Boston Flora

Category: Author Book Signing

  • Friday, June 17, 2:00 pm – Tiffany & Co.: Flora and Fauna: 170 Years of Tiffany Excellence

    John Loring will present an illustrated lecture Tiffany & Co.: Flora and Fauna: 170 Years of Tiffany Excellence as part of the 2011 World Flower Show on Friday, June 17, at 2 pm in the Cityview Ballroom of the Seaport World Trade Center (Plaza Level.)  Mr. Loring is Design Director Emeritus of Tiffany & Co. and the author of numerous books on Tiffany, and art in general. He graduated from Yale University and has an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Pratt Institute. He has served on the acquisitions committee of the Department of Prints and Illustrated Books at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.Tickets to the lecture are $10, and may be purchased on line at www.wafausa.org.

  • Thursday, June 16, 3:00 pm – The President’s House and Garden

    An important aspect of the 2011 World Flower Show, to be held June 15 – 19 for the first time in the United States, is the series of terrific lectures available for a modest (in this instance $10) fee.  William Seale will present a program entitled The President’s House and Garden, in the Amphitheater of the Seaport World Trade Center on Thursday, June 16, beginning at 3 pm. William Seale is author of the recently updated two-volume set, The President’s House—which includes an epilogue on the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush years. He also serves as editor of White House History, the journal of the White House Historical Association. Drawing from his vast knowledge of this national landmark, Seale will offer an unforgettable account of the White House from its origins during the nation’s beginning to today, a continuing story of adapting and altering, yet always keeping close to the original image and purpose of the landmark. In addition to showing how the different presidents and their families used and lived in the White House, he will also reveal the roles played by scores of characters—butlers, housemaids, caterers, gardeners, coachmen, architects, interior decorators, and even fortune-tellers—in the keeping and management of the house. Tickets may be ordered on line at www.wafausa.org.

     

  • Monday, May 9, 7:00 pm – Seeds: One Man’s Serendipitous Journey to Find the Trees That Inspired Famous American Writers

    Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge, will host author Richard Horan on Monday, May 9, beginning at 7 pm, for a discussion of his latest book Seeds: One Man’s Serendipitous Journey to Find the Trees That Inspired Famous American Writers from Faulkner to Kerouac, Welty to Wharton.  From the wooded road made of golden hemlock running past L. Frank Baum’s childhood home to the lonely stump of Scout’s oak in Harper Lee’s Alabama, Richard Horan gathers tree seeds-and stories-from the homes of America’s most treasured authors. At once a heartfelt paean to literature and a wise, funny, and uplifting account of one man’s reconnection with nature, Seeds celebrates Horan’s triumphs and calamities on his quest to link trees with great writers.  Richard Horan recently spoke with Tom Ashbrook, the voice of “On Point”, about the book and his experiences on the road.  Horan is a novelist, English teacher, and book reviewer for several national publications. His novel Goose Music was a finalist for the Great Lakes Fiction Award and won the ForeWord Book of the Year Bronze Medal. He lives in Oswego, New York.  For more information, email ellen@portersquarebooks.com, or call 617-491-2220.

  • Thursday, May 26, 5:30 pm – Founding Gardeners: How the Revolutionary Generation Created an American Eden

    Andrea Wulf’s new book Founding Gardeners. How the Revolutionary Created an American Eden will be published in  late March 2011 by Knopf.  Ms. Wulf will travel to Boston and speak on Thursday, May 26, in a program co-sponsored by the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.  The talk will take place at the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street in Boston, with a reception at 5:30 pm and the lecture at 6:00 pm. The program is free but registration is required :  log on to www.arboretum.harvard.edu for more information.

    The Founding Gardeners offers a fascinating look at the revolutionary generation from the unique and intimate perspective of their lives as gardeners, plantsmen and farmers.

    For the founding fathers, gardening, agriculture and botany were elemental passions, as deeply ingrained in their characters as their belief in liberty for the nation they were creating. Andrea Wulf reveals for the first time this aspect of the revolutionary generation. She describes how, even as British ships gathered off Staten Island, George Washington wrote his estate manager about the garden at Mount Vernon; how a tour of English gardens renewed Thomas Jefferson’s and John Adams’s faith in their fledgling nation; how a trip to the great botanist John Bartram’s garden helped the delegates of the Constitutional Congress to break their deadlock; and why James Madison is the forgotten father of American environmentalism. Taken together, these and other stories are a revelation of a guiding, but previously overlooked ideology of the American Revolution.

    The Founding Gardeners adds depth and nuance to our understanding of the American experiment, and provides us with a portrait of the founding fathers as they’ve never been seen before.

  • Wednesday, April 27, 5:30 pm – Ancient Grains for Modern Meals

    Food writer Maria Speck’s passion for propelling Old World staples such as farro, barley, polenta, and wheat berries to the forefront of new American cooking is beautifully presented in Ancient Grains for Modern Meals. In her inspired and highly personal book, Maria Speck draws on food traditions from across the Mediterranean and northern Europe to reveal how versatile, satisfying, flavorful, and sophisticated whole grains can be. Her lecture, to be held Wednesday, April 27 beginning at 5:30 pm in Emerson 210 at Harvard University, is free and open to the public. For directions, log on to www.harvard.edu.

  • Friday, May 6, 5:30 pm – Invertebrates on Plants: Identifying Galls, Mines, Leaf-ties, and Other Signs in a New Field Guide

    Charley Eiseman and Noah Charney, authors of Tracks & Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates, will conduct a special session for the New England Botanical Club on Friday, May 6, beginning at 5:30 pm at Garden in the Woods in Framingham, Massachusetts, on the topic Invertebrates on Plants: Identifying Galls, Mines, Leaf-ties, and Other Signs in a New Field Guide. For more information, log on to www.rhodora.org.

  • Thursday, April 14, 5:30 pm – Chasing Chiles: Hot Spots Along the Pepper Trail

    Chasing Chiles is both a rollicking travelogue from three guys on the hunt for authentic food and cultural experience and an adventure with a larger, sobering mission: to understand the effects of climate change by zeroing in on one critical crop and the people whose lives are most deeply intertwined with it. Chef Kurt Michael Friese is author of A Cook’s Journey: Slow Food in the Heartland and owner and founding chef of Devotay, a restaurant in Iowa City that is a community leader in local and sustainable cuisine. He is owner and publisher of Edible Iowa River Valley magazine, a board of directors member for Slow Food USA and the Iowa Food Systems Council, and a graduate and former chef-instructor at the New England Culinary Institute.

    Hear Kurt on Thursday, April 14 at Harvard University, Sever 213.  Free and open to the public.  For a campus map, log on to www.harvard.edu.

  • Thursday, April 21, 6:00 pm – Here on Earth: A Natural History of the Planet

    In his newest book, Here on Earth, Tim Flannery, Australian scientist and author, offers a sweeping account of the dual evolutionary history of Earth and the life it supports. Beginning with the birth of stars to the creation of water and the accident of simple life forms, Flannery documents life up through the 2-million-year rise of our human species and ponders our future as a “superorganism” capable of either sustaining or destroying the planet’s ecosystems. This Thursday, April 21 Harvard Museum of Natural History program begins at 6 pm. Free and open to the public, Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street. For more information log on to www.hmnh.harvard.edu.

  • Thursday, June 2, 8:30 am – 3:15 pm – Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts Annual Meeting

    The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts’ 2011 Annual Meeting will take placed Thursday, June 2, beginning with registration at 8:30 am, at the Crowne Plaza, 1360 Worcester Road (Route 9), Natick, Massachusetts.  You may choose from two morning workshops, the first being “Historic Landscaping” with John Forti of Strawbery Banke, and the second “Coffee with a Landscape Gardener”, where several Landscape Design Council members will share information and answer landscaping questions.  At 10 am there will be the call to order and business meeting, followed at 10:45 by Julie Moir Messervy, landscape designer, author and lecturer, speaking on “Creating the Landscape of Home.”  The Awards Luncheon at 1 pm will be preceded by Boutique Shopping.  At 2 pm, enjoy the introduction of the Natalie Wolf Design Forum.  To register, please send a check made payable to  GCFM,Inc. to Linda Yuele, 38 Nevins Road, Methuen, MA 01844.  Include your name, address, telephone, email, and Club affiliation.  Costs are $5 for either morning workshop, $15 for the morning session of speaker and awards, and an additional $35 for lunch. Please indicate chicken or fish.  For more information you may email Linda at denlinyuele@comcast.net.

  • Tuesday, March 29, 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm – Vernal Pools: Ecology and Design Considerations

    Elizabeth Colburn, Ph.D., Aquatic Ecologist with the Harvard Forest, Harvard University, will give an illustrated presentation at the Hunnewell Building at the Arnold Arboretum on Tuesday, March 29, from 1:30 – 3:30. Betsy will speak about the natural history and ecology of New England vernal pools in the context of ecological landscaping. Topics will include the origins and annual cycles of vernal pools; life histories of common pool animals; year-round habitat needs of pool inhabitants; linkages among vernal pools, adjacent uplands, and other water bodies; factors affecting water quality and hydrology; plants associated with vernal pools; and strategies for avoiding damage to vernal pool ecosystems within managed landscapes.  Fee $20 Ecological Landscaping Association and Arnold Arboretum members, $25 nonmember.

    Co-sponsored by the Ecological Landscaping Association and the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.  Register online at https://my.arboretum.harvard.edu or by phone at 617-384-5277.