Boston Flora

Category: Author Book Signing

  • Wednesday, May 7, 7:00 pm – The Extreme Life of the Sea

    Drawing on his newest book, The Extreme Life of the Sea, marine scientist Stephen Palumbi will explore the spectacular life forms, such as blind zombie worms, ageless jellyfish, and the unicorn-like narwhal, that thrive at the ocean’s most brutal limits. From the icy Arctic to boiling hydrothermal vents and pitch-dark trenches, Palumbi looks at extreme habitats and considers how humans may be driving dramatic changes to the ocean’s ecosystem. The lecture and book signing will take place Wednesday, May 7, beginning at 7 pm at the Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, and is sponsored by the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Stephen is the Jane and Marshall Steel Jr. Professor of Biology and Director of Hopkins Marine Station at Stanford University. Free and open to the public. There is free event parking in the 52 Oxford Street Garage.

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  • Wednesday, April 30, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Walden Warming: Climate Change Comes to Thoreau’s Woods

    In his meticulous notes on the natural history of Concord, Massachusetts, Henry David Thoreau records the first open flowers of highbush blueberry on May 11, 1853. If he were to look for the first blueberry flowers in Concord today, mid-May would be too late. In the 160 years since Thoreau’s writings, warming temperatures have pushed blueberry flowering three weeks earlier than in Thoreau’s time. The climate around Thoreau’s beloved Walden Pond is changing, with visible ecological consequences. In his new book, Walden Warming, Richard B. Primack, PhD, Professor of Biology, Boston University,  uses Thoreau and Walden, icons of the conservation movement, to track the effects of a warming climate on Concord’s plants and animals. Under the attentive eyes of Primack, the notes that Thoreau made years ago are transformed from charming observations into scientific data sets. Primack finds that many wildflower species that Thoreau observed have declined in abundance or have disappeared from Concord. Hear how warming temperatures have altered these and other aspects of Thoreau’s Concord, from the dates when ice departs from Walden Pond in late winter, to the arrival of birds in the spring, to the populations of fish, salamanders, and butterflies that live in the woodlands, river meadows, and ponds. The Arnold Arboretum program will take place Wednesday, April 30, from 7 – 8:30 in the Hunnewell Building of the Arboretum.  Free for Arboretum members, $5 for nonmembers.  Register online at www.my.arboretum.harvard.edu.

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  • Tuesday, April 22, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm – The Balance of Nature: Ecology’s Enduring Myth

    The idea of a balance of nature has been a dominant part of Western philosophy since before Aristotle, and it persists in the public imagination and even among some ecologists today. In his lively and thought-provoking book, The Balance of Nature: Ecology’s Enduring Myth, John Kricher, Professor of Biology at Wheaton College demonstrates that nature in fact is not in balance, nor has it ever been at any stage in Earth’s history. John will explain how and why this notion of a natural world in balance has endured for so long, and show why, in these times of extraordinary human influence on the planet’s ecosystems, it is critical that we accept and understand that nature is constantly in flux, and, in effect, quite naturally out of balance.

    This Arnold Arboretum lecture will take place Tuesday, April 22 at 6:30 pm in the Hunnewell Building of the Arboretum. Free for Arboretum members, $10 for nommembers. Register online at www.my.arboretum.harvard.edu.

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  • Tuesday, April 29, 10:00 am – Boston Committee Spring Lecture and Luncheon

    The Boston Committee of the Garden Club of America will hold its Spring 2014 Lecture and Luncheon on Tuesday, April 29, at The Country Club, 191 Clyde Street, Brookline.  Guest speaker Catie Marron, co-chair of the board of directors of Friends of the High Line, and Vogue magazine editor, is the author of the recently released book City Parks: Public Places, Private Thoughts.  “We live in our parks, and our parks live in us.  Parks are where we make loose appointments with friends, where we smooth out our nerves, where we introduce our babies to the outside world.  Parks are of the earth, they are of the people, and they are first and foremost, free.”  Catie will escort us on a literary and photographic journey focused on the gift of Parks in our lives.

    Registration and coffee will begin at 10:00 am, and the lecture begins at 10:30 am.  An optional luncheon will follow the lecture.  Garden Club of the Back Bay members will receive a written invitation and a car pool notice in the mail.  For others who wish to attend, email info@bostoncommittee.org.

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  • Friday, April 25 – New England Landscape Design & History Association Annual Reception

    NELDHA’s Annual Reception and Lecture will take place on Friday, April 25, 2014 at the beautiful MIT Endicott House in Dedham, Massachusetts. The featured speaker will be Lucinda Brockway, Director for Cultural Resources for the The Trustees of Reservations, where she guides the wonderful restoration of the historic gardens at Castle Hill in Ipswich and Naumkeag in Stockbridge. She was an award-winning landscape designer and preservationist, serving a national clientele for twenty-five years before coming to the trustees.

    Through her firm, Past Designs in Kennebunk, Maine, Lucinda’s work included such well-known projects as Fort Ticonderoga’s Jardin du Roi, Newport’s Bellevue Avenue estates, the Battle Green (Lexington, Massachusetts), Villa Finale in San Antonio ,Texas, the Camden Amphitheatre in Maine and several other projects for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Her private residential designs won recognition throughout the country. She specialized in designing period-inspired landscapes and gardens featuring both historic and indigenous plants. She is the author of two books, A Favorite Place of Resort for Strangers and Gardens of the New Republic.

    Times and ticketing information will be available at www.neldha.org.

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  • Saturday, April 12, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Northeast Wildflowers to Brighten Your Spring Garden

    Learn about the importance of native wildflowers and how to bring them into the garden setting, on Saturday, April 12 from 10 – noon at the Berkshire Botanical Garden, at a talk and book signing with author Carol Gracie. Wildflowers brighten the New England woodlands in spring and are more than just a delight for the eye and a lift for the winter-weary spirit. Each has a role in the environment and often has interesting interactions with pollinators and seed dispersers. Learn about the fascinating life histories of some favorite spring wildflowers. Topics include adaptations for early blooming, medicinal and other uses, the origin of wildflower names, pollination and seed dispersal. A book sale and signing of Carol’s beautiful newly published Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast: A Natural History will follow the talk.

    Carol Gracie is a naturalist and photographer with a degree in plant studies from Lehman College of the City University of New York. She is retired from The New York Botanical Garden, where she headed the Children’s Education Program and the Foreign Tour program and taught in the Continuing Education Program. In 2006 she co-authored (with Steve Clemants) Wildflowers in the Field and Forest: A Field Guide to the Northeastern United States. Her latest book, Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast: A Natural History, was published in March of 2012.

    $25 for BBG members, $30 for non-members.  Sign up at www.berkshirebotanical.org or call 413-298-3926, x 15.

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  • Saturday, April 5, 4:00 pm – Private Gardens of the Hudson Valley

    This Berkshire Botanical Garden presentation features gardens that emphasize the majestic landscape that borders New York State’s Hudson River. Based on her latest book, Private Gardens of the Hudson Valley, Jane Garmey will discuss the development of 26 private gardens chosen to give a sense of place and convey the romance of the landscape. The location of these gardens plays a vital role in the making of each one. Learn how the owners deal with the transitions between the cultivated garden and its natural surroundings. The gardens include those of Gregory Long, director of the New York Botanical Garden, and Amy Goldman, doyenne of heirloom vegetables. A book signing and sale will follow the lecture.

    Jane Garmey is the author of Private Gardens of Connecticut (Monacelli/Random House), the editor of The Writer in the Garden (Algonquin Books) and the author of Great British Cooking: A Well-Kept Secret (Random House) and Great New British Cooking (Simon & Schuster). Her latest book, Private Gardens of the Hudson Valley, is the subject of this lecture. She writes about gardens and interior design for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Elle Decor. For many years she was the garden correspondent for Town & Country.

    You may register at www.berkshirebotanical.org.  $25 for BBG members, $30 for nonmembers.

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  • Wednesday, April 2, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Bamboo: History, Horticulture, and Invention

    Susanne Lucas, Bamboo Specialist and Executive Director of the World Bamboo Organization, will speak at the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum on Wednesday, April 2, beginning at 7 pm, on Bamboo: History, Horticulture, and Invention. Bamboo has an unparalleled history; it is very old, and at the same time very new. Through its myriad uses as food, clothing, paper and shelter, bamboo has met the physical and spiritual requirements of humanity since the earliest times and played a vital role in the survival of many animals and ecosystems. As a fast growing renewable resource and in conjunction with advances in research and technology, the use of bamboo has increased dramatically, elevating its importance to human society – it can now be found in the filaments of light bulbs, the skins of airplanes and the reinforcements of concrete. Susanne will present an historical and modern view of bamboo. Her recently published book, Bamboo, will be available for purchase and signing. Free for Arboretum members, $10 for nonmembers.  Register online at www.my.arboretum.harvard.edu.

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  • Tuesday, April 29, 10:00 am – Boston Committee Spring Lecture and Luncheon

    Tuesday, April 29, 10:00 am – Boston Committee Spring Lecture and Luncheon

    Garden Club of the Back Bay and other Boston Committee club members will receive a written invitation to the spring meeting.  If you are interested in attending, and are not a member of a Boston Committee club, please email info@bostoncommittee.org for more information.

     

     

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  • Monday, March 17, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm – The Lodge Women, Their Men and Their Times

    On Monday, March 17, from 12 – 1, the Massachusetts Historical Society will present a free talk by Emily Lodge entitled The Lodge Women, Their Men and Their Times. Like a Whitman poem, the saga of the Lodge family has unfolded in tandem with the history of the great American experiment itself. Yet while the biographies of the Lodge patriarchs have been well-documented, the stories of the influential Lodge women have never been authoritatively chronicled. From the earliest days of the American colonies, through the Gilded Age, and into the first years of the 21st century, The Lodge Women Their Men, and Their Times traces her family’s remarkable history through its female figures, constructing a narrative that is at once intensely personal, political, and wholly universal.

    Based on archival research, interviews, and personal memoirs, Emily Lodge presents her ancestors’ stories largely through their own voices, heard in a rich collection of personal letters exchanged with the luminaries of their times, whose lives were linked with the Lodges by politics, art, and family: Henry Adams, Henry James, Theodore Roosevelt, John Hay, Elizabeth Cameron and Edith Wharton, some of whose letters are published here for the first time.From her unique descendant’s view on a long line of prominent Lodge women, the author recalls their grace, dash, and political influence through a sweep of history that illuminates the pages with the incandescent human truths of a distinguished family’s life and times.

    Over the last thirty years a fascination with public policy has taken Emily into government, journalism, business and academia. As a print journalist, she focused on law and the courts. As a speech-writer for a US Congressman and a US Ambassador to France, her domain was foreign policy. As an award-winning television documentary researcher for 60 Minutes, she helped prove someone innocent. Emily won an Emmy Award for a CBS News Special Report about education. On moving to Europe, she became a correspondent for Brussel’s leading monthly business magazine. Her Paris Voice features column were known for their witty and perceptive observations about public figures. She has written brochures for companies and helped create a major fund-raising drive for INSEAD, Europe’s premier business school. A graduate of Georgetown University in diplomatic history, she is currently writing news analysis from the Middle East.

    The talk will take place at 1154 Boylston Street in Boston.  For more information, visit www.masshist.org.

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