Boston Flora

Category: Author Book Signing

  • Wednesday, November 28, 1:00 pm – Coffee Life in Japan

    Boston University Professor Dr. Merry White (below) traces Japan’s vibrant cafe society over one hundred and thirty years, from Japan’s coffee craze at the turn of the twentieth century, when Japan helped to launch the Brazilian coffee industry, to the present day.  Her talk takes up themes as diverse as gender, privacy, perfectionism and urbanism.  Merry’s book, Coffee Life in Japan, will be available for purchase from and signing by the author.  Coffee will be served, naturally.  Co-sponsored by the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and Friends of Wellesley Botanic Gardens.  Members $10, non-members $15.  Register by calling 781-283-3094, or visit www.wellesley.edu/wcbgfriends.

  • Saturday, November 10, 2:00 pm – Fairy Garden Fantasies

    Betsy Williams, author of Are There Fairies at the Bottom of Your Garden? will share flower facts and folklore, and teach participants how to use their creativity to make any garden into a fairy sanctuary, in a program to be held Saturday, November 10 beginning at 2 pm at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive in Boylston, MA.  Tickets: $10.00. For tickets to this program, contact Hazel Schroder (schroderhazel@yahoo.com)

    Are There Fairies at the Bottom of Your Garden?

  • Thursday, October 25, 7:00 pm – Skulls: An Exploration of Alan Dudley’s Curious Collection

    In Skulls, Simon Winchester presents a spellbinding exploration of an obsessive collector of over 300 animal skulls, including amphibians, birds, fish, mammals, and reptiles and tells the rich and fascinating story of skulls, both human and animal, from every perspective imaginable. Hear him speak at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge, on Thursday, October 25 at 7 pm. For more information, visit www.portersquarebooks.com, or email ellen@portersquarebooks.com. You may also call 617-491-2220.

    At the center of Skulls is a stunning, never-before-seen-in-any-capacity, visual array of the skulls of more than 300 animals that walk, swim, and fly. The skulls are from the collection of Alan Dudley, a British collector and owner of what is likely the largest and most complete private collection of skulls in the world.

    Winchester is the acclaimed author of many books, including Atlantic, The Professor and the Madman, The Man Who Loved China, A Crack in the Edge of the World, and Krakatoa. Those books were New York Times bestsellers and appeared on numerous best and notable lists. In 2006, Mr. Winchester was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by her Majesty the Queen. He lives in Manhattan and in western Massachusetts.

  • Tuesday, November 6, 4:00 pm – Tea Horse Road

    Ethnobotanist Dr. Selena Ahmed, co-author of Tea Horse Road: China’s Ancient Trade Road with Tibet, explores the culture, ecology and health attributes of Tea (Camellia sinensis,) on Tuesday, November 6 at the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens.  Also learn about Selena’s discoveries of the effects of climate change and land-use practices on tea.  Enjoy beautiful images by co-author, award-winning photographer and writer Michael Freeman, one of whose photos is shown below.  Sample a variety of teas traded along the ancient tea route.  $10 for WCBG members, $15 for non-members.  Register by calling 781- 283-3094.

  • Friday, October 26, 6:00 pm – Beautiful Minds: The Parallel Lives of Great Apes and Dolphins

    In her new book Beautiful Minds: The Parallel Lives of Great Apes and Dolphins (co-written with Craig Stanford), biologist Maddalena Bearzi examines how apes and dolphins, although distantly related, share a remarkably parallel evolution toward complex intelligence and behavior – and what this may reveal about the cognitive development of homo sapiens. Cosponsored by The Harvard Museum of Natural History and Harvard University Press. Free and open to the public, Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street. Free parking in the 52 Oxford Street garage.

  • Saturday, November 3, 10:00 am – 11:30 am – Naturally Curious

    Meet Mary Holland, the engaging author of Naturally Curious, A Photographic Field Guide and Month-by-Month Journey through the Fields, Woods, and Marshes of New England, and with her inspiration get started on your own journey of discovery, on Saturday, November 3, beginning at 10 am at Garden in the Woods in Framingham.  Mary guides you through a selection of each month’s most memorable natural events with information and images of native plants and wildlife, beginning in March when the earth awakens and ending in February at the end-of-year cycle.  After the presentation, examine the accompanying collection of skulls, scat, feathers, horns, antlers and more.  Books will be available for purchase and signing.  Co-sponsored by the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, New England Wild Flower Society, Mass Audubon Drumlin Farm, and Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Garden.  Members of any of the sponsoring organizations pay $10, non-members $15.  Register at www.newfs.org.

  • Monday, October 29, 9:30 am or 7:00 pm – Gardens for a Beautiful America

    Monday, October 29, 9:30 am or 7:00 pm – Gardens for a Beautiful America

    At the opening of the 20th century, pioneering photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864 – 1952) was front and center in the movement to beautify America. Gilded age industrialism had brought a new prosperity to life in the United States, but at the price of once pristine forests, rivers, and clear air. In response, the Garden Beautiful movement began. Johnston, a progressive and perhaps one of America’s first “house and garden” photojournalists, was enlisted to photograph gardens from coast to coast. Historian Sam Watters will reveal a sampling of Johnston’s images for lectures delivered across America to advance the Garden Beautiful movement. He will speak about her as an artist and the relevance of her work as a cultural history collection. Over the course of 5 years, historian Sam Watters scanned through millions of books and magazines to match Johnston’s unlabeled hand painted glass garden slides (now in the collection of the Library of Congress) to the sites they depicted, bringing them to light again after more than 70 years, and showing them as a collection of significance in his new book Gardens for a Beautiful America.

    The morning lecture will take place at the new Weld Hill Research Building, 1300 Centre Street in Roslindale, and optional tours of the building will be available at 9:30 am for those registered for the morning lecture. For those unable to attend in the morning, an evening session will be held in the Hunnewell Building, 125 Arborway in Jamaica Plain. Due to space considerations, limited spaces are available for both lectures, and early registration will be encouraged. Co-sponsored by The Garden Club of the Back Bay with Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens, Photographic Resource Center at Boston University, and The Garden Conservancy.  Garden Club of the Back Bay members will receive written notification in the mail.  All others may register at www.arboretum.harvard.edu.  Fee to the public  is $20 through October 15, and $25 thereafter.

  • Saturday, October 13, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – The Science, Art, and Lore of Pickling

    Who doesn’t love the zesty crunch of a pickle? Before refrigeration pickling (acidic preservation) was more than just a delicious addition to a meal, it was an essential strategy for safe food storage.

    Judith Sumner, author of American Household Botany: A History of Useful Plants, 1620-1900, will uncover the history of pickling with “receipts” gathered from early New England cookbooks. She will explain the antimicrobial properties of herbs and spices as well as present the wide range of foods that can be pickled. Ready to pickle at home? Modern pickling recipes and methods will also be presented.  The program will take place Saturday, October 13 beginning at 1 pm at The Polly Hill Arboretum in West Tisbury. $25/$15 for PHA members. For directions and information visit www.pollyhillarboretum.org.

  • Thursday, October 25, 6:00 pm – The Brookline Troika: Olmsted, Richardson, and the Planning of the Model Suburb

    Join The Arnold Arboretum for a glimpse into Brookline’s past — the shaping of its public parks and parkways, private estates, and planned housing developments, as influenced by the Olmsted Office. On Thursday, October 25, beginning at 6 pm, architectural historian Keith Morgan, one of three co-authors of the newly published Community by Design: The Role of the Frederick Law Olmsted Office in the Suburbanization of Brookline, Massachusetts, 1880–1936, will present a selection of the firm’s approximately 150 Brookline commissions that were created over the course of a half century. He will discuss the networks of individuals, institutions, and municipal authorities that worked with the firm on the boulevards, subdivisions, institutional grounds, and private estates that define the character and qualities of Brookline, with particular attention given to the planning theories of Olmsted, Jr. Reception to follow. The event will take place in the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum.
    Free, but registration requested at www.my.arboretum.harvard.edu.  Co-sponsored by the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, the Friends of Fairsted, and the Library of American Landscape History.

  • Saturday, October 13, 9:00 am – Meadowscaping: A Recipe for Healthy Urban & Suburban Landscapes

    Catherine Zimmerman will lecture on Saturday, October 13 beginning at 9 am at the Chatham Community Center, 702 Main Street in Chatham, on Meadowscaping: A Recipe for Healthy Urban & Suburban Landscapes.  Ms. Zimmerman is the author of Urban & Suburban Meadows, and a book signing will follow,  The free program is sponsored by the Chatham Conservation Commission, the Chatham Conservation Foundation, Inc., the Association to Preserve Cape Cod, and Grow Native Massachusetts. There is limited seating, so registration is encouraged at www.chatham-ma.gov.