Boston Flora

Category: Author Book Signing

  • Thursday, October 28, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Conifers for Gardens

    Conifers are usually thought of as plain green blobs used to hide the foundations of homes or occasionally grown as solitary pyramidal accents in an expanse of grass.  This lavishly illustrated talk with conifer enthusiast Dr. Richard L. Bitner will introduce the great diversity of shapes, textures and colors in this plant group and promote integrating conifers in the landscape with other woody and herbaceous plants, rather than isolating them.  Slow-growing selections for small gardens along with the best choices for larger landscapes will be presented as well as suggestions for difficult sites.  The goal is to help the beginning or avid gardener, landscape designer, nursery tradesperson or horticulture student make better plant choices.

    Dr. Bitner is a practicing board-certified anesthesiologist and currently teaches at the Penn State School of Medicine/Hershey Medical Center.  He studied horticulture at Longwood Gardens where he now teaches.  His best selling book, Conifers for Gardens: An Illustrated Encyclopedia was published by Timber Press in 2007 and his Timber Press Pocket Guide to Conifers was issued in June, 2010.  A book on designing with conifers will be published in April, 2011.  This program is offered in collaboration with Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture.  Members of either organization will pay $25, non-members $30.  Log on to www.wellesley.edu/WCFH to register.

  • Saturday, October 30, 9:00 am – 2:00 pm – Conifer ID with Richard Bitner

    Do you know the differences between pines, firs, and spruces?  How about arborvitae, junipers, cedars, and false-cedars?  Some of these are easily distinguishable, while others require close observation of needle patterns and a deeper understanding of reproductive structures.  By the end of this session with Dr. Richard L. Bitner, you will have a clearer understanding of conifers.  Dress in layers so that you are comfortable both in the classroom as well outdoors among the Arnold Arboretum’s outstanding conifer collection.  The lecture/tour will be held Saturday, October 30, from 9 – 2, and will begin in the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum.  The fee ($70 for members of the Arboretum or the Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture, $80 for non-members) includes a copy of Dr. Bitner’s book Timber Press Pocket Guide to Conifers. Register at www.wellesley.edu/WCFH.

  • Tuesday, October 12, 6:00 pm – Honeybee Democracy

    As they face the life-or-death problem of choosing and traveling to a new home every year, honeybees employ a complex decision-making process that includes fact finding, vigorous debate, and consensus building. Thomas Seeley, world-renowned animal behaviorist and Professor of Biology at Cornell, will explore what these incredible insects can teach us about collective wisdom and democracy on Tuesday, October 12, beginning at 6 pm. Free and open to the public. The venue will be the Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street. Cosponsored with the Cambridge Entomological Club. For more information, log on to www.hmnh.harvard.edu.

  • Saturday, October 2, 4:00 pm – Spider Silk: Evolution and 400 Million Years of Spinning, Waiting, Snagging and Mating

    On Saturday, October 2 at 4 pm authors Leslie Brunetta and Catherine L. Craig will speak at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street in Cambridge, giving a lecture and book signing of their recently released book Spider Silk: Evolution and 400 Million Years of Spinning, Waiting, Snagging and Mating. Spider webs didn’t just suddenly appear, they evolved step by step over hundreds of millions of years. Join science writer Leslie Brunetta and Catherine L. Craig, evolutionary biologist and research associate at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, to learn about the many different ways spiders use silk and why they can help us understand how evolution really works. Whether you’re a gardener, Charlotte’s Web or Spider-Man fan, or an amateur arachnologist of any age–you’ll find much to appreciate in the amazing story of spider silk. Free with museum admission.  For more information log on to www.hmnh.harvard.edu.

  • Thursday, September 30, 12:00 noon – Chestnut Hill Garden Club Luncheon with Julie Moir Messervy

    The Chestnut Hill Garden Club will present a luncheon talk by Julie Moir Messervy on September 30 at noon in the clubhouse of the Putterham Meadows Golf Course, 1281 West Roxbury Parkway, Brookline.

    Ms. Messervy is an innovative leader in landscape and garden design theory and practice, the author of six books, and the principal of Julie Moir Messervy Design Studios in Saxtons River, Vermont. Her studio is currently working with the Arnold Arboretum in the redesign of the Bradley Rosaceous Collection. The title of her talk is “Home Outside: Creating the Landscape You Love.”

    Tickets for the luncheon and lecture are $75.00, a portion of which will be contributed to the GCA’s Corliss Knapp Engle Scholarship. For more information, please contact Jean Mongan at 617.731.9092 or email jmongan1@partners.org.

  • Saturday, October 9, 9:30 am – 3:30 pm – Designing Gardens with Flora of the American East

    For gardeners of all levels, this program, taking place Saturday, October 9 from 9:30 am – 3:30 pm in the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain, provides a comprehensive foundation for garden design using regionally native plants.  Carolyn Summers will present topics including wildlife benefits, sustainable design and maintenance, and strategies for “safe sex in the garden” to reduce the spread of non-native invasive plants.  Participants will learn how to apply basic ecological and design principles in all their gardening endeavors.

    Carolyn Summers is the author of the recently published Designing Gardens with the Flora of the American East and is an adjunct professor for continuing education at Westchester Community College.  She provides technical assistance to the Native Plant Center, an affiliate of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.  Please bring your own lunch.  A book sale and author signing will follow the class.  This program is offered by the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, the New England Wild Flower Society, and the Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture.  $60 for members of one of the affiliated sponsors, or $70 for non-members.  You may register at www.wellesley.edu/WCFH.

  • Saturday, October 23, 1:30 pm – Gardens for American Institutions: Reflections from Recent Practices

    The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s Landscape Visions lectures for 2010/2011 begins Saturday, October 23 at 1:30 pm in the Tapestry Room with a presentation by Laurie Olin, landscape architect, author, and teacher, who has won numerous awards for his urban projects, including the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden (Washington, DC), the redesign of Columbus Circle in Manhattan, and Bryant Park.

    Formerly treasure boxes turned inward, American museums and cultural institutions have made dramatic shifts in their perceptions of themselves and social engagement. Now they are connected both architecturally and socially with their place in the world, often through ambitious and welcoming landscapes.  Olin reflects on this evolution and presents work by his firm for museums and libraries over the last thirty years.

    Tickets are $15 for the general public, $12 Seniors, $5 members, and free for students, and may be purchased online at www.gardnermuseum.org. The Landscape Visions lecture series is made possible by a bequest from Jeanne Muller Ryan.

  • Tuesday, September 28, 7:00 pm – Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light

    Jane Brox, the award-winning author of Clearing Land: Legacies of the American Farm and Five Thousand Days Like This One, speaks about her latest book: Brilliant – The Evolution of Artificial Light, in the Murray Function Room on the Boston College Campus on Tuesday, September 28, beginning at 7 pm. Free, part of the Lowell Humanities Lecture Series. 617-552-3191, or email carlo.rotella@bc.edu. For directions, log on to www.bc.edu.

  • Saturday, September 25, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm – Herbs for the Kitchen: Preserving Summer’s Herbs

    Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive, Boylston, Massachusetts, will present instructor Betsy Williams of The Proper Season on Saturday, September 25, from 10 – 1, for a class entitled Herbs for the Kitchen: Preserving Summer’s Herbs.  Now, while gardens and farm stands are brimming with fresh herbs, is the time to prepare for winter cooking and holiday gift giving.  Imagine lining your cupboard shelves with jewel toned bottles of herb vinegars, golden brown herb mustard and sparkling jars of herb jellies.  Picture containers of herb butters, bags of rosemary walnuts and jars of herb pesto filling a corner of your freezer.  Not enough time?  Too much work?  Not true!  These delicious enhancements to daily meals are quickly and easily made.  Learn how to dry or freeze herbs and how to make mustard, butters, vinegars, jellies, flavored nuts and pesto with fresh herbs.  Students will sample each recipe demonstrated and then make an herb vinegar, herb mustard and herb butter to take home.  Fee of $54 for Tower Hill members, $60 for non members includes the cost of food, supplies and a copy of Betsy’s book, Mrs. Thrift’s Cupboard, a collection of tried and true herbal recipes for the time-challenged cook.  To register, log on to www.towerhillbg.org.

  • Friday, September 17, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm – Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations

    What happens when crops fail, fields erode, temperatures drop, or when the center of power shifts and cultures descend into dark ages of poverty, famine and war? Find out at the Boston Center for Adult Education (BCAE) on Friday, September 17th, 2010 during an exclusive, free book signing event of EMPIRES OF FOOD: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations with co-author Andrew Rimas. From 6:30PM to 8:00PM the BCAE will host an intimate discussion with Rimas as he speaks about his second, recently released book. Afterwards guests will mix, mingle and have a chance to get their purchased book signed by the co-author as they enjoy complimentary hors d’oeuvres, prepared by Executive Chef Matthew Molloy of Beacon Hill Hotel & Bistro and wine from Gordon’s Fine Wine & Liquors.

    EMPIRES OF FOOD is a sweeping global history of food and its trade. Using the colorful diaries of a sixteenth-century merchant as a narrative guide, EMPIRES OF FOOD: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations (Free Press; June 15, 2010; $27.00), written by agricultural expert Evan D.G. Fraser and journalist Andrew Rimas, vividly chronicles the fate of people and societies for the past 12,000 years through the foods they grew, hunted, traded, and ate—and gives fascinating, and devastating, insights into what to expect in years to come.

    Fraser and Rimas argue that neither local food movements nor free market economies will stave off the next food crash, and they propose their own solutions. A fascinating, fresh history told through the prism of the dining table, “EMPIRES OF FOOD” offers a grand scope and a provocative analysis of the world today, indispensable in this time of global warming and food crises.

    Join the Boston Center for Adult Education and Andrew Rimas as he discusses the relationship between climate change and food prices, obesity and starvation, gluttony and food shortages, and sustainability during Boston’s exclusive book signing event.  RSVP to information@bcae.org. For more information, log on to www.bcae.org.