Boston Flora

Category: Author Book Signing

  • Thursday, April 12, 10:00 am – The Green Garden: Earth-Friendly Gardening in New England

    Ellen Sousa, whose book, The Green Garden, offers a step-by-step way to make your garden more ecologically friendly, will speak at Elm Bank on Thursday, April 12, at 10:00 a.m. She will offer an illustrated talk on earth-friendly gardening in New England.

    Ellen enjoys a reputation as a renowned garden coach, working with homeowners who want to make their gardens more natural and welcoming to a variety of inhabitants. Many of those techniques are explained in her book, The Green Garden: a New England Guide to Planning, Planting and Maintaining the Eco-Friendly Habitat Garden, which was reviewed in the January Leaflet. Her ideas are put into practice at her central Massachusetts property, Turkey Hill Brook Farm, where she works with her husband, Robert.

    Ellen sets a high but reasonable threshold for her gardens; namely, that they must be sustainable for enjoyment by future generations. They should be beneficial in that they attract the animals and insects that were indigenous to our area before European settlement. Her goal is to gradually reverse the missteps made over a period of centuries. She acknowledges that doing so takes hard work, but that it can be done in small, manageable steps.

    But the results are both tangible and rewarding: Turkey Hill Brook Farm won the 2011 New England Wildflower Society’s Katherine T. Taylor Award for Private Gardens. The farm is also a certified Monarch Waystation.

    Everyone is welcome to attend the talk. There is no fee and light refreshments will be served. Copies of The Green Garden will be for sale. While no reservation is required, Librarian Maureen Horn says it would be helpful to have an idea of how many people to expect. You can call or email her at 617-933-4912 or MHorn@Masshort.org.

  • Wednesday, April 11, 7:00 pm – Notes from a Maine Kitchen

    There’s nothing better than settling into a nice, warm, home-cooked meal at the kitchen table. Kathy Gunst takes us into her own kitchen, introducing us to the flavors of fresh, seasonal Maine ingredients prepared in simple and inspiring ways. With essays conveying the mood of each month, Gunst gives readers a sense of Maine food and life. She follows each essay with a handful of recipes incorporating the seasonal ingredient or theme. Hear her speak on Wednesday, April 11, beginning at 7 pm at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge.

    Gunst lives in South Berwick, Maine. She is the author of thirteen cookbooks; her most recent books include Stonewall Kitchen Breakfast, Stonewall Kitchen Winter Celebrations, Stonewall Kitchen Grilling, and Stonewall Kitchen Appetizers. She is also the “Resident Chef” for WBUR’s award winning show, Here and Now, heard on over 60 public radio stations nationwide. She has received two James Beard award nominations for her radio work. For more information call 617-491-2220, or email ellen@portersquarebooks.com.

  • Saturday, April 14, 9:00 am – 2:00 pm – Northern Gardening Symposium

    The New England Wild Flower Society will sponsor the Northern Gardening Symposium on Saturday, April 14, from 9 – 2 at Vermont Technical College in Randolph Center, Vermont, cosponsored by The Fells, Hardy Plant Club, Friends of the Hort Farm, and Master Gardeners. The morning session features landscape designer Judith Irven speaking on “A Sense of Place: Gardens that Celebrate the Natural Landscape.”  New England’s spectacular rural landscape — with its mountains, farms and canopied forest – can inspire gardens that echo this wider world. Landscape architect Ann Milovsoroff then presents “Gardens around the World,” an exploration of contemporary garden design trends gathered from public, private, and exhibition gardens around the world. See images that delight, entice and provide ideas for northern New England gardens. After lunch, there will be a presentation by nationally recognized taxonomist and botanist Arthur Haines on the reasons for and stories behind his newly published Flora Novae Angliae.  Fee is $40 for members of the sponsoring organizations, or $47 for non-members.  To register, visit www.newfs.org, or telephone 508-877-7630.

  • Monday, April 30, 10:30 am – 12:30 pm – Paula Pryke: Cutting Edge Floral Design

    Join the MFA for an Art in Bloom floral demonstration and lecture with British floral designer Paula Pryke, who, as we detailed above, is known world-wide for her cutting-edge, innovative floristry. Her Master Classes are small and are priced accordingly, but you may see her demonstrate her skills while she lectures at the modest price of $35 on Monday, April 30, from 10:30 – 12:30.   She has run an internationally renowned flower school since 1994 and has written 14 best-selling books on flowers; her newest book, Flowers Every Day, was published in February 2012. Book signing in Museum bookstore and shop immediately follows lecture (no ticket required for book signing). Buy tickets now at www.mfa.org.

  • Wednesday, April 11, 7:00 pm – Landscape as Urbanism

    A leading scholar in the field of landscape architecture, Charles Waldheim, Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and Consulting Curator of Landscape, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, will speak about the role of landscape in defining our communities on Wednesday, April 11, beginning at 7 pm.  Mr. Waldheim is also the editor of The Landscape Urbanism Reader.

    Tickets: $15 members of Trinity/Arnold Arboretum, $20 general admission, available at www.arboretum.harvard.edu or by phone or in person at The Shop at Trinity 617.536.0944 x225. The lecture will take place at the Weld Hill Research Building, 1300 Centre Street, Roslindale, MA 02131. Questions: Kathy Acerbo-Bachmann 617.536.0944 x217 or kacerbobachmann@trinitychurchboston.org.

    This lecture is part of the Garden & Spirit Lecture Series, co-sponsored by Trinity Church, Boston and The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.

  • Tuesday, April 3, 6:00 pm – Learning From Insects: How Our World is Shaped by Bees, Ants, and Other Social Insects

    Discover why many of the world’s top scientists have devoted their careers to the study of social insects in Learning From Insects: How Our World is Shaped by Bees, Ants, and Other Social Insects, a dialogue and booksigning with Thomas Seeley, Biology Professor at Cornell, and Bernd Heinrich, Profession Emeritus at the University of Vermont, on Tuesday, April 3, at 6:00 pm at the Harvard Museum of Natural History in Cambridge. Moderated by Professor Naomi Pierce, Curator of Lepidoptera in the MCZ at Harvard. The speakers will discuss their research and why it’s critical that we study and learn from insects.

    Following the presentation, there will be reception and book signing in the Museum’s galleries. Cosponsored with Harvard University Press. Free and open to the public. Free parking available in the 52 Oxford Street garage.  For more information, visit www.hmnh.harvard.edu.

  • Wednesday, April 11, 7:00 pm – On the Brink of War: Literary Boston in 1860

    Every now and then we post an event which has little to do with horticulture, but everything to do with Boston.  On Wednesday, April 11, beginning at 7 pm, Brenda Wineapple, author of White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, will speak at Boston College as part of the Lowell Humanities Series and Forgotten Chapters Project.  Her topic will be On the Brink of War: Literary Boston in 1860, and the lecture will take place in Devlin Hall, Room 101. Ms. Wineapple was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award, a winner of the Washington Arts Club National Award for arts writing, and her work was named a New York Times Notable Book.  For more information, call 617-552-2203, or visit www.bc.edu/arts.

  • Tuesday, March 27, 7:00 pm – One Writer’s Garden: Eudora Welty’s Home Place

    By the time she reached her late twenties, Eudora Welty (1909-2001) was launching a distinguished literary career. She was also becoming a capable gardener under the tutelage of her mother, Chestina Welty, who designed their modest garden in Jackson, Mississippi. From the beginning, Eudora wove images of southern flora and gardens into her writing, yet few outside her personal circle knew that the images were drawn directly from her passionate connection to and abiding knowledge of her own garden. Jane Roy Brown’s book One Writer’s Garden: Eudora Welty’s Home Place contains many previously unpublished writings, including literary passages and excerpts from Welty’s private correspondence about the garden.  Ms. Brown will speak at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge on Tuesday, March 27, beginning at 7 pm.

    Brown is a freelance travel and garden writer with a focus on historic gardens and landscapes. She is also director of educational outreach for the Library of American Landscape History. She has published in Horticulture, Preservation, Garden Design, and the Boston Globe, and she serves as a contributing editor to Landscape Architecture.  Call 617-491-2220, or visit www.portersquarebooks.com for more information.

  • Thursday, March 15, 7:00 pm – The Mindful Carnivore: A Vegetarian’s Hunt for Sustenance

    Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge, hosts author Tovar Cerulli on Thursday, March 15, beginning at 7 pm. Drawing on personal experience, philosophy, history, and religion, Cerulli shows how America’s overly sanitized habits of consumption have disconnected us from our food, resulting in many of the spiritual and environmental crises we now face. In this time of intensifying concern over ecological degradation and animal welfare, how do we make peace with the fact that, even by growing organic vegetables, life is sustained by death? As a boy, Tovar Cerulli spent his summers fishing for trout and hunting bullfrogs. While still in high school, he began to experiment with vegetarianism. By the age of twenty he was a vegan. A decade later, in the face of declining health, he returned to omnivory and within a few years found himself heading into the woods, rifle in hand. Tovar split his undergraduate years between Dartmouth College and the New School for Social Research in Manhattan, and has worked as a carpenter and freelance writer. An environmentalist, Tovar has also worked as a logger. He is currently enrolled as a Ph.D. student at UMass Amherst. His research is focused on food, hunting, and human relationships with nature. For more information, visit www.portersquarebooks.com, or call 617-491-2220.

  • Monday, March 26, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Tea Horse Road: China’s Ancient Trade with Tibet

    Ethnobotanist Dr. Selena Ahmed, co-author of the book Tea Horse Road, tackles the origins, culture and diversity of tea on Monday, March 26, from 7 – 8:30 at the Weld Hill Research Building at the Arnold Arboretum. Camellia sinensis is a species with a long history of cultivation, trade and consumption for well being. Hear about Selena’s discoveries of tea’s journey from the birthplace of the tea plant along the oldest tea trade road from a historical and contemporary perspective. Enjoy some of the beautiful photographs of southwest China by co-author, award-winning photographer and writer Michael Freeman. Sample a variety of teas traded along the ancient tea route, tea-infused gin, and tea candies presented in collaboration with botanist Rachel Meyer, Brooklyn Gin and Strawberry Hill Confectionery. Books will be available for purchase and signing. Read about Selena and view a slideshow of images by Michael Freeman. Free, but registration requested at www.arboretum.harvard.edu.