The Boston Committee of the Garden Club of America will hold its Spring Meeting on Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 11:00 a.m. at The Country Club in Brookline. The featured speaker will be Peter Vanderwarker. Peter Vanderwarker’s work has been published internationally in books and in magazines. He has currently completed his fifth book project, “Beacon Hill: A Living Portrait,” copies of which will be available for purchase at the meeting, with a portion of the sales price benefiting The Boston Committee.

Peter also travels and exhibits extensively. In 2007, he led a photo expedition to Bhutan. Recent exhibitions include shows in New York and Boston. Upcoming shows include a large one-man show at the Boston Athenaeum in 2009.

The National Endowment for the Arts and the Graham Foundation have supported Peter Vanderwarker’s work, and he has received Institute Honors from the American Institute of Architects.

The Boston Committee Bowl will be presented at this meeting to Garden Club of the Back Bay past President  Margaret Pokorny, honoring her work planting and preserving the trees throughout the Back Bay.

The Massachusetts Horticultural Society, in lieu of the annual Flower Show, will host Greenway Blooms in the lobbies abutting its garden parcels on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway at One International Place, 125 High Street, and the Intercontinental Hotel.  The arrangements will be stunning in these impressive and beautiful marble spaces. Plans also include an educational lecture series highlighted by a presentation by Roger Swain, children’s gardening exhibits, window boxes, a Master Gardener Information Booth, orchid and bonsai exhibits, and a very special Blooms gala party.  For more information log on to www.masshort.org.

An all day (8:30 – 4) conference sponsored by Cape Cod Cooperative Extension and Cape Cod Master Gardeners will be held at the Barnstable Performing Arts Center, Barnstable High School, 744 Main Street in Hyannis on Saturday, April 4.  Featured speakers include Bill Cullina (What the Heck Will Grow Here? – Native Plants for Difficult Situations), Mal Condon (Hydrangeas, Hydrangeas), and Alan Armitage (Crazy Plants for Crazy People). $45 registration fee includes lunch.  Reservations should be made by March 15.  Late reservations or walk-ins are encouraged but will not include lunch.  For more information log on to www.capecodextension.org or call 508-375-6690.

The Crystal Garden Club hosts Alan Banks for an informative look at the Emerald Necklace at 7 pm, Reading Senior Center, 49 Pleasant Street, Reading.  $5 fee.  Alan Banks, a supervisory park ranger at the National Park Service, says the beauty of the Necklace is that it functions as a series of neighborhood parks as well as a linear park system. “You can actually walk or bike the entire length of it,” he says. “You can see how each park connects the different neighborhoods.”For more information, email Joyce at eyzuvbrwn@aol.com, or call her at 781- 942-0895.

Perennially Yours will sponsor a weekend symposium at the Mirror Lake Inn in Lake Placid, New York. Paul Tukey will share his wisdom on the why and how or organic lawn care, and horticulture in general. Paul is the editor and publisher of People, Places & Plants magazine, author of the best selling book The Organic Lawn Care Manual, HGTV Co-Host & Executive Producer, 2006 American Horticultural Society Gardening Communicator of the Year, and co-founder of SafeLawns & Landscapes, America’s first 100% organic fertility lawn care company that now offers franchises in the Northeast. Paul is from Cumberland, Maine.

The symposium officially starts Friday evening, April 24 at 6:00 p.m. with a welcome reception followed by a 7:00 p.m. garden talk by award winning landscape writer Tara Dillard. The fun continues on Saturday with four more dynamic lectures, great food, door prizes and more. The symposium concludes at 3:00 p.m. Saturday. For more information, visit  www.pyours.com/Symposium2009.html, or call Kerry Mendez at 518-885-3471.

The 2009 conference features over eighteen seminars and workshops. Friday evening keynote speaker is writer, photographer, farmer, conservationist, and Co-founder & Executive Director of the Center for Whole Communities Peter Forbes speaking on Expanding the Story of Ecological, Sustainable and Organic Landscaping.  David Yarrow will speak at the Saturday luncheon on How Carbon and Nitrogen Feed the Soil. MassMutual Center, Springfield, MA. For a complete schedule of sessions and on line registration, link to www.ecolandscaping.org. Co-hosted by the New England Wild Flower Society.

NOFA hosts farmer and author Elizabeth Henderson to share her extensive experience with organic farming and kick off the “Organic Matters in Rhode Island” campaign. FREE for NOFA members, $5 for nonmembers. Farms that are members of NOFA are welcome to set up a table with information at this event.

Hosted by NOFA at the Brown University Smith-Buonanno Hall Room 106: 95 Cushing St, Providence, RI.

Contact NOFA at (401) 884-5118 or by e-mail for more information.

Dr. Sarah Slaughter will present the keynote address “Designing Sustainable and Resilient Communities”. Dr. Slaughter coordinates the MIT Sloan School of Management Sustainability Business Laboratory and the Sloan Sustainability Initiative.  She works with municipalities and public and private organizations to improve infrastructure performance and reduce organizational risk. Her talk will give us insight into engineering innovations changing the way cities conserve vital water resources and withstand disasters.  Many cities already face dwindling water supplies, severe flooding, and unstable water tables.  In the face of growing risks, Dr. Slaughter’s international perspective has never been more timely or important.  Newton Marriott Hotel, 2345 Commonwealth Avenue.  Meeting begins at 5:30, followed by cocktails at 6 and buffet dinner.  Tickets $65 CRWA members, $75 non-members, $150 premier.  Additional $10 at the door. RSVP by Nov. 12 to Leigh Heffernan, 781-788-0007, x. 231, or visit www.charlesriver.org.

An exciting flower arranging demonstration by a Master of the Ichiyo School, Anna Nakada, Past International President and teaching assistant to the Ichiyo headmaster will take place Tuesday, October 21 at the U. Mass Waltham Center, 240 Beaver Street in Waltham, beginning at 9:30 with coffee, exhibits, raffle, ginza, and a display of items from Angela Fina Pottery. The Ikebana International Meeting will begin at 10, and the demonstration will start at 10:15. $15 admission fee. For more information, contact Garden Club of the Back Bay member Kaye Vosburgh, newly elected President of Ikebana International Boston Chapter, at vosburghk@aol.com. No advance reservations are necessary.