Boston Flora

Saturday, November 11, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Add Spice to Your Life: Create an Herbal Delight

Looking for ways to use those herbs you grew in the garden this summer? Join members of Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Herb Associates for this hands-on workshop and learn some of their culinary secrets on November 11, from 1 to 3 p.m. Add a bit of spice to your life by creating a delicious herbal salad dressing and exciting herbal dips for the holidays. All materials will be provided.

The Herb Associates are volunteers who oversee a display garden and production garden, both located near the Center House at BBG. About 100 varieties of herbs are grown for display, with about 20 culinary herbs grown in the production garden used to make products for sale, including chives, parsley, sage, basil, dill, lovage and lavender. Herbal products made throughout the growing season are available in the BBG gift shop, at festivals during the season, and online. BBG members $70, nonmembers $85. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/add-spice-your-life-create-herbal-delight Photo courtesy of Zestful Kitchen.

Saturday, November 11, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm – Establishing a Vineyard in Your Backyard

This Berkshire Botanical Garden class with author J. Stephen Casscles on November 11 from 10 – 12 will cover how to establish and maintain a backyard vineyard. Topics covered include: identifying suitable fruit growing land or modifying your current backyard to grow grapes; how to layout and plant a home vineyard; selecting suitable grape varieties, including heritage grape varieties; trellising and training options; how to prune vines; and how to annually maintain a vineyard to produce bountiful amounts of grapes for wine, juice, or fresh consumption. Visit https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/establish-vineyard-your-backyard where you can also register. $25 for BBG members, $40 for nonmembers. At the end of our class, copies of his book Grapes of the Hudson Valley and Other Cool Climate Regions of the US and Canada, will be available for sale with the author’s signature.

Saturday, November 4 – Sunday, November 19, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Fall Chrysanthemum Show

Each fall as colors fade outdoors, a riot of color erupts indoors in the Lyman Conservatory at the Botanic Garden of Smith College. While not as widely known as the Spring Bulb Show, this autumnal display is even more spectacular, with vibrant oversized blooms reaching 8 inches across, floral walls of color, and chrysanthemums overflowing the greenhouses.

The Fall Mum Show has been a popular college and community tradition since the early 1900s and has served as a showcase for the hybridizing experiments of the horticulture class. That tradition continues to this day: the Chrysanthemum Show shows off a variety of multicolor chrysanthemums that were hybridized by the previous year’s horticulture students. The public is then invited to vote for their favorites.

The Chrysanthemum Show at the Lyman Conservatory is open to the public from Saturday, November 54through Sunday, November 19, from 10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. Friday hours are 10:00 am – 8:00 pm. The Botanic Garden is open to the public and a donation of $5 or more is appreciated. The site is wheelchair accessible. Parking is available on College Lane for the two weeks of the Mum Show. For more information on the show and other events, please contact the Botanic Garden at (413) 585-2740 or visit www.smith.edu/garden.

Tuesday, November 14, 5:00 am – 6:30 am Eastern – American Masters: Landscape and National Identity, Online

The study of landscape design is essentially a study of human culture; the way people shape their environment reflects a sense of their place in the world. Traditionally western landscape design has veered between the Classic and Romantic traditions, pitting European formality against English naturalism. During the twentieth century however, these stylistic polarities gave way to new concerns as designers looked increasingly to the historical, political and cultural context of their sites. As the New World was often in the forefront of this movement, this Gardens Trust four-lecture series on American Moderns will examine key landscapes from the two continents, exploring the designs which pushed the boundaries of the profession by pioneering new approaches, reflecting new philosophies and challenging assumptions about the form, use and meaning of landscape. You may purchase tickets for the entire series through Eventbrite for £16, or individual sessions costing £5, at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/american-moderns-tickets-670807291667 Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days (and again a few hours) prior to the start of the first talk (If you do not receive this link please contact us), and a link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 1 week.

Week One on November 14 is Landscape and National Identity. Geoffrey Jellicoe once claimed that ‘All man-made environment is a projection of our psyche, whether individual or collective’. This lecture will explore how designers from different parts of the Americas – the Brazilian Roberto Burle Marx, the Mexican Luis Barragan and the American Thomas Church – used gardens and landscapes to shape and promote ideas of national identity. Wary of the European traditions of their country’s former colonial rulers, these designers looked to indigenous flora, building materials, architecture, agricultural methods, cultural traditions and mythologies to establish distinct, new approaches which reflect the national and local character of their sites. Image: Sítio Roberto Burle Marx, Rio de Janeiro. Halley Pacheco de Oliveira

Speaker Katie Campbell is a writer and garden historian. She lectures widely, has taught at Birkbeck, Bristol and Buckingham universities; she writes for various publications, and leads art and garden tours. Her most recent book, Cultivating the Renaissance (Routledge, 2021) , explores the evolution of Renaissance ideas and aesthetics through the Medici Tuscan villas. Her previous book, British Gardens in Time (Quarto, 2014), accompanied the BBC television series. Earlier works include Paradise of Exiles (Francis Lincoln, 2009), looking at the late nineteenth century Anglo-American garden-makers in Florence, Icons of Twentieth Century Landscape Design (Frances Lincoln, 2006) and Policies and Pleasaunces (Barn Elms, 2007), a Guide to Scotland’s Gardens.

Wednesdays, November 8 – December 6, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm Eastern – Winter Gardening Know-How Series, Online

Registration Deadline November 4! The Massachusetts Master Gardener Association sponsors the Winter Gardening Know-How Series online starting November 8 and continuing through December 6. Gardeners with all levels of experience and lots of questions, new homeowners starting from scratch, garden “rehabbers”, everyone can benefit from some know-how. Lectures will include Gardening Basics, Cold Frames, What’s Wrong with my Houseplant?, Inviting Wildlife Into Your Garden, and more. Virtual sessions include a question and answer time live with speakers, and a number of handouts to read in advance or to revisit in the future. Register at https://www.massmastergardeners.org/educational-resources/gardening-know-how-series

● Gretel Anspach is a Trustee of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, a Lifetime Master Gardener with the Massachusetts Master Gardener Association, and a recently-retired systems engineer for Raytheon. She won the MMGA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016. Gretel established and maintains a 20,000 square foot food production garden that has provided fresh produce to the Marlboro and Maynard Food Pantries for the last ten years. Her primary interest and focus is always in the science behind horticulture.

● Bonnie Power has been a Massachusetts Master Gardener since 2016 and member of the MMGA Speakers Bureau since 2018 … and a serious outdoor/indoor gardener most of her life. Curious and research-oriented by nature, she has many horticultural interests and areas of expertise. Bonnie holds both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Zoology, which informs her perspective on the management of garden insects. She spent the past year as manager of the MMGA Soil pH Testing team and while she has passed this on to a new manager, she continues as a member of the team. She also volunteers at Garden in the Woods, a Native Plant Trust botanical garden in Framingham, where she is a guide. She learned to grow vegetables as a child from her father, and flowers and houseplants from her mother. Early in her marriage, her father-in-law provided her first lessons in organic gardening. At home in Marlborough, Bonnie grows a variety of vegetables and ornamentals (with a bias for natives).

● Laurie Bebick is a graduate of Massachusetts Master Gardener Training and a long-time gardener, who has been fascinated by nature her whole life. A practicing fine artist, she approaches gardening as both an art and a science, always with an eye toward supporting nature’s creatures. When not working as a Certified Veterinary Technician, Laurie can be found in her home garden, spying on and offering greetings to all the critters who visit, especially Wally the whistle pig who lives under her garage. She is a graduate of the MMGA Speakers Bureau Training Program.

COST: The cost of the four-lecture Fall Gardening Know-How Series is $60.00, payable online by credit/debit card or PayPal. Classes are not available individually.

Garden Club Holiday Wreath Sale – Post-Halloween Reminder

At the risk of sounding like a nag, we enthusiastically encourage our readers in the Boston area to order The Garden Club of the Back Bay’s holiday wreaths now, before they sell out. All net proceeds go to neighborhood beautification projects such as tree care and public space garden maintenance, and because the Club is an all-volunteer organization, the raw costs are modest – no administrative overhead. Below, from our archives, is a photo of a tasteful indoor wreath which graced a Commonwealth Avenue home a number of years ago. The tones were based on the customer’s draperies and living room decor. Customization is a specialty. To order, visit https://gardenclubbackbay.org/store

Thursday, November 16, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Eastern – The English Gardener’s Garden, Online

The English Gardener’s Garden spans seven centuries to spotlight more than 60 of England’s finest gardens. Adapted from Phaidon’s bestselling The Gardener’s Garden and organized geographically by country, the selection ranges from formal Renaissance gardens, herbaceous Arts and Crafts gardens of the 20th century, to artistic creations and healing gardens by contemporary designers. Each entry is illustrated with sumptuous photographs and features a concise text detailing the garden’s historical and stylistic importance and that of its designer, patron, or maker. A beautiful and easy-to-use introduction for garden designers and enthusiasts alike.

The Garden Conservancy will sponsor a webinar on November 16 at 2 pm Eastern live on Zoom. $5 for Conservancy members, $10 general admission. 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.

Tom Stuart-Smith is a landscape architect and garden designer whose work combines naturalism with modernity and built forms with romantic planting. He read Zoology at the University of Cambridge before completing a postgraduate degree in Landscape Design. His projects include gardens at Chatsworth, a new public garden at the Hepworth Wakefield, and the masterplan for RHS Garden Bridgewater, one of the largest new garden projects in Europe. International projects include Le Jardin Secret in the heart of the medina in Marrakech, a garden located on the waterways near Kottayam in Kerala and show gardens for the international horticulture exhibition at IGA Berlin 2017, and the international garden expo Beijing 2019. Tom is a Vice President of the Royal Horticultural Society, a Trustee of the Garden Museum, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, a Fellow of the Landscape Institute, and a Fellow of the Society of Garden Designers. Portrait by James Runcie.

Tania Compton spent twelve years (1993–2005) as Gardens Editor for British House & Garden before resuming work as a garden designer. In 2007, her book Dream Gardens, a collaboration with photographer Andrew Lawson, was published by Merrell. The Private Gardens of England (Constable, 2015) is in its 4th edition. Tania is Contributing Gardens Editor for The World of Interiors, and she gardens six acres of wild meadow in Wiltshire. Portrait by Sabine Rüber.

Dr. Toby Musgrave is an authority on gardens and plant history, a subject in which he has been widely published. He has presented on ITV and Channel 4 and is faculty lecturer at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad. He has authored Phaidon’s The Garden: Elements & Styles and Green Escapes and has contributed to several additional Phaidon Press titles, including The Garden Book and The Gardener’s Garden.

Sunday, November 12, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Rooted in Place: Building Resiliency through Ecological Design and Landscape Management

Join experts in the field of ecological design to learn about their varied approaches to building resilient landscapes and communities. This day-long symposium on November 12 at the Berkshire Botanical Garden will explore the breadth of what regenerative design and land stewardship means, featuring a range of speakers with experiences as diverse as landscape design, community outreach, pollination systems restoration, and farming. Participants will have the opportunity to work hands-on with the day’s speakers to design their own projects.

Featured speakers include Evan Abramson, speaking on Beyond Pollinator-Friendly: Designing Landscapes and Corridors to Support Biodiversity and Climate Resilience — Farms, wildlands, sub/urban greenways, rural communities and large-scale solar developments provide immense opportunities for expanding regional biodiversity through the implementation of native pollination systems. What happens at the pollination scale has repercussions all the way through the food web to the largest predators and humans. Yet most efforts to restore pollinator habitat to date have increased the numbers of a few common species, rather than the range of wild pollinators needed for ecosystem resiliency. “Seeing lots of bees” does not necessarily mean that a landscape is pollinator-friendly.

Evan Abramson is a results-driven designer and planner on a mission to rebuild biologically diverse ecosystems through pollinator-plant interactions. As Founder and Principal of Landscape Interactions, he works closely with project partners along every step of the process, from conception through design, implementation and maintenance. Since 2019, Landscape Interactions has been responsible for over 300 acres of habitat installed in the Northeast, specifically targeting at-risk bee and lepidoptera species for each project location. He holds a Master of Science in Ecological Design from the Conway School of Landscape Design, Certificates in Permaculture Design and Biodynamic Gardening, and is the author of numerous publications, including Pollinate Now; Lincoln Pollinator Action Plan; Egremont Pollinator Pathway; and Great Barrington Pollinator Action Plan.

Also presenting is Jono Neiger on Regenerative agriculture and agroforestry: Food, soil health, and diversity on the farmscape — Commencing with an overview of regenerative agriculture and agroforestry practices and examples of farms and farmers using these approaches, participants will glean insight into the exciting potential and rising interest in combating habitat loss, soil degradation, and farm insecurity through this work. Jono Neiger and his work at Regenerative Design Group work to support local farms in their transition to more regenerative systems through planning and design, technical support, soil health practices, and water and soil management.

Jono Neiger leads the Regenerative Agriculture Wing at Regenerative Design Group (RDG). He has 30 years of professional experience in permaculture, site planning, agroforestry, conservation, and restoration. Jono teaches widely at colleges, workshops, and conferences. He has taught at The Conway School and was the founding Board President of the Permaculture Association of the Northeast. Before starting RDG, Jono worked as a land manager for Lost Valley Educational Center, a Conservation Officer for the Town of Palmer, MA and a Restoration Specialist with the Nature Conservancy. He holds a MALD from The Conway School and a BS in Forest Biology from S.U.N.Y. College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Jono is the author of The Permaculture Promise and the founder of Big River Chestnuts, a chestnut agroforestry farm in Sunderland, MA.

An afternoon panel will be moderated by Elizabeth Keen with Marie Chieppo, Owen Wormser, and Jim Schultz. $85 for BBG members, $100 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/rooted-place

Tuesday, November 14, 6:30 pm – Design is a Language: Being Receptive, Being in Motion

Catherine Mosbach is a landscape architect and the Founder of Paris-based design firm mosbach paysagistes and the magazine Pages Paysages. In her Harvard Graduate School of Design Aga Khan Program Lecture, she will address drawing in relation to landscape. Meditating on the practice of drawing, she asks: “What would this imprint-trace-landscape-desire be if we gave up drawing, an instrument of open dialogue, revealing the living ongoing, which teaches us and helps us evolve in our relationship with the host land and the beings who inhabit it?”

Catherine’s key projects include the Solutre Archaeological Park in Saone-et-Loire, Walk Sluice of Saint-Denis, the Botanical Garden of Bordeaux, the other side in Quebec City, Shan Shui in Xian & Lost in Transition in Ulsan. She was the recipient of the Equerre D’argent award with Kazuyo Sejima & Ryue Nishizawa for the Louvre Lens Museum Park & was honored in the Iconic Concept Award category by the German Design Council and Platine Award by INT.design 15th Montreal for Phase Shifts Park in Taichung. The team was honored Firm of the Year 2021 in Landscape and Urban Design by Architecture Master Prize Los Angeles. Catherine was named a knight of the Legion of Honour proposed by the President of the Republic Francois Hollande in 2016. “In the net of desires” with ovvo studio explores the infinitesimal of the living by XXI Triennale de Milano 2017. Some of her latest essays are ‘emersion’, dialog Jerome Boutterin with Catherine Mosbach, Jerome Boutterin Reboot 1999-2022, (eds.) snoeck MMBOOKS BELGIQUE and ‘de passage’ la couleur en questions, directe by Michel Menu, Jean-Marie Schaeffer, Romain Thomas; Collection la Nature de l’oeuvre, ed Hermann, 2023.

Free and open to the public. The November 14 lecture will take place at 6:30 in the Piper Auditorium of Gund Hall, Oxford Street, Cambridge. For more information visit HERE.

Thursday, November 9, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm Eastern – Horticultural Approaches in the Southwest US, Online

The American Horticultural Society will present an online event on November 9 at 2 Eastern. Native plants offer beauty and critical habitat for wildlife while solving landscape problems and promoting regional charm. We’ll explore their benefits and how to use them effectively by understanding garden ecology. Considerations for plant selection, as well as design and stewardship tips using examples from Texas, will fortify you with knowledge to successfully cultivate these plants in traditional or unexpected ways. $30 AHS members, $36 nonmembers. Register at www.ahsgardening.org

Andrea DeLong-Amaya is the Director of Horticulture for the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center’s gardens and nursery programs. With nearly 30 years of experience with native plants in horticulture, ecology, and garden design, she also teaches classes and writes for numerous gardening publications including Taunton’s Fine Gardening, American Public Gardens Association’s Public Garden, and Texas Gardener and Wildflower (the Center’s member magazine). DeLong-Amaya was featured in Jennifer Jewell’s podcast, Cultivating Place, and in her book, The Earth in Her Hands: 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants.