Boston Flora

Category: Rhode Island

  • Saturday, June 17, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Coastal Gardens of Little Compton, Rhode Island

    The Little Compton Garden Club is pleased to host you for our Coastal Gardens of Little Compton 2023 tour. This self-guided tour will take place June 17, 2023, rain or shine, from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. You will have the chance to visit seven private gardens in picturesque Little Compton, RI. In addition, you can visit the historic herb garden at the Little Compton Historical Society and tour the historic home.

    This tour celebrates the long tradition of the Little Compton Garden Club giving back to the community. Your ticket purchase makes it possible for the club to fund a wide range of environmental, conservation, and education programs, and to continue to make a difference in the lives of community residents.

    Please purchase your tickets in advance on this website for early-bird pricing ($40). Tickets will be available the day of the tour at St. Andrews by the Sea Church, 182 Willow Avenue in Little Compton for $50 (preferably by credit card or check). The tour will happen, rain or shine. Tickets are nonrefundable (but you can give them to some lucky friends if you find you are unable to attend).

    Everyone who registers will pick up their map for this self-guided tour at St. Andrew’s Church, 182 Willow Avenue, Little Compton. Lunch options will be listed on the map, including both restaurants and bring-your-own picnic spots.

    The mission of the Little Compton Garden Club is to stimulate the knowledge and love of gardening, and to work with its members to protect, preserve and enhance the character of its unique seaside community. $40. Purchase through Eventbrite HERE.

  • Friday, June 23 – Sunday, June 25 – The Newport Flower Show: The Grand Tour

    The 2023 Newport Flower Show will celebrate the early 19th-century custom of a trip as a means of gaining both exposure and association with the sophistication of Europe. The title of this year’s event is The Grand Tour.

    Guests will be enriched by surroundings steeped in cultural and social history while delighting in all the color and beauty of the floral world. The Show will take place at Marble House, Newport, R.I., from June 23-25, 2023.

    Rosecliff is undergoing several important restoration projects this summer and is not available to host the 2023 Show. We will return to Rosecliff in 2024. Flower Show and Opening Reception Tickets will be available as of April 1. Visit www.newportmansions.org

  • Thursdays, April 13 – June 15, 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm Eastern – The Gilded Age Years, Online

    The Preservation Society of Newport County will offer a series of six Zoom lectures on The Gilded Age Years: Transforming America, beginning April 13 at 6 pm. The series will also be presented live at The Breakers. The series of 6 online talks is available as a bundle for $50.

    This series will be unlike anything the Preservation Society has ever offered: A truly comprehensive look at the period that gave shape to modern America. It starts with “The Gilded Age: Past and Present,” where Dr. Michael Patrick Cullinane of Dickinson State University, an award-winning author and the host of the popular podcast “The Gilded Age and Progressive Era,” will address the question: Are we living in a second Gilded Age?

    Each program will be given in the Great Hall of The Breakers, a space that epitomizes the Gilded Age. See www.newportmansions.org/events for the full schedule.

    There are plenty of other ticket options available: In-person tickets for each individual program at regular or member price; Zoom registration for all six at a discounted price; and Zoom registration for each single program.

    Cartoon, Labor’s discontent with Capital. Courtesy of Dr. Michael Patrick Cullinane

  • Thursday, March 30 – Sunday, April 2 – Galleria – Living Artfully, an NGC Design Specialty Flower Show

    The Rhode Island Federation of Garden Clubs, Inc., Sheryl McGookin, President, invites you to Galleria- Living Artfully, an NGC Design Specialty Flower Show, on March 30 – April 2 at the Rhode Island Home Show, Rhode Island Convention Center, 1 Sabin Street in Providence. Hours are: March 30 – 31, noon- 9 pm; April 1, 10 am – 9 pm, and April 2, 10 am – 5 pm. Admission is free with ticket to the Rhode Island Home Show. Living artfully is how we express who we are through art in everyday life. An artful life, simply put, means it is a life that is filled with art – the art that we create, the art that we consume and the art that we share. By appreciating the world around us, by simplifying our lives, setting a mood, and creating things, we move closer to artful living. The Galleria highlights art, culture, travel, fashion, food, wine and more – the essentials to cultivating an artful way of life – through aesthetics, harmony and beauty. After a stroll down the promenade of floral designs, it is our hope that you leave feeling creative and serene. The complete schedule may be found here. If you are interested in exhibiting, advance registration is required – contact the Design Entries Chairman, Judy L. Gray at judy.gray123@gmail.com

  • Friday, November 4 – Sunday, November 6 – American Daffodil Society Fall Forum

    The American Daffodil Society will host the 2022 Fall Forum and Fall Board Meeting (FBM) in Newport, Rhode Island at the The Newport Harbor Island Resort (formerly known as Gurney’s Newport Resort & Marina). The Fall Forum is an annual event that all ADS members and their guests are invited to attend with advance reservations. The event includes the ADS Fall Board Meeting, but it is intended to maximize the education and enjoyment of all members, at an affordable registration fee.

    Registration deadline is this week (although it may be extended) but sign up today at https://daffodilusa.org/events-show-calendar/fall-symposiums/2022-fall-forum-fall-board-meeting/ The Friday speaker is Bettie Bearden Pardee, a long time friend of the Garden Club of the Back Bay. Bettie is an author, founder and editor of the luxury lifestyle website PrivateNewport.com, designer of the Parterre Bench and a national lecturer. As a Bon Appetit editor for eleven years, Bettie featured everyday sophisticates in “Entertaining in Style.” She was a host and creative producer of the PBS series, “The Presidential Palate: Entertaining in the White House.” She has also been featured for garden design in Flower Magazine and now for entertaining, for the third year in a row she is listed on “The Salonniere 100: America’s Best Party Hosts.”

    Bettie’s design talents and love of landscape were put to use in the creation of her Newport retreat on Bellevue Avenue, as well as her new Parterre Bench. Her often toured gardens are documented in the Archive of American Gardens at the Smithsonian Institution and are featured in the Garden Club of America’s Gardens, Private and Personal. Her home in Newport is the inspiration for her most recent coffee table books on lifestyle and design, Private Newport: At Home and in the Garden and Living Newport: Houses, People, Style, which will be available for purchase.

    Her lecture includes the newly restored “Blue Garden” whose unveiling in 1913 at the celebrated Bal Masque still resonates in the annals of Newport social and cultural history. Bettie’s lush images, played across the spectrum of stunning landscapes, captures the social pastimes, rituals and well-earned traditions of a fabled town, now celebrating its 375th anniversary.

  • Through Sunday, October 16 – David Bird’s Becorns

    David Bird is a photographer based in Danielson, Connecticut. He makes characters out of acorns, sticks, and whatever else he finds in the back yard, and then photographs them in the wild with real animals. Most of these photos are the result of a careful study of animal behavior, patience, and a lot of birdseed. An exhibit of his photographs will be on view at Blithewold Garden, 101 Ferry Road (Rt. 114) in Bristol, Rhode Island through October 16. For more information visit www.blithewold.org or call 401-253-2707. Check out David Bird’s website here. Included with general admission

  • Saturday, September 17, 10:00 am – 11:30 am – Tree Walk at The Elms

    Hosted by The Preservation Society of Newport County’s Director of Gardens & Landscapes, Jeff Curtis, this guided tree walk on September 17 at 10 am is a unique opportunity to explore the grounds of The Elms – one of Newport’s legendary Gilded Age mansions – examining its historic Classical Revival gardens and exceptional collection of specimen trees. This is an outdoor event, rain or shine. Participants will meet in the front drive of The Elms to begin the tour, which is from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The price is $25 per member, $50 per non-member (admission to The Elms house is included).  Register at https://www.newportmansions.org/events/events-calendar/tree-walk-at-the-elms

  • Garden Time is the Inaugural Recipient of the Page Dickey Grant for American Gardens

    The Garden Conservancy is pleased to award this endowed $10,000 grant, the Page Dickey Grant for American Gardens,  to Garden Time in Providence, RI. Garden Time provides prison-based garden education programs and prepares incarcerated individuals for the workforce by supporting successful transitions to reentry and long-term employment.

    In 2011, Garden Time’s Co-Founders worked with inmates at the men’s maximum security facility at the Rhode Island Adult Correctional Institutions to build a garden in the empty section of the prison yard. Since then, they have added two more gardens at other facilities within the complex and trained 300 incarcerated men and women to become skilled gardeners. While producing thousands of pounds of produce for the prison kitchen, participants have also gained a positive outlook and a new connection to nature. In 2017, Garden Time expanded their work to include a pre-employment program at the men’s medium-security facility offering important life skills and job training for the green industry with reentry planning and support.

     In 2020, Garden Time partnered with OpenDoors, a Providence-based nonprofit that supports formerly incarcerated individuals reenter society, to build a Reentry Community Garden, benefiting Garden Time graduates as well as OpenDoors clients and residents. The community garden at OpenDoors offers a space to perform reentry planning, job coaching, and continuing plant-based education. To further extend opportunities for released students, Garden Time piloted a tree care and environmental justice training program in 2021 allowing formerly incarcerated Rhode Islanders to learn technical skills related to tree care and other green industries through classroom and hands-on instruction. 

    The Page Dickey Grant for American Gardens honors our dear friend and longtime board member Page Dickey’s lasting contributions to the Garden Conservancy and to garden enthusiasts nationwide. As part of the Garden Conservancy Grant Program, this grant will be awarded each year, in perpetuity, to a distinguished small public garden making a significant impact in its community through garden-based programming.

    Learn more about the Page Dickey Grant for American Gardens here.

  • Sunday, July 17, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Sakonnet Garden

    Sakonnet Garden is a hidden exotic garden embedded within a native coastal fields landscape, a long-term project of John Gwynne and Mikel Folcarelli. This ongoing experiment in design, scale, and plantings began as an acre-sized spring woodland garden and is subdivided into spaces separated by high windbreak hedges and stone walls that enable growing of many Zone 7 plants. Each space has its own mood and horticultural objective. These woodland areas are very different in summer-mostly shady and green, but with the “subtropical quadrant” at peak of exuberance. A new “pollinator plus” summer garden is a colorful walk-through perennial border conceived as a biodiversity maze. Thousands of flowers produce nectar for butterflies, bees, especially native bees, and other insects important for pollination. Clipped topiary ilex begins to mimic the Nupé house posts from Ghana.

    Please note that Open Days tickets are not accepted during this Garden Conservancy Open Day.  Sakonnet Garden will be managing their own ticketing for this event.  Tickets can be purchased on Sakonnet’s website.  $20 per person, $25 if parking a car.

  • Saturday, June 25, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Garden Dialogues 2022: Greyledge Farm, Middletown, Rhode Island

    Greyledge Farm’s historic farmhouse and studio began its complete restoration in 2016. The house was built in 1870, and the studio was used by John LaFarge, a famous nineteenth-century painter and stain-glass artist. Sited on just over three acres, the landscape is in the picturesque Paradise Valley and has been a subject for generations of artists, including LaFarge, William Trost Richards, and John Frederick Kensett.

    Katherine Field and Associates’ project scope includes the entire three acres and was implemented over several years. The clients are passionate about plants and are avid gardeners. They worked closely with an arborist to preserve many of the existing trees, including the spruce grove. The intermittent stream manages invasive species, and rain gardens are opportunities for additional flowering borders to attract and sustain native species.   

    An existing pool was the only major element that was included in the new landscape. New wood decking created a soft surround, with several areas for pool-side relaxation. A new driveway replaced the former central entry and gave the property more parking, as well as privacy for the front porch.

    Transplanted material included a large European beech, Japanese maple, large arborvitae, and dozens of shrubs and perennials. A privet hedge along Paradise Avenue was replaced with a tapestry hedge composed of a mix of native and flowering shrubs. This project shows how to create a cohesive landscape with endless horticultural diversity and allows the microclimates to speak to the nature of the created space. The design engaged the heart of the client, looking for ways to highlights the landscape’s natural rhythms and activities.

    This Garden Dialogue, sponsored by The Cultural Landscape Foundation on June 25 from 10 – 12, will be led by Kate Field, Principal Katherine Field and Associates; Julia Driscoll, Landscape Designer, Katherine Field and Associates; Ray Maiello, RLA, Project Manager, Katherine Field and Associates; Greg Yalanis, Architect, Spring Street Studio; Clem Desjardins, Arborist, Stanley Tree; Laurie Sullivan, Landscape Maintenance, Schumacher; and Joe McCue, Senior Biologist, Mason & Associates.

    All events will be subject to local guidelines on gatherings, including social distancing, wearing face coverings, and stay-at-home orders. Attendance is limited, not only to maximize the safety of those attending but to promote an intimate learning experience. If this event needs to be postponed to comply with local ordinances, registrants will be notified directly. $100. Purchase tickets through Eventbrite HERE.

    Photo courtesy Katherine Field and Associates, 2021