Boston Flora

Category: garden tour

  • Wednesday, November 11 – Sunday, November 15 – ARS Fall National Conference & Rose Show

    Come be a part of history in the making! Join  the American Rose Society’s 2009 Fall National Conference and Rose Show, hosted by the Desert Rose Society, which will be held November 11-15, 2009, in Palm Springs, CA. This is the first time that an ARS National will be held in the California desert and the first time in more than 60 years that a Fall National has been held in the Pacific-Southwest District.

    We can’t think of a more attractive venue for an ARS national conference and rose show than Palm Springs, California, “America’s Premier Desert Resort” and “Date Capital of the U.S.” (95% of all American dates are grown in the Palm Springs area). The mid-November weather with warm, sunny days and cool evenings makes it even more ideal.   Remember, Boston people, winter is coming – time to stock up on sunshine for the gray days ahead.

    Take a trip to the top of Mt. San Jacinto on the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, the world’s largest rotating tram, taking riders up 8,516 feet from the desert floor to the Mountain Station.

    Enjoy a few of the more than 120 golf courses, including some of the finest in the world, or play tennis to your heart’s delight. Visit the Living Desert, which features the unique flora and fauna of the world’s deserts.

    Join other participants in a guided bus tour past the homes of celebrities past and present. Tour the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens and its magnificent new Chinese Garden. The list goes on!

    You’ll have the opportunity to tour private rose gardens at members’ homes, attend educational and inspiring presentations by a world-class faculty from the United States and Europe, exhibit in or simply enjoy a national rose show featuring some of the finest roses anywhere. Participate in a post-conference Ikebana workshop. Enter or just wander through the International Rose Photography Show. This is a great time and place to renew old acquaintances and make new friends.

    The organizers are doing everything they can to provide the rose experience of a lifetime, including locking in a terrific rate at the conference hotel, the Doral Desert Princess Resort. But there’s one thing needed to make it perfect – you! This is one ARS national conference and rose show you definitely won’t want to miss!  For more information, log on to www.ars.org, or email Cliff Orent, Co-Chairman, at cliffofthedesert@yahoo.com.

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  • Saturday, October 17, 2:00 pm – Contemporary Art Walking Tour

    Tour the Contemporary Sculpture Path of Forest Hills Cemetery, 95 Forest Hills Avenue, Jamaica Plain, with the Forest Hills Educational Trust’s Executive Director Cecily Miller, looking at Victorian sculpture and architecture along the way.  Discover the ways contemporary artists were inspired by this unique landscape to explore themes of nature, history, family, memory and the mysterious world of the spirits.  Forest Hills is a historic cemetery located in Boston, Massachusetts. Designed in 1848 as a 250-acre park and arboretum as well as a burial ground, it helped inspire Frederick Law Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace a generation later. Visitors discover a grand Victorian landscape filled with treasures of 19th century art and architecture, a green oasis shaded by magnificent canopy trees, and a sanctuary for birds and urban wildlife.

    The non-profit Forest Hills Educational Trust presents innovative cultural programs in this extraordinary setting, including: exhibitions of contemporary art, concerts and poetry readings, walking tours, the Buddhist-inspired Lantern Festival and a traditional Mexican Day of the Dead. This walk will begin at 2:00 pm and costs $9.  For directions and more information, log on to www.foresthillstrust.org.

  • Sunday, October 19, 11:00 am – 3:00 pm – Peddocks Island Trip

    From harbor protection to national park area, the uses of Peddocks Island have varied greatly based on the needs of Native Americans, Colonists and Bostonians.  The island’s proximity to the mainland ensured its prominent military role.  During the Revolutionary War, patriots raided a loyalist farm and Peddocks saw over 600 militiamen stationed on the island to guard the harbor against the return of British troops.  In more recent times, Fort Andrews protected the harbor from 1904 to the end of World War II.  Twenty six structures remain, including guardhouses, prisoner-of-war barracks, stables, a gymnasium and a firehouse.  At 184 acres, Peddocks is one of the largest, most diverse islands in the Boston harbor.  Gravel bars called tombolos link the five drumlins that form the island.  Fort Andrews to the east overlooks the waters of Hull Gut.  Quaint cottages and a salt marsh occupy the Middle Head, while West Head is a conservation area.  Join the Friends of the Boston Harbor Islands and Park Rangers for a walk through history and rustic island terrain.  Advance Ticket Purchase recommended.  Adults – $28, FBHI member or Senior (65+) – $25.  Purchase on-line at www.FBHI.org ($2 transaction fee per ticket).  Boat will pick up passengers at Fan Pier in Boston at 11:00 am and Pemberton Point Pier in Hull at 11:45 am.

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  • Saturday, October 17, 10 am – 1:30 pm – Fall in the Bog

    A thick, floating mass of sphagnum moss, oxygen-poor water, and plants adapted to very low nutrient conditions characterize quaking bogs. The Philbrick-Cricenti Quaking Bog, one of the best examples of these unique peatlands, offers a chance to explore a trail about a mile in length, while staying high and dry atop a boardwalk. A host of bog plants are to be discovered as you transition from a red maple-sphagnum swamp, through a black spruce-larch swamp, to the Tundra Garden Loop where you find vegetation similar to that in more northern areas where boreal forest meets the open Arctic tundra. The walk will be led by Roland “Boot” Boutwell, and is sponsored by the New England Wild Flower Society. Bring a bag lunch, water, and a hand lens if you have one.  Cost for NEWFS members is $28, $32 for nonmembers.  Limit 10 participants.  To register, and for directions, log on to www.newfs.org, or call 508-877-7630.

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  • Sunday, October 18, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm – Fall Clean Up of Olmsted’s Historic Grounds

    The weeds and vines are entangling Olmsted’s rhododendrons and encroaching views at Stonehurst, The Robert Treat Paine Estate in Waltham, Massachusetts, on Sunday, October 18, from 10 – 1.  Help restore these historic grounds and get some exercise to boot.  Please bring work or gardening gloves and any pruning tools you have handy.  Following the clean-up operation, the house will be open to the public from 12 noon until 3 pm, with a guided tour offered at 1 pm.  Light refreshments will be provided.  For directions to 100 Robert Treat Paine Drive please call 781-314-3290, or log on to www.stonehurstwaltham.org.

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  • Saturday, October 17, 10:00 am – Eden’s Gems: A Walk in the Village Orchard

    Garden Thyme programs are held on the third Saturday of each month and are FREE for members of Old Sturbridge Village. Led by Village horticultural and agricultural staff, these programs and workshops are held at various sites and deal with a variety of plant-related themes and topics. Participants gather at the Visitor Center at 10 a.m. each month and are led to the appropriate site or setting.  On October 17, enjoy Eden’s Gems: A Walk in the Village Orchard, with Christie Higginbottom. Did you ever wonder why 1800s cooks and cider makers had over 800 apple varieties to choose from and we only have a dozen or so? Meet the Village’s historic fruits — the Mothers, the Spitzenburgs, the Russets, the Baldwins and the Sheepsnose apples. Learn about seedlings, scions and rootstocks. Find out how the art and skill of propagating these trees keeps our apple heritage alive.  For more information, and directions, log on to www.osv.org.

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  • Wednesday, October 7, 6 pm – Art May Be the Best Revenge

    Best selling garden author and photographer Ken Druse presents Art May be the Best Revenge: From da Vinci to Duquette on Wednesday, October 7, beginning at 6 pm, at Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, Massachusetts.  Mr. Druse will be signing books during the reception, with the lecture following at 6:30, followed by a tour of the illuminated Sculpture Show with Ken Druse and Nancy B. Grimes.  The famed “Stone Show,” formerly in Hardwick, Massachusetts, is expanding and moving to Tower Hill Botanic Garden, becoming “The Sculpture Show.”  We detailed this event in a previous post (search and ye shall find).  The cost of this reception and evening is $20 for Tower Hill members, and $25 for non members.  For more information, or to buy tickets, log on to www.towerhillbg.org.

  • Sunday, October 18, 1 – 3 pm – Autumn Beauties: Native Plants in the Collections

    Tower Hill Botanic Garden’s grounds contain many beautiful native trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants that are at their most vivacious in the fall. Blueberries and chokeberries around the Wildlife Pond will be in vivid fall dress, and winterberries will be ripening for winter migrating birds. Fine native grasses will be at their ripest on Sunday, October 18, beginning at 1 pm, in the Systematic Garden. Witch hazels will be glowing yellow around the Wildlife Garden. Garden Designer Dori Smith, M. Ed, of Gardens for Life in Acton, Massachusetts,  will seek out the best specimens in the garden’s collections to show you. She will discuss the special characteristics of native plants that make them good choices for your gardens, and how to create a palette of plants that will please you and the wildlife, year round. Fee $20 for Tower Hill members, $25 for non-members.  To register, log on to www.towerhillbg.org.

  • Saturday, October 3, 2:00 pm – 12th Annual Forest Hills Cemetery Dog Walk

    Dee Morris tells tales of Victorian animals – beloved pets and faithful workers – and tours animal sculpture throughout Forest Hills Cemetery, 95 Forest Hills Avenue, Jamaica Plain, on Saturday, October 3 beginning at 2:00 pm.  The walk is for sociable canines and their owners, but people without dogs (poor souls) are also welcome.  Dogs receive delicious treats from the Walk sponsor, Polkadog Bakery, and a certificate.  $10 for Forest Hills Educational Trust members, $12 for non-members.  For directions and more information, log on to www.foresthillstrust.org.

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  • Saturday, October 3, 12:00 – 6:00 pm – Hello Fall

    Try Something New, like skating on artificial ice, on Saturday October 3rd at the Greenway Conservancy’s second annual fall festival in Dewey Square Parks. Tickle all of your senses at this free all-ages event with a farmers market and cooking demonstrations, local art, a carnival ride, Greenway and Harborwalk tours, treasure hunt, and multi-cultural music. Get your body moving with hula hoops, Nordic pole walking, and a laughter class…where everyone gets an A+.  For more information, log on to www.hellogreenway.org.

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