This fall, New England Botanical Society, along with Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, will be hosting a conference, Plant Migration in a Changing Climate. The conference will be held October 3-4, 2025 at The Gardens in Boothbay, ME. Our featured plenary speakers will be Jesse Bellemare, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at Smith College; Bethany Bradley, Professor of Environmental Conservation at University of Massachusetts Amherst; and Jay Wason, Associate Professor of Forest Ecosystem Physiology at The University of Maine.
General conference details are below and will be updated as we get closer to the conference. If you are not a NEBS member and are interested in receiving conference updates, including application forms to give an oral presentation or submit a poster, please complete this brief form. Register and Pay here. Standard $100, NEBS member $75, Student $30, NEBS Student Member $15.
The Peony Society of Maine will sponsor a Peony Garden Tour on June 14 from 10 – 3, beginning at 1348 Ohio Street in Bangor. Four gardens will be featured. Open to the public, for a $5 donation per person. For more information visit https://peonysocietyofmaine.net/
This Farnsworth Museum exhibition explores the artistic lives of nine women artists who lived and worked in Maine in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Drawing primarily from the Farnsworth’s permanent collection, it brings together miniatures, still life and landscape painting, and botanical illustrations to celebrate artists who have typically been dismissed as hobby painters or overshadowed by their male artist relatives. The exhibit will be on view through July 20. Free with admission. The Museum is located at 16 Museum Street in Rockland, Maine.
Historic New England is delighted to announce Earle G. Shettleworth Jr. as the recipient of our second Preservation Leadership Award for his lifelong dedication to promoting and protecting Maine’s history and architecture.
A native of Portland, Maine, Shettleworth attended Deering High School, Colby College, and Boston University. He has received honorary degrees from Bowdoin College, Colby College, and the Maine College of Art. His storied career includes a forty-year tenure as director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, from which he retired in 2015, and six terms (and counting) as Maine’s State Historian. Shettleworth’s visionary leadership stands as an inspiration not only to Mainers, but to all New Englanders who share his passion for and commitment to preserving the built environment, cultural landscapes, and our region’s history.
Earle G. Shettleworth Jr. will accept the Preservation Leadership Award at the 2024 Historic New England Summit in Portland, Maine. The Summit will take place November 14 and 15 at The Westin Portland Harborview in Portland, Maine, and will be livestreamed. There is a stellar list of presenters over two days, from Maurice Cox of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, to Jim Schachter, President and CEO of New Hampshire Public Radio, to composer Tod Machover of MIT Media Lab – there are too many to list here. For the complete schedule visit www.summit.historicnewengland.org
The Garden Club of Mount Desert invites you to Open Garden Day 2024 on July 27 from 10 – 4. Six private gardens will be featured: details HERE. $50 per guest. Stay as long as you like, but please let the sponsor know if you plan to arrive morning or afternoon. Tickets are non-refundable. Event is held rain or shine. Note this is a shuttle-only tour, no private car access. Signs and volunteers will direct you to parking on east Cooksey Drive. Free bus access to Seal Harbor from Northeast Harbor and Bar Harbor via Island Explorer. Most gardens have uneven terrain, stairs or narrow paths so are not handicap or stroller accessible. Houses are NOT open. Restroom available at Seal Harbor Village Green. No video cameras, dogs, or smoking. Cell phone photography only. For more information visit https://www.gardenclubofmountdesert.org/open-garden-day
Save the Date for the Ogunquit Museum of American Art’s annual Art by the Sea Auction and Gala on Thursday, August 22 at a new location, The Cliff House. More information will come soon at www.OgunquitMuseum.org. Tickets will go on sale in May.
Five gardens will be featured on August 28 at the By the Sea, By the Sea garden tour from 3:30 – 7 in beautiful Ogunquit, Maine, including a garden by Garden Club of the Back Bay member Louesa Gillespie. Your contributions are vital in order to preserve the Marginal Way, maintain pedestrian safety, and guarantee long-term safety and access to the Marginal Way. $150 per person, including wine and hors d’oeuvre and silent auction.
For Silent Auction items, Gallery Paintings, and more information on the Garden Tour please visit www.marginalwayfund.org
Parking available at the Baptist Church on Shore Road and at Jonathan’s overflow lot on Rt. 1. All guests for By the Sea, By the Sea, A Garden Tour on Sunday, August 28, are requested to park at Ogunquit Baptist Church, 157 Shore Rd in Ogunquit, as there will be no parking allowed at the Beachmere. A shuttle will be available to transport you between the parking lot and the Beachmere.
Louesa Gillespie’s garden on the Marginal Way access path is a 100 year old mature garden in an English country style with different areas on a ledge slope 19 Israel Head Rd
Paul Kapela and Russell Clevesy’s formal garden is a three tiered terrace designed to be color throughout the season consisting of 50% perennials and 50% annuals. 80 Israel Head Rd.
Joan and Norman Suslock’s garden on the Marginal Way path is a large eclectic colorful garden surrounding the property. 92 Israel Head Rd.
Joan and Peter Griswold’s garden on the Marginal Way path is a small gem of a seaside garden planted with native plants featured in several publications. 20 Briar Bank
Barbara and Richard O’Leary’s gardens by the sea feature colorful plantings ensconced in beautiful multi-level natural settings with several intimate seating areas. 51 Ontio Way
Join the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art for this Summer Drawing Tour series through Historic New England, led by Architect, David Pearson. The program will be held August 12 from 9:30 – 4, at Hamilton House, 40 Vaughan’s Land in South Berwick, Maine, and at Governor John Langdon House, 143 Pleasant Street in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Sketching historic sites provides participants with practical knowledge of tradition as manifest in the architecture. The morning session will be at the 18th-century Hamilton House. Special attention will be made in drawing the house in the landscape. The afternoon session will be at Langdon House where the focus will be the study of Georgian details.
Participants follow in the great tradition of architects and artists who have learned from drawing in situ. One may take a thousand photos of a subject and may not know it…but if one spends some time drawing the same object …you will have it in your mind forever. To draw is to see. The program focuses on the enduring vitality and continuity of the classical tradition through the means of observational and analytical drawing.
Meg Webster (b. 1944) has long been guided by an environmentalist impulse to celebrate and preserve the natural world. For her exhibition, the artist will critically engage with Ogunquit Museum of American Art’s singular site on three acres overlooking the Atlantic Coast. Webster plans an installation of land art outdoors activating the dynamic habitats encompassing OMAA’s immediate surroundings, including intertidal zones and wetlands. Inside the museum, Webster will install works inspired by and sourced from the region’s rich natural resources such as sumac and moss.
The Museum is located at 543 Shore Road in Ogunquit, Maine. For more information visit www.ogunquitmuseum.org
With the city of Bath’s growth and prosperity during the 19th century, grand Federal, Georgian, Greek Revival, Italianate and Victorian style homes became very popular.
Each year, Sagadahoc Preservation, Inc hosts the popular Historic House & Garden Tour to take you through some of these stately homes. Docents and often the home-owners will host you, offering insights about architectural details and period features. Plan to stroll through a variety of charming summer gardens as well, which range from formal to cottage, spectacular sun-loving rose gardens, and lush shade gardens.
Again this year, The Montsweagers, a small cadre of musicians from the Monstweag Road in Woolwich, will provide visitors with tunes and styles of music including Celtic tunes, old time Americana, and roots music.
