Boston Flora

Category: Meeting

  • Thursday, July 22 – Saturday, July 24 – American Horticultural Society National Children & Youth Garden Symposium

    Register today for the 2010 American Horticultural Society National Children & Youth Garden Symposium, to be held July 22 – July 24 in Pasadena, California.  The Symposium’s theme is “The Vitality of Gardens: Energizing the Learning Environment.”  Featured keynote speakers include Alice Waters, chef, author, and proprietor of Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley, and the founder of The Edible Schoolyard.  Also, meet Sam Levin, one of six co-founders of Project Sprout, an organic, student-run garden on the school grounds in Massachusetts, and Roger Swain, familiar to many American gardeners as the genial host for 15 years of the popular PBS television program The Victory Garden.  The Symposium is hosted by the Descanso Gardens, Garden School Foundation, the Huntington Library Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, Kidspace Children’s Museum, Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden, the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Gardens, and the University of California Common Ground Garden Program. For more information, log on to www.ahs.org.

    The restoration we seek in gardens is more essential than ever, but gardens are also sources of healthy food, environmental protection and personal fulfillment. The garden can be an incubator for fostering engaged citizens. For children and youth, a garden can be a science lab, art studio, kitchen, gathering place, theater of the imagination, a special place to explore the world.

    Come learn how to create and use gardens to provide dynamic environments for experimentation, social engagement, self-expression, and connection to the natural world. Hear from youth, the adults in their lives, and national experts about the vital role of gardens in the lives of today’s youth.

    As a symposium attendee you will participate in the only national symposium that explores the positive impact of gardens in the lives of children and youth, meet and learn from leading youth garden experts, receive useful and relevant project, curriculum, design and garden management ideas, explore the gardens and programs of the Symposium hosts, participate in 3 dynamic days of workshops, lectures, poster sessions and field trips and network and share your own expertise with children’s gardening advocates from across the nation. The early full registration fee is $330 (AHS members $290) before June 1, and $350 thereafter.   Lodging is available at the Westin Pasadena Hotel (the location of the sessions) at a discounted special rate of $155/night for reservations made by July 9.  Call the hotel at  866-837-4181 and ask for the National Children & Youth Garden Symposium room block.

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  • Friday, May 7, 6:30 pm – Seventy Years of Change in the Flora of One New England County

    Dr. Robert Bertin, Professor and Department Chair, Biology Department, College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, will address the May 7 meeting of the New England Botanical Club at Garden in the Woods in Framingham, Massachusetts, beginning at 6:30 pm. His lecture is entitled Seventy Years of Change in the Flora of One New England County. For specific directions log on to www.newfs.org.

    The sponsor, The New England Botanical Club, which originated in 1895, is a non-profit organization that promotes the study of plants of North America, especially the flora of New England and adjacent areas.  The Club publishes the journal Rhodora, holds monthly meetings during the academic year, maintains an herbarium of more than 253,000 sheets, has a small library, and annually grants a graduate student research award.  An office for the Club is maintained at the Harvard University Herbaria, 22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, and you may reach the office at 617-308-3656 for membership information, or log on to www.rhodora.org.  Regular member dues are $50 annually, and a family rate, including a copy of Rhodora, is $60.  Student membership costs $25.

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    5.

  • Monday, May 3, 5:00 pm – The Friends of the Public Garden 40th Anniversary Annual Meeting

    The Friends of the Public Garden cordially invites you to its 40th Anniversary Annual Meeting on Monday, May 3, beginning at 5:00 pm at First Church in Boston, 66 Marlborough Street.  The featured speaker will be The Honorable Thomas M. Menino, Mayor of Boston.  Celebrate with The Friends as His Honor declares May 3 Friends of the Public Garden Day in Boston.  RSVP by April 28 to 617-267-7366, or email friends@harronandassociates.com.  Painting below by T.A. Charron, from Copley Society’s Fresh Paint 2006.

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  • Sunday, April 25, 12:30 pm – 4:30 pm – Friends of the Boston Harbor Islands Annual Meeting

    The Friends of the Boston Harbor Islands celebrate 30 years of service at the  Annual Meeting taking place Sunday, April 25, from 12:30 – 4:30 pm at Long Island-Camp Harbor View.  Pre-registration is required by Thursday, April 22.  Call 781-740-4290, or email info@fbhi.org.  To get there by T, go to North Quincy on the Red Line, and carpool volunteers with a FBHI banner will be waiting downstairs in the Hancock Street parking lot by the north exit.  Arrive by 12 noon to give the drivers plenty of time to shuttle you.  Driving instructions can be found at www.fbhi.org.

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  • Wednesday, May 5, 10:00 am – Backyard Biodiversity: Conservation Biology for the Landowner

    We are all responsible for the species that share the space we own or maintain, and our management decisions can have severe consequences for these species, and hence for the health of our communities. Richard Enser will speak on Backyard Biodiversity: Conservation Biology for the Landowner at the May meeting of The Garden Club of the Back Bay beginning at 10 am at The College Club, 44 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. Rick will suggest things we can do and things we should stop doing to better manage our land for the promotion of native biodiversity. Richard Enser developed this talk based on his 30 year experience with the Rhode Island Natural Heritage Program. He retired from that position and moved to Vermont in 2006, and now offers his services as a consultant on biodiversity issues, especially to landowners on how to manage their properties in ways that are most beneficial to preserving biodiversity. An optional lunch ($19) with our speaker will follow the meeting, but pre-registration is essential.  Garden Club members will receive a written notice of the meeting, but the public may attend by contacting info@bostonflora.com. The Club will respond with registration instructions. Photo below by Richard Enser.

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  • Wednesday, May 26 – Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts Annual Meeting

    Please join President Linda Jean Smith at the 83nd Annual Meeting, “The Green Fields of Summer,” Wednesday, May 26 at The Holiday Inn, 31 Hampshire Street in Mansfield, Massachusetts.  Registration begins at 8:30 am, followed by your choice of one of three workshops:  “Awards, Flower Shows & More”, “The Meeting Will Come to Order, Please” and a Victorian Tussie Mussie Workshop.  Following the 10:00 am Call to Order, there will be the presentation of awards, a Judges Council Flower Show Viewing, a Social Hour and Boutique Shopping, the Awards Luncheon, and a Floral Design Program at 2:15 pm with Gloria Freitas-Steidinger, Master Flower Show Judge and White House and International Designer (See one of her designs pictured below).  The meeting will adjourn at 3:15 pm.  For full registration forms and material, check the most recent Mayflower, or log on to www.gcfm.org.

    Royalty

  • Saturday, April 10, 12:30 pm – Bog Rebuild

    New England Carnivorous Plant Society members will be rebuilding the two carnivorous plant bogs in the greenhouse at Roger Williams Park Botanical Center (www.providenceri.com/botanical-center/ on Saturday, April 10, beginning at 12:30 pm.  Visitors are most welcome – find out how simple and fun it is to set up and maintain a carnivorous plant bog.  The workshop will run for approximately three hours, and is free and open to the public.

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  • Saturday, April 17, 8:00 am – 4:00 pm – Cape Cod Horticultural Conference

    Come to the Barnstable High School Performing Arts Center, 744 West Main Street in Hyannis on Saturday, April 17, for a full day conference beginning at 8:00 am – 4:00 pm, sponsored by the Master Gardener Association of Cape Cod.  The program will feature:

    Rick Darke, The Wild Garden: A fresh look at the wild garden concept and will illustrate why it is the most enjoyable, sensible approach for livable, ecologically sustainable modern landscapes;

    Vincent Simeone, Wonders of the Winter Landscape: How to enhance the aesthetic value and interest of the garden by using horticultural treasures such as winter fruiting plants, broadleaved evergreens, conifers and trees with interesting bark;

    C.L. Fornari, The Top 25: 25 plants that she thinks you should know about, along with the 25 most interesting/amusing/useful bits of gardening information she has learned in over 25 years of gardening.

    Book signings with speakers, lunch, marketplace, and a raffle will be part of the day. MCLP and MCH professional credits are available.  The cost of $60 includes lunch.  For more information, call 508-375-6690, or email tramos@barnstablecounty.org.  You may also find information at www.capecodextension.org.

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  • Wednesday, April 14, 10:30 am – The Boston Committee of the Garden Club of America Spring Lecture Luncheon

    On Wednesday, April 14, The Boston Committee of the Garden Club of America will host the Spring Lecture Luncheon at The Country Club, 191 Clyde Street, Brookline, with guest speaker Tupper Thomas, Administrator of Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York, who will speak on “Continuing the Olmsted Legacy.”  Also, the 2010 Boston Bowl will be awarded this year to two outstanding individuals, Betsy Shure Gross and Corliss Knapp Engle.  Registration begins at 10:30 am, with an 11:00 am lecture, followed by lunch.

    Appointed in 1980 as the first administrator of Prospect Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Ms. Thomas is responsible to the Commissioner for planning and overseeing the $100 million dollar capital restoration of Prospect Park.

    The meeting is open to members of the fourteen member and affiliate member clubs of The Boston Committee: Beacon Hill Garden Club, Garden Club of Buzzards Bay, Cambridge Plant & Garden Club, Chestnut Hill Garden Club, Cohasset Garden Club, Fox Hill Garden Club, Milton Garden Club, Noanett Garden Club, North Shore Garden Club, Piscataqua Garden Club, Garden Club of the Back Bay, Garden Club of Brookline, Junior League of Boston Garden Club, and the Manchester Garden Club, and their guests. The fee to attend is $45 for the lecture and lunch, $20 for the lecture only.  Please make checks payable to “The Boston Committee of the GCA” and mail to Mrs. William U. Shipley, 40 Dunster Road, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 before April 8.  Please note the name of your Club on your check.  If you have questions, you may email jwshipley@aol.com.

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  • Saturday, April 10, 9:00 am – 2:00 pm – The Lowdown on Gardening Down Low

    An important symposium will take place Saturday, April 10, from 9 am – 2 pm, at Vermont Technical College in Randolph Center, Vermont, sponsored by The New England Wild Flower Society, The Friends of the Horticulture Farm, The Hardy Plant Club, and The Fells, North American Rock Garden Society Master Gardeners.

    Three inspiring gardeners share their experience and knowledge about creating that all-important lower layer in the garden.  Whether you are looking for tips about plants that tolerate shade under a canopy, native groundcovers that require low maintenance, or “survivalist” plants that grow in alpine crevices, you will benefit from our experts’ advice at this day-long symposium.

    Crevice Gardening with Anne Spiegel

    Gardening first in the northeast, then moving on to the Rockies, Cascades, Wallowas and the Alps, and Dolomites in Europe, Ann is now back in the New York hills, not far from Poughkeepsie, in a dry, windy 4b zone. Her garden is on a steep area of stepped ledges, ending in a small cliff.  Anne shares her knowledge of crevice gardening, using both wild and garden plants that thrive in her harsh conditions, where it is never possible to water.

    Under the Canopy: Shade Gardening with Native Plants with Scott LaFleur

    In his role as Botanic Garden Director for New England Wild Flower Society at Garden in the Woods, Scott knows that not all shade is created equal. Scott discusses the layers of a woodland garden and how to plan and plant accordingly. Discover how to look past flowers to texture, shades of green, and the interaction of light.

    Groundcovers for Northeast Gardeners with Mary Crain Penniman

    With a lifetime of experience in horticulture, art, botany, and environmental protection, Mary Crain shares a wealth of knowledge with her presentation on choice groundcover plants for low maintenance. The natural world gives us myriad examples of ground covering plants that New Englanders can model in their own gardens. There is a right groundcover for every place. This presentation explores the subject, asking which are the most choice plants and which are the hardest workers.

    About the Speakers:

    Anne Spiegel

    With her wide ranging experience, gardening in high rocky places around the US and Europe, Anne brings a wealth of information to those interested in growing plants in challenging spots. Active in the North American Rock Garden Society (NARGS) since 1984, she is one of their most highly recommended lecturers.  Anne has taught at the New York Botanical Garden, is past president of the Berkshire Chapter of NARGS and has taught Master Gardener classes as well.

    Scott LaFleur

    Now Botanic Garden Director at New England Wild Flower Society, Scott started his own horticultural business following formal education at UNH.  He went on to develop and implement a $1.5 million master plan for a 145-acre Vermont farm, which encompassed ponds, a three-mile trail system, numerous gardens, a greenhouse, and the reshaping of over 60 acres of rocky hillside into rolling green hills. Scott deftly used native plant materials and ecological design that handled the site’s challenging climate and 1,700-foot elevation.  At Garden in the Woods, Scott worked with visiting artists and designers to install innovative special exhibits such as ROCK ON in 2006, and ART GOES WILD in 2007. The “Idea Garden” from ART GOES WILD, with roof plantings on a garden shed and sedge replacing lawn has been a huge success.

    Mary Crain Penniman

    After beginning studies in art and botany, Mary Crain earned a BS in amenity horticulture then headed to England for an apprenticeship and studies with the Royal Horticultural Society at Wisley Gardens and the University of London.  After a Project at Callaway Gardens, more studies at Conway School of Landscape Design, Mary Crain worked for Mass. Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Watershed Management conducting habitat evaluation and field reconnaissance around sensitive resources for over 10 years. In 2002 she launched her landscape design business, which is focused on residential ‘whole site’ planning, often involving environmental elements such as wetland or woodland restoration. Naturalistic plantings combined with traditional stone masonry around antique properties is her design practice speciality.

    The spring symposium is presented by The Vermont-New Hampshire Chapter of The New England Wild Flower Society and will be held Saturday, April 10, 2010 at Vermont Technical College in Randolph Center VT, which is located at exit 4 off Interstate 89.

    The fee which includes lunch, free parking and the symposium packet, is $53 for non-members and $47 for members of the cosponsoring organizations: The Friends of the Horticulture Farm, the Hardy Plant Club, The Fells North American Rock Garden Society, Master Gardeners and New England Wild Flower Society.

    TO REGISTER please send your check, payable to NEWFS-VT (preferred) or Visa or Master Card number and expiration date, with your name, address, phone number and e-mail address (for confirmation and directions) all clearly written to Thelma Hewitt, PO Box 2333, New London, NH 03257.   No refunds after April 1.

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