SAVE THE DATE: Thursday, November 12, at the Devens Common Center in Devens, Massachusetts, for the 2026 Annual Meeting of the Nashua River Watershed Association, Paddle Forward. The Nashua River Watershed Association protects the rivers and streams that are the lifeline of our communities, connecting rural and urban, aquatic and terrestrial, wildlife and human. For registration, visit https://www.nashuariverwatershed.org/
The mission of The Botanical Society of America is to inspire and promote an inclusive global community committed to advancing fundamental knowledge and innovation in the botanical sciences for the benefit of people and the environment. Diversity and inclusion are core values of the Botanical Society of America. Click here to read BSA’s 2020 Response to Racism Against our Black Colleagues and Community. Click here to read our 2021 Statement Against AAPI Racism.
Be sure to mark your calendar for the Botany 2027 Conference in Buffalo, NY on July 31 – August 4, 2027.
Join cactus and succulent aficionados from around the world in the heart of the Sonoran Desert on May 19 – 24, 2027. The Tucson Cactus and Succulent Society will host the 2027 Biennial Convention at the Westin LaPaloma Resort. For complete details visit https://cactusandsucculentsociety.org/events/biennial-conventions/
You are warmly invited to celebrate the 86th New England Rose Society Founders’ Day on Saturday, Octobeer 17 from 10:30 – 2:30 at the Hopkinton Center for the Arts, 98 Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton.
This year, our lunch will be held at the Hopkinton Center for the Arts in Hopkinton, Massachusetts.
We are delighted to welcome Paul Zimmerman as our featured speaker for this very special celebration.
For the first time, NERS is excited to introduce a Digital Photography Contest, organized by Lisa Plesko. We look forward to showcasing the creativity and talent of our members.
Our Founders’ Day celebration will also feature our Year in Review, highlighting the memorable events, accomplishments, and activities of the past year.
We hope you will join us for this special day of roses, friendship, and celebration. Tickets are $45 (NERS members and their guests) and $50 (nonmembers.) Register at www.newenglandrosesociety.org
MyRWA’s Annual Meeting and Celebration is on October 14th from 6:30 – 8:30 at Mass General Brigham on Assembly Row in Somerville.
Learn about and engage with our new Theory of Change, celebrate the volunteers who make the Mystic River Watershed Association’s work possible, and meet other watershed community members.
Who counts as a MyRWA member? If you have volunteered or donated in the last year, you qualify and can vote on our incoming board of directors (it’s never too late to give!) But you don’t need to be a member to join in on the celebration. All are welcome to join for the meeting, celebration, or both! Register and learn more at https://mysticriver.org/annual-meeting
The New England Botanical Society October 2 meeting is presented by Peter Grima at 5:30 PM – Hybrid at Harvard University, Cambridge, and over Zoom
Non-members, please register here
Emily Dickinson’s Herbarium is a beautiful and fascinating collection of 424 pressed plants, exhibiting the same kind of careful attention to detail she later applied to her poetry. More than half of these are wildflowers native to the poet’s home landscape of greater Amherst, Massachusetts. Most intriguing are the many rare or locally extirpated taxa among her specimens. The breadth of wildflowers portrays her as an active and meticulous observer of the natural world, and they also represent tangible examples of the same plants she invoked in her poetry with direct connections to the ecological landscape of 19th century Amherst.
In this talk, Peter Grima will dive into Dickinson’s botanical training and interests, as well as the process of creating her Herbarium. He’ll draw connections to her poetry and give examples of how botanical and ecological understanding can enhance our engagement with her work. He’ll also explore the wildflowers and share what they tell us about the Amherst landscape as Dickinson would have experienced it.
The Garden Club of the Back Bay will hold its first meeting of 2026/2027 on Tuesday, September 22 at the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s Boston Nature Center & Wildlife Sanctuary in Mattapan, followed by a picnic lunch. This is a members only event. The Sanctuary is an oasis not far from the center of the city that is home to over 150 species of birds, 40 species of butterflies, and more than 350 plant species. We’ll explore a young Miyawaki Method mini-forest, as well as learn about an exciting new initiative to de-channelize the canterbury brook with a full restoration of the brook and its wetlands.
Bring your lunch and enjoy an optional picnic with fellow GCBB members outside if the weather cooperates, or inside if it doesn’t. If you are not yet a member of the Club but wish to become one, visit https://gardenclubbackbay.org/join
Join the Groveland Garden Club for Gardening Basics with Massachusetts Master Gardener Gretel Anspach, at 7:30 pm in the Little Red Schoolhouse, 26 Broad Street in Groveland. Learn about basic needs of your plants and find out how you can most easily meet the needs of your botanical companions for years of happiness in the garden. For more information on the Groveland Garden Club visit https://www.grovelandgarden.club/. Open to the public.
Mark your calendars and join The Stone Living Lab for its fourth conference dedicated to nature-based approaches. The 2027 Stone Living Lab Conference will take place from April 28-30, 2027 at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Stay tuned for more information including the conference schedule, abstract submissions, speakers, breakout session topics, field trip options, and more! Visit https://stonelivinglab.org/
For New England Botanical Society’s 130th anniversary, we’ll be celebrating with the ‘Dead Botanists Society’ of Mount Auburn Cemetery. The cemetery, established in 1831, is a National Historic Landmark and considered the first “garden cemetery” in the United States. The collection features more than 2,500 taxa (in over 20,000 plantings) throughout 175-acres. It is also the final resting place for several notable botanists in NEBS’s history. The event begins at 9:30 am on September 13 (rain date September 21).
Jim Gorman of Mount Auburn Visitor Services will provide a list of plants in flower and talk about the cemetery and eminent botanists prior to the founding of New England Botanical Club in 1896. This includes Asa Gray and the garden named in his honor that was recently renovated and Jacob Bigelow, the architect of the cemetery. Samantha Richardson, Mount Auburn Manager of Horticulture Records, will provide a customized tour map and describe the Flora of Mount Auburn online plant records database of trees, shrubs, and ground covers. Nancy Eyster-Smith, NEBS Corresponding Secretary, will provide biographical highlights of members of the “Dead Botanists Society,” at the burial sites. This includes founding members of NEBC who served as President, Vice President, Treasurer, Corresponding Secretary, Curators of herbaria, and Editor-in-Chief of Rhodora, as well as the well-known Merritt Lyndon Fernald. Additional highlights of the tour will include trees recorded as Massachusetts or New England champions for their species and the Franklin Tree (Franklinia alatamaha), now extinct in the wild, named in honor of Benjamin Franklin.
Location: Mount Auburn Cemetery. Meet at the Story Chapel, 580 Mt Auburn St, Cambridge, MA, for an introduction before we head out on the tour. The walk is about 1 mile. Bring water and wear comfortable shoes. Picnicking is not permitted on the cemetery grounds.
FREE and open to members and nonmembers. For more information visit https://rhodora.org/meetings/
