Wright-Locke Farm is going back to the old charm of the 1827 Barn for this extra special fundraiser on Friday, June 21 from 7 – 10. Great food, live music, and auction items will be part of the evening, to support the Farm at the start of the high season. So much growth in such a short time is cause for celebration. Learn all about what is happening at the Farm and how you can be part of the team. Tickets will be available online at https://www.WLFarm.org

How did ordinary home gardeners in nineteenth-century America perceive their gardens as tied to the fates of the nation and the world? This Garden Conservancy online talk on June 13 shows how caring for plants brought nineteenth-century home gardeners face-to-face with the greatest political issues of the day: colonialism, conquest, slavery, and democracy. It focuses on a selection of gardeners who were also famous writers—including Emily Dickinson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Frederick Douglass—and shows how their homes and gardens were important places for broader environmental thinking. This talk draws on research from Mary Kuhn’s new book, The Garden Politic: Global Plants and Botanical Nationalism in Nineteenth-Century America. Mary Kuhn is an assistant professor of English at the University of Virginia. She is the author of The Garden Politic and many articles on the relationship between people, plants, and politics. At UVA, she routinely teaches courses in nineteenth-century literary studies, environmental literature, and the environmental humanities.

$5 for Garden Conservancy members, $15 for nonmembers. A recording of this webinar will be sent to all registrants a few days after the event. We encourage you to register, even if you cannot attend the live webinar. Register at https://www.gardenconservancy.org/education/education-events/virtual-talk-the-garden-politic-in-nineteenth-century-america

Local artist Beth Adoette is coming to Blithewold to share her unique practice of partnering with nature in a monthly workshop series. This workshop offers people the opportunity to unplug and be in the moment while exploring beautiful objects of nature. Please note that nature mandalas are ephemeral and will not be taken home. Photographs are encouraged. High-resolution, edited photographs can be ordered separately at the workshop for an additional fee. Many of us have practices or mental prompts to help center and calm ourselves either as a daily practice or during challenging moments. Whether you have a practice or would like to hear how others approach calming meditation, this workshop provides an opportunity to honor our meditation intentions and explore what they might look like in visual form. Participants create individual nature mandalas that can be used as beautiful reminders to meditate or use as meditation prompts themselves.

Class size is limited to 10. $40 Members | $45 Nonmembers Register at: https://www.blithewold.org/event/nature-mandala-series-with-beth-adoette-2/

Trade Secrets is the principle fundraiser for Project SAGE, a non-profit domestic violence agency serving Northwest Connecticut and the surrounding communities in New York and Massachusetts. Since 2001, inspired by Bunny Williams and Naomi Blumenthal, and guided by horticulturist Deborah Munson, Trade Secrets has supported the valuable work of Project SAGE in Lakeville, CT, whose mission is to create social change to end interpersonal, relationship violence by challenging attitudes and beliefs about power, control, and gender norms and by advocating for victims and survivors. On Saturday, May 18, there will be garden tours and community events in multiple locations between Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York. On Sunday, May 19, there will be the famous Trade Secrets Rare Plants & Garden Antiques Sale Event at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville. For ticket pricing (ranging from $150 down to $25) visit https://www.tradesecretsct.com/about-trade-secrets Act now – some tours have already sold out.

Capture the beauty of New England ephemeral plants in their naive habitat in this 3-day Massachusetts Horticultural Society class with Betsy Rogers-Knox. These special plants bloom early, before the leaf canopy shades their habitat. Starting with line drawings and a quick tonal, we’ll compose a small habitat composition using live subjects native to the area. With step-by-step instruction and demonstrations, we’ll incorporate many watercolor techniques including wet-on-wet, dry brush and everything in between. The class will meet at the Garden at Elm Bank, Cheney Room, Education Center, 900 Washington Street in Wellesley.

Betsy Rogers-Knox earned a Certificate in Botanical Illustration from The NYBG and is enchanted by the full lifecycle of plants and their habitats. Her work has been shown widely in the US including the 13th-26th ASBA International Exhibitions, the 3rd and 4th NYBG Triennials and the RHS Botanical Art Exhibit in London in 2019 where she received the Judges Special Award for the educational and ecological value of her paintings of Beckley Bog. Her work is held in the permanent collection at the RHS Lindley Library in London and at the Hunt Institute in Pittsburgh.

Note: This course may be taken at the Foundations-level (150) or Techniques-level (250), with appropriate completion requirements for each. Fee is $350 for Mass Hort members, $425 for nonmembers. Register at www.masshort.org.

Prerequisite: Suitable for artists who have completed at least two “Foundations of Botanical Drawing & Painting” classes or equivalent. 

FOREST FUTURES explores the intertwined history of forests and humanity, critically examining the past and the present to emphasize our profound connection with these vital habitats. A glance at the ungraspable timeline of forest evolution, 350 million years, reveals an alarming fact: a millennium of human activity—a blink of an eye in geological time—has threatened the equilibrium of these life-sustaining ecosystems.

Through the collective efforts of scholars, scientists, designers, artists, policymakers, and communities to restore and conserve the biodiversity that remains, today’s forests have become designed environments. Yet, it is essential to recognize that silvicultural practices and other forms of forest management entail the construction of symbiotic relationships with living beings while enabling nature’s own processes to unfold freely. Trees—indeed, all flora—are wildlife.

FOREST FUTURES celebrates nature’s ineffable essence. By urging a sensorial connection beyond observation, the exhibition underscores the limits of logic alone to fathom the natural world’s complexity. Instinct over reason offers a further lens to envision potential narratives within the still-unknown realm of forests. The paradox lies in merging design—fundamentally a reasoned and measured endeavor—with raw nature. This juxtaposition produces the challenge—at times the overwhelming sensation—of learning the vast science of forests while at the same time staying deeply attuned to the powerful experiential dimension they offer.

FOREST FUTURES’ curatorial approach reflects the diverse storylines explored in the seminar FORESTS: History and Future Narratives at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. As forests capture the attention of multiple disciplines, each exhibition section incorporates historical, technical, artistic, and scientific perspectives. In addition, forests require many forms of labor. Beyond the actual planting—now undertaken by both human hands and robots—advocates, activists, citizen foresters, and volunteers contribute enormous efforts to making healthy forests a reality. Urban forests, in particular, become tangible expressions of the dialogue between design and the natural world, offering opportunities for climate change adaptation and environmental justice. Together, these various perspectives converge on the larger ambition of more equitable societies, each thriving under the vast canopies of the earth’s munificent forests.

The exhibit, curated by Anita Berrizbeitia, is on view at the Druker Design Gallery in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in Cambridge now through March 31. For more information visit www.gsd.harvard.edu

For most of its 4.54 billion years, Earth has proven it can manage just fine without human beings. Then came the first proto-humans, who emerged a little more than 2 million years ago—a fleeting moment in geological time. What made it possible? Ironically, it’s the very same thing that now threatens us—climate change. 

The drying of the tropics during the Pleistocene period created a niche for early hominids, who could hunt prey as forests gave way to savannahs in the African tropics. The sudden cooling episode known as the Younger Dryas 13,000 years ago, which occurred just as Earth was thawing out of the last Ice Age, spurred the development of agriculture in the fertile crescent. The Little Ice Age cooling of the 16th–19th centuries led to famines and pestilence for much of Europe, yet it was a boon for the Dutch, who were able to take advantage of stronger winds to shorten their ocean voyages. 

The conditions that allowed humans to live on this earth are incredibly fragile. Climate variability has at times created new niches that humans or their ancestors could potentially exploit, and challenges that at times have spurred innovation. But there’s a relatively narrow envelope of climate variability within which human civilization remains viable—and our survival depends on conditions remaining within that range.

Climate scientist Michael Mann, director of the Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media at the University of Pennsylvania, examines the knowledge necessary to appreciate the gravity of the unfolding climate crisis, while emboldening us to act before it becomes too late. This webinar on January 11 at 6:45 is sponsored by Smithsonian Associates, and is $20 for Smithsonian Associates members, $25 for nonmembers. Register HERE. Mann’s book Our Fragile Moment: How Lessons from Earth’s Past Can Help Us Survive the Climate Crisis (PublicAffairs) is available for purchase through the link as well.

This Massachusetts Horticultural Society series with Carol Ann Morley is for artists with graphite experience. Arches, pillars, caverns & domes are intriguing forms that await you.  Cut open a fruit or dissect a pod and see a world of wonder. Discover the cavern with a sweeping arch tucked inside a pepper or seeds bursting from a buttress. Investigate the deep hollows of a pod and the curling forms of peeled fruit.  Explore the architectural structures of plant forms – the curves and columns enfolding. See the familiar in new ways and bring to life these intriguing shapes with graphite pencils.  Document features using rules of perspective under the guidance of Carol Ann Morley. Learn pencil techniques to create spatial depth and dramatize the play of light and dark on form, utilizing the tonal scale to reveal intricate surface details, patterns, and textures. Be ready to investigate a hidden world within. $295 for MHS members $345 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.masshort.org/

Date: January 8, 9, 10, 2024 (Snow Date: Thursday, Jan. 11th)
Time Frame: 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.  EST