The Boston Committee of The Garden Club of America will hold its Spring Meeting, Lecture and Luncheon on May 23 at The Country Club in Brookline. The Guest Speaker will be Ethan Carr, author of Boston’s Franklin Park: Olmsted, Recreation, and the Modern City. Members of member clubs of The Boston Committee will receive an invitation. $30 lecture, $35 luncheon. If you are not a member, you may consider joining The Garden Club of the Back Bay, which is one of the affiliate clubs.
The Garden Club of the Back Bay will be holding a members only guided tour of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum nasturtium display on April 10, which is reason enough to join the Club today at https://bostonflora.com/
The nasturtium was one of Isabella Stewart Gardner’s favorite flowers. Long considered a symbol of freedom, strength and independence, this blooming vine has been appreciated as a food, medicine and work of art. A gifted gardener, Mrs. Gardner began growing the vines in her greenhouses in Brookline. What came next was the creation of a spectacle out of a fairytale that only a true visionary could have imagined.
In April 1905, to celebrate her birthday and mark the return of spring, Mrs. Gardner arranged for cascading nasturtium vines to spill down from the Venetian balconies of the Courtyard of her Fenway palace. Since then, the unique display of brilliant orange nasturtiums has become a renowned annual tradition, inspiring artists and visitors to her museum for over a hundred years.
The tour of the Museum will focus on the nasturtiums, as we learn about the process the Gardner’s team of horticulturists use to transform flats of seeds in June to nasturtium vines in lengths that would rival the locks of Rapunzel nine months later. We will view paintings inspired by the Gardner nasturtiums, and see other works of art that reflect Mrs. Gardner’s love of flowers, gardening and landscapes.
This program is for members only with a limit of only 25 people. However, we will keep a waitlist. If you sign up and can not attend, please let us know so someone may take your place. We will meet at 2:00 pm near the bookstore at the Gardner Museum located at 25 Evans Way. For more information email info@bostonflora.com
Deborah Trickett, owner of The Captured Garden, will show members of The Garden Club of the Back Bay how to create lush container gardens that will be the envy of the neighborhood. Join Deborah for a Powerpoint demonstration as she shows how to take our container gardens from “blah” to “aaah”. She’ll start with the basics, including appropriate containers, soil mixes, and plant choices for different site conditions, then proceed to new and unusual plant material and uncommon, container choices for exceptionally beautiful results. The program will take place March 21 at The Chilton Club in Boston. Members have received notification and instructions on registering on Eventbrite. Email info@bostonflora.com with questions.
Deborah is an award-winning container garden designer whose work has been featured in The Boston Globe, Garden Gate Magazine, New England Home Magazine and on the TV show New England Dream Home. She is a Massachusetts Certified Horticulturist and a frequent lecturer on container gardening at the Boston Flower and Garden Show, as well as the Philadelphia International Flower Show. She also teaches classes and workshops at the Arnold Arboretum in Boston.
If you are interested in joining The Garden Club of the Back Bay to participate in programs such as this, visit https://bostonflora.com
The Garden Club of the Back Bay is offering a February Zoom meeting on February 22 at 4 pm Eastern with Dee Salomon. Although her outdoor landscape was designed by the renowned Miranda Brooks, Dee Salomon prefers spending her days ‘ungardening’ in the woods where she is rehabilitating the 15 acres of woodland she and her partner live on. The story of her journey starting as a NY executive to becoming an advocate for the restoration of native woodland habitats – from backyards to land trusts – contains a message we all need to hear. Dee will deliver that message and share her experience, in word and image, of transforming an invasive-filled woodland into a place for human joy and animal survival. If you are interested in attending (registration required before February 20) email HERE or join the Club at https://bostonflora.com.
The Garden Club of the Back Bay’s February meeting will take place at The Chilton Club, 152 Commonwealth Avenue, at 10 am. The Club welcomes James Brayton Hall, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Garden Conservancy.
Gardening has been an important part of American history since even before the country’s founding. In this illustrated talk, Garden Conservancy President and CEO James Brayton Hall will look at both 18th and 19th century high points in American Garden design and theory, and discuss why he believes that in the post-pandemic age we are entering a third golden age of gardening in the United States.
James joined the Garden Conservancy as president and CEO on June 1, 2017. For the previous four years, he was deputy director of the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he worked on the planning and design of the Norman Foster-designed museum expansion and sculpture gardens. From 2010 to 2013, he was executive director of the Providence Preservation Society in Rhode Island, overseeing all programming, fundraising, and relations with the board, donors, and community. From 2006 to 2010, James served as assistant director of the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, after holding various other management and curatorial positions at the school since 1985. James earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Virginia and a master’s in landscape architecture from Rhode Island School of Design. In addition, he was awarded a Royal Oak Scholarship to attend the Attingham Trust Summer School in Architectural and Landscape History in London, and, separately, participated in the Victorian Society’s summer program in architectural history, also in London. In 2016, he completed Attingham’s Royal Collections Course. He has spoken widely on architectural and landscape design and has been a member of the graduate program faculty at the Rhode Island School of Design.
This is a members only event but membership is a click away at https://bostonflora.com
The benefits of membership – show your support of the Back Bay neighborhood by joining The Garden Club of the Back Bay and be eligible to participate in festive events like the Annual Winter Tea at the Courtyard Restaurant at the Boston Public Library on Boylston Street. The tea is a Members’ Only event, so act now. For information visit https://bostonflora.com/
The Boston Committee of The Garden Club of America invites members to the Fall Lecture and Luncheon on Thursday, November 9, 2023 at The Country Club in Brookline. The reception begins at 10 am, with business meeting and lecture at 10:30 and luncheon at noon, $30 for the lecture and an additional $35 for luncheon. Invitation will be sent electronically via Eventbrite.
The guest speaker will be the Reverend Miriama White-Hammond, Chief of Environment, Energy, and Open Spaces for the City of Boston. She was appointed in April, 2021. In this role, she oversees policy and programs on energy, climate change, food justice, historic preservation, and open space. Over the course of her time with the City, she has supported the amendment of the Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance (BERDO) to set carbon targets for existing large buildings, and convened a City-led green jobs program.
Another guest speaker is Todd Mistor, Director of Urban Forestry of the City of Boston. Todd is originally from Michigan, where he has many years of urban forestry experience working for the City of Detroit and other smaller municipalities. He has studied forestry as well and philosophy and theology which help bring a well-rounded perspective to his work. He is also a Certified Arborist with a Municipal Specialization through the International Society of Arboriculture.
The Garden Club of the Back Bay is a member of The Boston Committee of The Garden Club of America, and if you wish to attend and are not a member of another participating Garden Club, explore the benefits of GCBB membership HERE.
It’s not too late to join The Friends of the Public Garden, supporting the Boston Common, the Boston Public Garden, and the Commonwealth Avenue Mall. For information visit https://friendsofthepublicgarden.org/ The annual Members Reception will be held Thursday, November 2 at the Park Plaza Hotel from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Featured – a presentation by Peter James, ScD, Associate Professor of Environmental Health, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Cocktails to follow. The reception is a members only event, so sign up now.
Save the date! Night of Illumination, the Native Plant Trust’s annual fall event exclusively for members, is right around the corner. On Thursday, October 26, Garden in the Woods will be lit by more than 1,000 luminaria and delightful displays, especially for members of Native Plant Trust. We are finalizing logistics and all will be revealed very soon. The parking lots, shuttle buses, and food truck have been booked, volunteers are being recruited, and the design of the lighting arrangements is underway. Each time slot and parking option will have limited availability. Remember, this special event is just for members so the Native Plant Trust encourages you to join or renew now to enjoy intriguing sights on your nocturnal stroll. Personal level members will be able to buy tickets for Night of Illumination up to the guest limit specified by your membership. Photo courtesy of Susan McIntyre.
The Garden Club of the Back Bay will hold its November meeting on the first of November (time to be announced) at The Chilton Club, 152 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. Speakers Amy Whitesides and Todd Mistor will present on the new City of Boston Urban Forest Plan. Amy, a Design Critic in Landscape Architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design, works with Stoss Landscape Urbanism, the design firm that played a central role in developing the plan, and is currently the Resilience Advisor. Todd, a former priest turned urban forester, is the new Director of Boston Urban Forestry for the City of Boston. This is a members-only event, but to attend, all you need to do is join, at https://bostonflora.com/ You will receive sign up details and be set for the rest of the 2023/2024 program year, while supporting the not for profit organization, now entering its 56th year.
