of the Berkshires with her husband and two magical children, building a botanical sanctuary and homestead, and further cultivating our relationship with the land and our communities.

    Berkshire Botanical members $45, nonmembers $60. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/kitchen-witchn-herbal-remedies-your-kitchen

  • Saturdays, February 1 – February 22, 10:00 am – 11:30 am Eastern – Native Plants for Every Corner of the Garden, Online

    This sequence of Berkshire Botanical Garden online classes, taught by Duncan Himmelman on Zoom, is suited to gardeners of all levels, from novice to experienced. Sign up for individual classes or the whole series which run Saturdays, February 1 to February 22, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Series topics include Native Vines, Native Groundcovers, Living Mulch, Native Bulbs, and Native Plants for Container Gardens.

    Duncan Himmelman earned his doctorate at Cornell University and taught horticultural science at the college level for 24 years. He recently retired as the education manager at Mt. Cuba Center, a public garden in Delaware devoted to native plant advocacy. He continues to enjoy teaching, designing landscapes and promoting ecologically focused gardening practices. $50 for BBG members, $65 for nonmembers. Register at www.berkshirebotanical.org

  • Saturday, January 25, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Nature Journaling with Nanci Worthington

    Join New Marlborough artist and NEGSI member, Nanci Worthington on January 25 from 1 – 3 as she guides you through nature journaling sessions at Bartholomew’s Cobble. Bartholomew’s Cobble is located at 105 Weatogue Road in Ashley Falls, Sheffield, Massachusetts. Nanci will teach you how to observe nature and your surroundings and capture what you see, hear and feel on paper.

    This group is for everyone– self proclaimed naturalists, bird watchers, kids, adults, teens, advanced artists and beginners- no experience necessary. Just a love of the outdoors!

    Space is limited and registration is required. The group will meet outside the visitor’s center at Bartholomew’s Cobble the last Saturday of each month and run for approximately 2 hours. Materials will not be provided for you. A confirmation email will be sent when you sign up with a materials list.

    Please email aduquette@thetrustees.org for more information. You may register at https://thetrustees.org/event/419504/ Member $5, nonmember $10.

  • Wednesdays, January 29 – February 19, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Writing the Garden of Your Life

    Join veteran teacher, award-winning memoirist, and avid gardener Jennifer Browdy for a series of four Berkshire Botanical Garden wintertime workshops (Wednesdays, Jan. 29 to Feb. 19, from 10 a.m. to noon) using gardening as a theme for personal writing. You can write about your gardening experiences, and/or write about your life using gardening as a metaphor.

    Sessions will be organized around the following themes, with writing prompts that can be taken literally or metaphorically:
    1. Designing with vision and intention
    2. Composting, pruning and deadheading, and preparing new beds
    3. Planting seeds and bulbs, and welcoming the sap and new shoots
    4. Cultivating, weeding and fertilizing

    Along the way, you’ll learn about Jennifer’s unique “elemental journey” framework for writing memoirs, and benefit from her decades of experience as a writing professor, author coach, editor, and publisher.
    Come meet other writer-gardeners and brighten up the winter season with the creative bloom of memoir writing in good company!

    Jennifer Browdy, PhD, is a professor of literature, writing and media arts at Bard College at Simon’s Rock and the online global Bard Open Society University Network. Her latest book, Purposeful Memoir as a Quest for a Thriving Future, was a 2022 Nautilus Gold Award winner and a 2022 Gold Award winner in the Independent Press Awards. Her writer’s guide, The Elemental Journey of Purposeful Memoir, won a 2017 Nautilus Silver Award, and her memoir, What I Forgot …And Why I Remembered, was a finalist for the 2018 International Book Awards. Offering writing workshops, author coaching and manuscript review, Jennifer is the publisher of Green Fire Press and co-host of the Birth Your Truest Story online writers’ community. She has led writing workshops at many venues locally, nationally and internationally, including Bioneers, Kripalu, Mount Holyoke, the Mount, the Writers Federation of Nova Scotia, and many more. She publishes two Substack newsletters, Writing to Right the World & The Spirit of Education, and leads an annual memoir retreat in Tuscany as well as Riding and Writing trips to Portugal and Iceland.

    Register for the series ($200 for BBG members, $220 for nonmembers) at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/writing-garden-your-life

  • Saturday, January 11, 3:00 pm – An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children

    Join Stockbridge Library and Berkshire Botanical Garden on Saturday, January 11, at 3 p.m. for a community read, featuring Jamaica Kincaid’s novel An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children. The facilitated conversation is free, and registration is preferred. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/community-read-encyclopedia-gardening-colored-children-jamaica-kinkaid

  • Saturday and Sunday, January 4 & 5, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm – The Science of Plant Propagation

    In this two day Berkshire Botanical Garden in person course on January 4 and 5 from 9 – 4, learn the art and science of plant propagation with a focus on the basic botany needed to understand and successfully propagate plants. Sexual and asexual propagation methods including sowing seeds, cuttings, grafting, layering, and division will be covered. Students will learn the fascinating science behind propagation along with the various techniques used to create new plants.

    Adam Wheeler started working and playing with plants at Broken Arrow Nursery in 2004 after completing his BS degree in Urban Forestry and Landscape Horticulture at the University of Vermont. His favorite role at Broken Arrow Nursery is plant propagation and the acquisition and development of new plants. Adam is a past recipient of the Young Nursery Professional Award from the New England Nursery Association and is the current Vice President of the North American Maple Society. He loves to share his passion for plants through photography and educational outreach. As a result, he lectures widely on a variety of subjects and is also an adjunct lecturer at Naugatuck Valley Community College and the Berkshire Botanical Garden. With his spare time he enjoys cultivating his eclectic collection of rare and unusual plants, rock climbing and competitive giant pumpkin growing!

    $215 for BBG members, $240 for nonmembers. Register at www.berkshirebotanical.org.

  • Saturdays, December 14 & December 21, 10:00 am – 3:00 pm – Planting Design Studio

    This Berkshire Botanical Garden course, offered Saturdays, December 14 and 21, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., teaches students how to design a planting plan for private and public garden spaces. Explore the manipulation of space by using plant material through a series of exercises dealing with form, color, and texture. Students will consider the nature of plant characteristics in specific design settings. Style of house will be used for a source of inspiration while honoring the horticultural needs of each plant. Students will make presentations for each project, and class critiques will be positive, instructive, and essential to the learning process. This is a participatory class and will include completing various design projects throughout the course. Taught by Tom Smith of Springfield Technical Community College.

    Tom Smith teaches at Springfield Technical Community College.  His past career adventures include precision machining, HVAC ductwork fabricator, installer and apprentice service technician, and the U.S. Navy.  He also wore many ‘hats’ within a small landscape company as a designer, estimator, salesperson, horticulturist, and construction crew leader.  

    The fee for this two session class is $215 for BBG members, $240 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/planting-design-studio

  • Friday, November 22 – Saturday, January 4 – NightWood, An Outdoor Sound & Light Experience

    Please join fellow nighttime enthusiasts for a fantastical journey through sound and light at The Mount in Lenox, Massachusetts. The ethereal winter landscape inspired by The Mount’s unique architecture and history is open each Sunday through Thursday, except for Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Night. NightWood combines music, lighting, and theatrical elements to create seven unique scenes that evoke feelings of wonder, mystery, and magic.

    Wander the illuminated 1 mile route through the woods and gardens for an otherworldly experience that evokes wonder and awakens the imagination. It includes both paved and unpaved pathways, inclines, and stairs. It takes approximately 45 minutes. Please use caution and stick to the paths. Dress for the weather! Trails may be muddy or icy at times, so winter boots are strongly recommended. Our NightWood Café is open for every performance, from 5pm to 8pm, serving snacks and hot beverages in the Forecourt. The Mount Bookstore will also be open for NightWood visitors. Advanced purchase of timed-entry tickets is highly recommended. Dates and times frequently sell out.

    Tickets and more information at https://www.edithwharton.org/calendar/nightwood/