Boston Flora

Category: Author Book Signing

  • Friday, July 2, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm – The Colonial Meetinghouses of New England

    Old South Meeting House, 310 Washington Street, hosts author and photographer Paul Wainwright on Friday, July 2, from 1 – 4, for a book signing and author talk.  Paul’s elegant book A Space for Faith: The Colonial Meetinghouses of New England, contains photographs and essays of New England’s Colonial meetinghouses, which were an important part of American history.  This book is sure to please readers of history and lovers of architecture and fine photography. When built in the 1700s, colonial meetinghouses were the center of both religious and civic life – concepts not at all separate in colonial New England. Paul Wainwright has collected a wealth of images of New England’s surviving colonial meetinghouses that go beyond mere documentation of what these buildings look like – they explore the feeling of “presence” that exists in them. An accompanying essay by noted colonial historian Peter Benes elaborates on the communities that built and used these meetinghouses, and traces a narrative rich in the history and architecture of New England. $35.  Call 603-362-6589 for more information, or log on to www.aspaceforfaith.com.

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  • Saturday, July 10, 11:00 am – Suzy Bales Lecture and Luncheon

    A special treat awaits gardening enthusiasts on Saturday, July 10, beginning at 11 am at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum at the corner of Commercial and Bangs Streets in Provincetown.  You will have the chance to meet renowned gardening expert Suzy Bales.

    Bales has published thirteen popular books on the topic of gardening and won the Garden Writer of the Year Award from the American Horticultural Society in 1995. She has twice been awarded the Quill and Trowel Award by The Garden Writers of America. Fellow gardeners may recognize Bales from her frequent TV appearances on ABC and NBC as well as her series of garden spots on Good Morning America. She travels and lectures constantly and has been the featured speaker at Epcot, the Williamsburg Garden Symposium and other flower shows across the country including Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco, Boston, St. Louis and Atlanta. Suzy has twice been a featured speaker at the Disney Institute and was a judge and the headline speaker at the Northwest Garden Show in February 2004. PAAM is pleased to host Bales, who will offer an informative lecture at the museum, followed by a luncheon hosted by Ricki Nenner at her Charles Zehnder modernist house and garden in Truro.  Tickets are $50 ($20 if attending the lecture only), and may be obtained by calling PAAM at 508-487-1750.

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  • Wednesday, June 30, 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm – Beatrix Farrand: Private Gardens, Public Landscapes

    Beatrix Farrand was one of the foremost landscape designers of the early 1900s. Born into a prominent New York family, Farrand eschewed the traditional social life of the Gilded Age to pursue her passion for landscape and plants. Many of her “high society” clients were had estates in Newport, the Berkshires, and Maine, but ultimately Farrand became the landscape designer for university campuses and public gardens. Join past Garden Club of the Back Bay speaker, landscape historian, author, and Vineyard gardener Judith Tankard for a look at the life and work of Farrand.  Beatrix Farrand: Private Gardens, Public Landscapes, published in 2009, is Tankard’s seventh book on landscape history. This lecture, taking place Wednesday, June 30 at the Polly Hill Arboretum, beginning at 7:30 pm, is sponsored by Middletown Nursery and the Polly Hill Arboretum.  $10 admission, $5 for PHA members.  For more information, log on to www.pollyhillarboretum.org.

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  • Thursday, July 8, 4:00 pm – Beatrix Farrand, Private Gardens, Public Landscapes

    Judith Tankard continues her book tour with a stop at Berkshire Botanical Garden, 5 West Stockbridge Road in West Stockbridge,  on Thursday, July 8 at 4 pm. Beatrix Farrand (below) was one of the foremost landscape architects of the early 1900s and one of the earliest women to take up the profession. She studied privately under the renowned horticulturist Charles Sprague Sargent and learned about garden design through extensive travel abroad. Many of her clients were members of high society, with estates in Newport, the Berkshires, and Maine. Learn about this remarkable woman and her lasting influence on the field of landscape design.  $20.  To register, log on to www.berkshirebotanical.org, or call 413-298-3926.

    Judith B. Tankard is an art historian specializing in landscape history. She is the author of seven books and has taught for over twenty years at the Landscape Institute of the Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University.

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  • Tuesday, June 29, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Spider Silk: Evolution and 400 Million Years of Spinning, Waiting, Snagging, and Mating

    Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge, welcomes Leslie Brunetta, a freelance writer whose articles have appeared in the New York Times, Technology Review, and the Princeton Alumni Weekly, as well as on NPR, on Tuesday, June 29, beginning at 7 pm.  Her wonderful new book, co-authored with Catherine L. Craig, Spider Silk: Evolution and 400 Million Years of Spinning, Waiting, Snagging, and Mating “cures arachnophobia for any lucky reader…”, according to Simon Levin, author of Fragile Dominion.  For more information, log on to www.portersquarebooks.com.

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  • Saturday, June 12 – Sunday, June 13 – Emily Dickinson’s Garden: The Poetry of Flowers

    The final weekend of The New York Botanical Garden’s exhibit Emily Dickinson’s Garden: The Poetry of Flowers will take place Saturday and Sunday, June 12 and 13.  On Saturday, from 10:00 am – 6:00 pm, in the Perennial Garden, there will be an all day program entitled Death, Bees, and Roses. Participate in a thematic reading of Emily Dickinson’s poems.  Select some of your favorite Dickinson poems relating to death, bees, or roses and join in celebrating the life and works of this great American poet.  Or, also in the Perennial Garden on Sunday from 10 – 6, the same program will be held, but with the title and topics Flowers, Birds, and Trees.

    Then, on Sunday, from 4 – 5 in the Ross Lecture Hall, Judith Farr, professor of English Emerita at Georgetown University and author of The Gardens of Emily Dickinson, presents a lecture and slide show that delves into the topic of Dickinson’s habit of referring to her own two acre garden as “my Eden” or “Eden in Amherst” and how this image of Eden that prevails in her poems and letters corresponds to the images of Eden that appear in the works of the American Hudson River School and Impressionist painters.

    For complete information, log on to www.nybg.org.  $20 adult ticket price, $18 seniors and students with valid ID, and $8 children 2 – 12.  Co-presented with The Poetry Society of America.

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  • Friday, June 18 – Sunday, June 20 – The Maine Gardeners and Artisans Festival

    The three-day Garden Fair at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens June 18 – June 20  features an amazing array of merchandise by vendors from many areas of the U.S. Each day will bring new entertainment, tours, and talks – all free to those who attend. In addition, Barbara Damrosch and Eliot Coleman will present the keynote lecture Eating from the Garden Year-Round, Even in Maine from 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm on Saturday, June 19. See a display of container gardens created by professionals and amateur gardeners, with some of the containers available for sale. Garden Fair media sponsors are WHOM and Down East Magazine, Books & Online.  Free with Gardens admission.  For a complete schedule and directions to Boothbay, Maine, log on to www.mainegardens.org, or call 207-633-4333.

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  • Monday, June 7, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Novella Carpenter

    Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge, will host author Novella Carpenter on Monday, June 7, from 7 – 9. Carpenter, who grows greens and raises livestock on a dead-end street in the ghetto, is the author of Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer. For the past decade, the 38-year-old has cultivated land in the city, the last six years on GhostTown Farm, the sunny, squat lot in Oakland, California next to her rundown, coral-colored flat — complete with a back porch covered in goat poop — where she lives with mechanic boyfriend Bill and a menagerie of her so-called edible pets, including rabbits, chickens, and, on occasion, a turkey or two.

    The ‘hood is also dotted with long-shuttered businesses, drug dealers, prostitutes, multiethnic neighbors, and what Carpenter affectionately refers to as “fellow freaks.” She feels right at home there. “The neighborhood had a whiff of anarchy,” she notes in her memoir. “Spanish-speaking soccer players hosted ad hoc tournaments in the abandoned playfield. Teenagers sold bags of marijuana on the corners. The Buddhist monks made enormous vats of rice on the city sidewalk…And I started squat gardening on land I didn’t own.”

    A child of back-to-the landers, Carpenter has received stellar reviews, most notably in the New York Times, for chronicling her exploits in the urban jungle.  She’s been featured everywhere from mainstream outlets like Time, foodie circles, like Culinate, and eco-green arenas like Grist. Log on to www.portersquarebooks.com for more information.

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  • Wednesday, June 16, 10:00 am – Trade Secrets of a Master Designer

    The Ruth Wallack Floral Design Program will take place this year on Wednesday, June 16, and will feature Rene Van Rems, internationally renowned floral designer, educator, lecturer and author, presenting “Trade Secrets of a Master Designer.”  The presentation will begin at 10:00 am at Regis College, 235 Wellesley Street in Weston. For more information, and to register, log on to www.gcfm.org.

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  • Thursday, June 10, 6:30 pm – An Evening with National Expert Douglas Tallamy

    Douglas Tallamy’s book, Bringing Nature Home, has captured the nation’s attention since it was first released two years ago. Since then, he has been in demand all over the country, speaking to more than 600 different audiences—at venues ranging from the American Society of Landscape Architects National Conference, to the Hummingbird Festival in Mississippi, to the Tyler Arboretum in Pennsylvania, and many more. He also has been featured on National Public Radio’s Science Friday and on other media programs.

    As Chair of the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, he has done groundbreaking work on the role of insects as intermediaries in the food web, discovering the extent to which exotic plants, even if they are not invasive, host relatively few insects. His work reveals how important it is to restore native plant communities, if we are to reverse the declines in migrating songbirds, butterfly populations, and biodiversity as a whole. Tallamy makes an urgent plea about the importance of native plants to our landscapes, and indeed, to our survival. And he embraces the importance of land stewardship throughout urban and suburban America as critical components of this effort.

    This event, taking place Thursday, June 10,  is co-sponsored by the Cambridge Plant & Garden Club, the Ecological Landscaping Association, and the Friends of the Cambridge Public Library. The talk will begin at 6:30 at the Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway in Cambridge, and will be followed by a reception at 8 pm with book signing. The event is free and open to all. For more information, log on to www.grownativecambridge.org.

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