Boston Flora

Category: Author Book Signing

  • Tuesday, July 13 – Thursday, July 15, 2021 – Nantucket Garden Festival: A Celebration of Island Gardens

    As we are moving through these uncertain times, Nantucket Lighthouse School’s Board of Trustees has made the tough decision to postpone the 2020 Nantucket Garden Festival to July 13-15, 2021. 

    Tjeu are grateful that they will be able to offer the unparalleled line-up of events that was announced for this year next summer, and look forward to welcoming you then.  They are thinking about you and your families and hope that you are all well and safe.

    The line up will include keynote presenter Christin Geall. Christin Geall is a Canadian floral designer, writer, gardener, photographer, and author of the book Cultivated: Elements of Floral Style (Princeton Architectural Press, 2020). Trained in horticultural at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, she completed a BA in Environmental Studies & Anthropology and a MFA in nonfiction before becoming a gardening columnist for Gardenista, a professor, and designer. Through her company, Cultivated, she teaches floral design in the UK, US, and Canada. Her writing and floral work focuses on the intersections of nature, culture, and horticulture.

    A second keynote presenter is Stephen Orr, the Editor-In-Chief of Better Homes and Gardens and Author of The New American Herbal and Tomorrow’s Garden. Orr will be joining us to explore the versatility of herbs in all their beauty and variety.

    Orr has been a regularly featured gardening expert on “The CBS Early Show,” “The Martha Stewart Show,” and “The Today Show.” In addition he was a segment producer for the PBS television series “Cultivating Life” and edited two cookbooks by British author Sarah Raven for Rizzoli.

    Orr is a featured speaker across the country for organizations such as The Garden Conservancy, The Garden Club of America, the Garden Writers Association, and a variety of national programs.

    A third presenter, Jennifer Jewell is the creator/host of Cultivating Place, an award-winning public radio program & podcast on natural history and the human impulse to garden. Her first book, The Earth In Her Hands, 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants, centering women transforming horticulture around the world, is published by Timber Press.

    Jewell’s writing and photography have been featured in publications including Gardens Illustrated, House & Garden, and Pacific Horticulture. From 2008 – 2016 Jewell created, wrote and hosted the weekly, regionally-focused In a North State Garden on North State Public Radio. From 2010 -2017 she worked as the curatorial assistant to the director and the curator of the native plant garden at Gateway Science Museum on the campus of CSU, Chico in Chico, CA. 

    Finally, Peggy Cornett is the Historic Gardener and Curator of Plants at Monticello and received the SGHS Flora Ann Bynum Medal for exemplary service in the garden history field and the Garden Club of America’s Zone VII Horticultural Commendation for Horticultural Expertise.

    In addition to managing the historic plant collection, Cornett oversees educational programs at Monticello including the Garden and Grounds tour and the Garden Tasting Tours as well as natural history walks, lectures, and horticultural workshops throughout the year. She is the co-director of the Historic Landscape Institute, a unique one-week educational experience in the theory and practice of historic landscape hosted at Monticello.

    Cornett also shares her knowledge in horticulture as a frequent guest on NPR and PBS. She also writes articles and lectures nationwide on vegetable gardens and historic plants.

    For complete registration information for next summer, bookmark http://www.ackgardenfestival.org/

  • Thursday, May 21, 6:00 pm – From the Hands of the Makers – Cancelled

    From 1886 to 1936, Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka applied their artistic talents and knowledge of natural history to create an exquisite collection of glass models of plants to support the botanical education of Harvard students and the public. This May 21 Harvard Museum of Natural History program will explore the history, conservation, and relevance of the Glass Flowers in the twenty-first century, and introduce the publication The Glass Flowers: Marvels of Art and Science at Harvard, a compendium of new photographs that captures the beauty and magnificent detail of the models. Featured speakers are Jennifer Brown, Collection Manager, Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants, Natalja Kent, Photographer, Scott E. Fulton, Head Conservator, Ware Collection, and Donald H. Pfister, Asa Gray Professor of Systemic Botany and Curator of the Farlow Library and Herbarium of Cryptogamic Botany. The program is free and open to the public, with a book signing and exhibit preview to follow.

  • Wednesday, April 22, 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Rainsford Island: A Boston Harbor Case Study in Public Neglect and Private Activism – Cancelled

    Author Bill McEvoy explores the history of Rainsford Island in Boston Harbor. His talk will take place at the Boston Public Library Central Branch in Copley Square on April 22 at 6 pm. Beginning with private ownership from 1636 to 1736, the island then was owned by the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and finally the City of Boston.  The island’s complex history is best told by segmenting its various periods. Until 1854, it was occasionally a place of quarantine, as well as a summer resort for the wealthy. In 1854, while under the ownership of the Commonwealth, the island’s use took a turn, beginning sixty-six years as an off-shore repository for Boston’s unwanted. Its inmates were victims of poverty, lack of health care, mental illness, senility, addiction, lack of proper housing, poor sanitary conditions, inability to pay a small fine, men unable to find work, incarcerated as paupers, and unwed pregnant women.

    We note two heroes: Alice Lincoln and Louis Brandeis. Their efforts resulted in the City ending Rainsford Island as a warehouse for the poor, the unwanted, and the mentally ill. Rainsford entered its final 26 years as the Boys’ House of Reformation. Further examples of inept management, cruelty, neglect, and death, of “Unfortunate” boys ages eight to eighteen are documented. Sentences ranged from playing ball on Sundays to murder. Those boys were commingled on the 11 acre island.

    His book is dedicated to the memory of all who were sent to Rainsford Island, especially those who remain buried there, still neglected but now not forgotten. This book dedicates a chapter to those who never left the island and are buried in unmarked graves, including a War of 1812 sailor, 9 Civil War soldiers who died on active duty, and 108 Veterans of the Civil War who died between 1873 and 1893. Fourteen of those Veterans were African American, – one was a member of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment.

    Bill McEvoy is a US Army Veteran (1968-1971). He earned a BA from Bentley University, MBA from Suffolk University, and MA in Political Science from Boston College. While at BC he had the privilege of participating in a semester long colloquium with Dr. Thomas H. O’Connor, the Dean of the History Department.

    He retired as a Massachusetts District Court Magistrate in 2009. He has volunteered for eight years with the No Veteran Dies Alone program at the Bedford Veterans Hospital where he is still glad to be actively working, as well as performing pro bono work as a Magistrate, one day per week, for ten years until this past fall.

    Since his first month of retirement, he has performed many large-scale cemetery research projects, several as a volunteer at Mount Auburn Cemetery (MAC). In addition to Rainsford Island he performed a four year study of the 23,000+ people (primarily Irish immigrants or their first generation descendants) buried from 1854 to 1920 at the Catholic Mount Auburn Cemetery (CMAC), Watertown, MA. He is presently writing a book about the cemetery, as well as the people buried there.

  • Tuesday, April 14, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Nature’s Best Hope: A Talk and Book Signing with Doug Tallamy – POSTPONED

    Join Doug Tallamy at 6 pm at Garden in the Woods in Framingham for a talk and book signing for his newest publication, Nature’s Best Hope. Recent headlines about global insect declines, the impending extinction of one million species worldwide, and three billion fewer birds in North America are a bleak reality check about how ineffective our current landscape designs have been at sustaining the plants and animals that sustain us. Such losses are not an option if we wish to continue our current standard of living on planet Earth. The good news is that none of this is inevitable. Tallamy, author of the acclaimed Bringing Nature Home, will discuss simple steps that each of us can—and must—take to reverse declining biodiversity and explain why we, ourselves, are nature’s best hope. The talk will be followed by a book signing. $30 for Native Plant Trust members, $36 for nonmembers. Register at http://www.nativeplanttrust.org/events/natures-best-hope-talk-and-book-signing-doug-tallamy/

  • Thursday, April 2, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm – Mastering the Art of Flower Gardening – Postponed

    A comprehensive and highly practical study of growing flowers, Mastering the Art of Flower Gardening presents expert advice and guidelines on growing many of today’s favorite flowers. Author Matt Mattus has curated a selection that ranges from the most common of flowers, like zinnias and dahlias, to uncommon or challenging flowers like primroses and sweet peas. Learn about old-fashioned biennials and the finest perennials as well as beloved flowers that grow as shrubs, bulbs, or vines. Organized seasonally, there is even a winter chapter featuring flowers for cool, indoor windowsills or a backyard greenhouse. Mattus shares what he’s learned over decades of first-hand experience as a horticulturist, testing techniques in his own garden and greenhouse. Whether you’re interested in raising a small cut-flower garden, enhancing your flower border or containers, or figuring out how to grow the best Bread Seed Poppies next year, Mattus has it covered.

    Active in many horticultural leadership roles, Matt’s day job is quite different. Professionally Matt works as a Principal Designer at toy and entertainment giant Hasbro, Inc. (Pawtucket, RI), but that doesn’t preclude his deep involvement in many plant societies and botanic gardens. Matt has been involved with horticulture throughout his career. By age 10 he was exhibiting as a ‘junior exhibitor’ in the many plant society shows held at Worcester County Horticultural Society’s Horticultural Hall in Worcester, MA throughout the 1970’s. He is the author of the award-winning gardening blog Growing With Plants. His greenhouse and gardens have also been included in many popular magazines, blogs and books including Martha Stewart Living (Nov. 2016 – Chrysanthemums), House & Garden (Nov 2016, South African Bulbs), and Better Homes & Gardens, to name a few.

    This Tower Hill Botanic Garden talk and book signing will take place April 2 from 6:30 – 8:30, and is $15 for Tower Hill members, $20 for nonmembers. Register at www.towerhillbg.org.

  • Saturday, March 28, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm – Making a Garden for the Birds – Postponed

    “I always say the birds taught me to garden. And I thank them.” – Margaret Roach
    What started out decades ago as merely a semi-conscious wish to see more birds as she started a garden on a former blank canvas, ended up bringing about 68 avian species into Margaret’s garden each year, each in its own time, with a smaller but substantial number nesting in it or at its periphery. Margaret will share all her “if I knew then what I know now” aha’s about setting realistic aims (no, not every site is going to attract bluebirds, no matter how many boxes you buy!) and accomplishing them-all within the context of a visually pleasing home landscape. She’ll cover her top tips for making a garden that makes birds right at home, must-have resources, and much more.

    Margaret will be signing copies of her all-new version of A Way to Garden after the talk, which takes place at Tower Hill Botanic Garden on March 28 from 2 – 3:30. The book is available in Tower Hill’s Garden Shop. Margaret Roach, after 15 years at Martha Stewart Living and a decade each at Newsday and The New York Times, now writes the nationally acclaimed blog “A Way to Garden” and is author of the 2011 corporate-dropout memoir, And I Shall Have Some Peace There, about walking away from “success” for a quieter life lived closer to nature. The Backyard Parables (2013) blends garden memoir and how-to advice. An all-new version of her first award-winning book A Way to Garden was published in spring 2019, on its 21st anniversary. She has worked for more than 25 years to make her garden in the Hudson Valley-Berkshires area a visual treat every day of the year. It has been open for Garden Conservancy Open Days for more than 20 years.

    The lecture is $15 for Tower Hill Members, $18 for nonmembers. Register at www.towerhillbg.org.

  • Tuesday, March 17, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm – The Herbal History of World War II – POSTPONED

    Based on research completed for her recent book, Plants Go to War: A Botanical History of World War II, Judith Sumner will discuss the importance of herbs and medicinal plants in the war effort. From the County Herb Committees in England to South American cinchona (quinine) missions, plants played essential roles in treating wartime illnesses and conditions. We’ll examine the botanical origins of treatments for ailments ranging from bacterial infections and tropical parasites to vitamin deficiencies and bombing-induced stress. The Tower Hill Botanic Garden talk on March 17 from 11 – 12:30 will also include historical perspective on the cultural and medicinal role of herbs in the Third Reich, including the cultivation of extensive herbal gardens at concentration camps.

    Judith Sumner is a botanist who specializes in ethnobotany, flowering plants, plant adaptations, and garden history. She has taught extensively both at the college level and at botanical gardens, including the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and Garden in the Woods. Judith graduated from Vassar College and completed graduate studies in botany at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She studied at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and at the British Museum (Natural History) and did extensive field work in the Pacific region on the genus Pittosporum. She has published monographic studies in the American Journal of Botany, Pollen et Spores, and Allertonia, as well as monographing two families for Flora Vitiensis Nova.

    The session is $15 for THBG members, $20 for nonmembers. Register at www.towerhillbg.org.

  • Saturday, March 21, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm – What Linnaeus Saw

    Join Karen Beil, author of What Linnaeus Saw, through a true adventure story about an intriguing, world-renowned scientist who revolutionized the way we study plants and animals. The globetrotting naturalists of the 18th century were the plant geeks of their day. Foremost among them was Carl Linnaeus, a radical thinker who transformed biology. A medical doctor, botanist and enthusiastic professor in Sweden, he encouraged his devoted students to search the world for species. Now, more than ever, we need to learn about and value the world’s plants, animals, and habitats—both for the crucial roles they play in nature and for the benefits they provide to humankind. What Linnaeus Saw gives us a chance to examine the past and see what it can teach us for the future. A book sale and signing will follow the talk.

    Karen Beil was born in Boston, MA, into a family of book lovers, herself studying magazine journalism and English literature at Syracuse University. She reveled in the romantic poets, Shakespeare, and Chaucer.. But her greatest influence was a science professor, an expert on inland aquatic ecosystems. Her first professional job came as a news reporter in Chicago and later as a writer and editor at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, essentially translating the fascinating technical work of scientists and engineers into understandable English. 

    Later, reading with her own young children, she began to write articles for children’s magazines including Ranger Rick and National Geographic World, and has since written several picture books as well as a mid-grade nonfiction about wildfire. Her talk will take place at Berkshire Botanical Garden on March 21 at 2 pm. Free for students with valid ID, $15 for BBG members, and $20 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/what-linnaeus-saw-scientist%E2%80%99s-quest-name-every-living-thing

  • Saturday, March 14, 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm – The Earth in Her Hands: 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants

    Focus in a wholly unique way on how horticulture intersects with our everyday world, and on women whose work has enriched and expanded these intersections in the last 25 years. The Earth in Her Hands: 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants by Jennifer Jewell explores and celebrates how the plant world is improved not only by greater representation of women, but also by diversity amongst those women. It chronicles how working in the world of plants is a more viable and creative career path for women than ever before and how the plant-work world is demonstrating greater social and environmental responsibility, in large part due to women’s contributions. Walking through profiles of women doing current and innovative work in all fields horticultural – botany, environmental science, landscape design and architecture, floriculture, agriculture, social justice, plant seeking and breeding, seed science, gardening, garden writing and garden photography, public garden administration, research, and public policy – we see how they often represent larger issues or shifts in our world. The work of these women illustrates how the many challenges of our world – environmental, economic, cultural/societal, individual – can be met through cultivating an interdependence with plants. 

    The group of 75 includes representatives from the United States, England, Ireland, Wales, Canada, Australia, India, and Japan.  These paradigm-shifting women range beautifully across race, ethnicity, socio-economic and religious backgrounds, sexual orientation, and age – in a way that transcends preconceived notions of what horticulture/gardening is and what plantspeople/gardeners look like. These women and their work have profoundly positive impacts on the larger world – aesthetically, environmentally, culturally, and economically – making them joyful and encouraging role models and inspirations for us all.

    Following the March 14 lecture at the Berkshire Botanical Garden in West Stockbridge, there will be a book sale and signing of The Earth in Her Hands.

    Jennifer Jewell is the creator and host of Cultivating Place, an award-winning public radio program and podcast on natural history and the human impulse to garden.

  • Saturday, March 7, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Expert Honey Tasting

    Every taste of honey is an opportunity to learn something about its floral source, region and even the beekeeper’s practices. Tasting and evaluating honey is a skill learned through formal sensory training along with experience. Join honey connoisseur and beekeeper, Carla Marina Marchese, on Saturday, March 7 from 1 – 4 at Berkshire Botanical Garden to learn the methods of sensory analysis used by sommeliers to taste and evaluate honey like an expert. The art of honey tasting is as complex as skills used by a wine or olive oil sommelier. If you are looking to improve your knowledge of honey and your tasting skills you should attend this workshop, which is appropriate for those who appreciate honey and beekeepers alike. Copies of The Honey Connoisseur will be available for purchase and signing by Marina. $55 for BBG members, $65 for nonmembers. Register at www.berkshirebotanical.org

    Carla Marina Marchese is a member of the Italian National Register of Experts in the Sensory Analysis of Honey, where she received her formal training. Her book, The Honey Connoisseur, co-authored with Kim Flottum (editor of Bee Culture Magazine), parallels the concept of terroir to single-origin honey, directly matching floral sources to flavors, and conceived the first U.S. honey aroma and flavor wheel. In 2011, Marina established The American Honey Tasting Society as the leading resource for honey sensory education in the United States. An accomplished apiculturist, Marina has also successfully completed the Charles Mraz Apitherapy Course, deepening her understanding of products of the beehive and their applications to health and healing. Marchese is also the founder of the beloved brand of Red Bee honey.