Come enjoy this twentieth century estate in nearby Canton, Massachusetts, featuring a country home, farm buildings, manicured lawns, and a walled garden. Once a farm known as Cherry Hill, the property evolved when Dr. Arthur Tracey Cabot hired architect Charles Platt to design a complex of buildings, gardens, and open fields. The property is now managed by the Trustees of Reservation, and the tour is free to members of the Trustees, and $5 for non-members. Space is limited. Please pre-register by calling 781-784-0567, extension 7001. For more information on other properties open for viewing during the summer, log on to www.thetrustees.org.
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Thursday, June 11, 6 pm – The Preservation Society of Newport County Annual Meeting
Please join The Preservation Society of Newport County at its Annual Meeting Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. at Rosecliff, 548 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island. Enjoy a snapshot of the past year and the year to come. Following the election of trustees, the Laurel Awards will be presented, including one for Horticulture given to volunteers Denise Aguiar, Marilyn Archibald, Blake Billings, Brian Burns, Charles Gardner, Lillian Kimball, Sheila Lang, and Raymond Picozzi for weeding, watering, and working tirelessly in the Society’s many gardens. A light reception of wine and cheese will follow on the terrace. For more information, log on to www.newportmansions.org.
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Friday, June 26 – Sunday, June 28 – The 2009 Newport Flower Show – Glorious Green: The Natural Path
The Newport Flower Show celebrates its 14th year as America’s premier summer flower show. Glorious Green, The Natural Path, will lead us to discover the extraordinary beauty of nature, as well as how to preserve and protect these treasures. All proceeds from the Newport Flower Show are dedicated to the ongoing restoration and maintenance of the Preservation Society of Newport County’s 88 acres of gardens and landscapes. The show will take place at Rosecliff, and the hours are Friday, 10:30 – 5, Saturday and Sunday 9 – 5, with an opening night cocktail party on Friday June 26 from 6 – 9. Tickets may be purchased on line at www.newportmansions.org. Don’t miss the Butterfly House, created exclusively for the Show by landscape architect Charles Carberry on the front lawn of Rosecliff. Walk through a gazebo filled with butterfly-friendly plants and see thousands of indigenous butterflies, including monarchs, swallowtails and painted ladies, making a unique and colorful official entrance to the Newport Flower Show. Each day of the 2009 Newport Flower Show offers guests opportunities to enjoy judged horticultural specimens and floral designs, special garden exhibitions, free lectures and demonstrations, as well as wonderful shopping experiences in both the Oceanside Boutiques and the new Gardeners’ Marketplace. Tickets are also available for special luncheons, lectures and workshops.  You’ll find that there are many choices as you select which ticket or package offers you the best opportunity to fully enjoy all the hues of Glorious Green, The Natural Path. Special guests are David Howard, long time Head Gardener to HRH Prince of Wales, and Hitomi Gilliam, internationally renowned floral designer. For more information you may email info@newportmansions.org, or call 401-847-1000.
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BostonZest
Our Back Bay friend Penny Cherubino writes and maintains one of the best websites in Boston, www.bostonzest.com. For those of you unfamiliar with this treasure, log on right now (and I mean right now) and add it to your favorites list. The June 1 blog shows a photograph of an elm on the corner of Commonwealth and Massachusetts Avenue suffering from Dutch Elm disease. Penny has a number of enthusiasms – dogs, gardens, farmer’s markets, living well (sustainably), and you will find so much valuable information here on people and events that you’ll wonder how you did without the source. Beautiful photographs, book recommendations, current affairs, music – there is something here for everyone. Brava, Penny!
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Saturday, June 6, 9 – 2 – E-Waste Recycle Day
E-Waste is a popular informal name for consumer and business electronic equipment that has reached the end of its useful life. Over 130 million mobile phones alone were discarded in 2005. The National Safety Council projects that nearly 250 million computers will become obsolete in the next five years. Researchers have estimated that nearly 75% of E-Waste is in storage. Here is the opportunity for FREE, safe and environmentally sound and friendly disposal and recycling. Recycling is a resource conservation issue. Today’s consumer electronics contain highly recyclable materials that would otherwise require mining of virgin materials from the earth to meet today’s need for raw materials. Today’s electronics recycling technology reduces consumer electronics into separated commodity streams of metals, plastics and glass that are processed into raw materials for reuse in new manufactured products. For example, one ton of recycled computers will yield about one ounce of gold. To produce this same ounce of gold from a virgin resource requires mining 7-11 tons of ore and the energy to mine and process this ore. Clearly, recycling helps us save our precious natural resources and the planet we live on. Materials accepted at the event on Saturday, June 6 include monitors, LCD displays, laptops, servers, televisions, DVDs, VCRs, stereos, camcorders, cameras, radios, games systems, fax machines, photo copiers, printers, scanners, telephones, and a host of others. The complete list can be found at www.boston.poweron.com. The materials may be brought to the Bayside Expo Center, 200 Mount Vernon Street, Dorchester, MA 02125, and directions can be found on the web site noted above.
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Saturday, June 6, 10 – 2:30 – Cruise to Rainsford Island
Ride the M/V Culebra to Rainsford Island, nestled between Long and Peddocks islands, on The Friends of the Boston Harbor Islands cruise-expedition on Saturday, June 6. The boat departs from Rowes Wharf Water Transport, 60 Rowes Wharf, at 10 a.m. and returns at 2 p.m., rain or shine. Friends volunteers lead guided tours, or you may explore on your own, but be sure to pack a picnic. There is no food or drink on the boat or on the island. This trip offers rare access to the 11-acre island. There are ruins left from two centuries of institutional use: quarantine hospital, poorhouse. Space is limited. Advance paid registration recommended. Available tickets will be sold from 9 a.m. on a first come, first served basis, cash only. Adults $28, Seniors $25, Children 4-12 $18, Babies under age 3 free. For more information, visit www.fbhi.org, email info@fbhi.org, or call 781-740-4290.
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Saturday, June 20, 10 – 4 – South End Garden Tour
Roof decks, patio spaces, backyards, neighborhood parks and community gardens will be part of the 16th annual South End Garden Tour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Proceeds benefit the South End/Lower Roxbury Open Space Land Trust, which owns and maintains 16 community gardens. Tickets, $20, will be sold at the South End Branch of the Boston Public Library, 685 Tremont Street (Rutland Square). Advance tickets, $17, and information at (617) 437-0999 and southendgardentour.org. This year, there is a special ticket price to members of area garden clubs. If you purchase 5 tickets or more, the price drops to $15 per person. This is called the “carpool discount” – just mention your affiliation with the Garden Club of the Back Bay when you call to reserve.
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Friday, June 19 – Sunday, June 21 – Rose Weekend
Rose Weekend has been held annually for more than a century in Hartford, Connecticut’s Elizabeth Park, the nation’s oldest municipal rose garden. It is a two and one half acre garden which has about 800 varieties of roses that amount to 15,000 plants . Rambling roses cover arched walkways in the garden and the beds are filled with roses of every shape and color. Along the border, fences of climbing and shrub roses provide a colorful background for the bedding plants. The Rose Garden is one of only 22 public All America Test Gardens in the country. This test program evaluates new roses before they are introduced to the general public. While the main rose garden shows off the more modern roses, the Heritage Rose Garden is the home to more historical varieties. A number of unusual and interesting roses are found here. During its peak bloom time of early to mid June, it is the most fragrant place to be in the park.For more information, call 860-231-9443, or log on to www.elizabethpark.org.
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Saturday, June 6, 10 – 1 – Volunteer Day in Olmsted Park Woodlands
To help ensure the health and the future of Olmsted Park’s Woodlands From Spring to Fall the Emerald Necklace Conservancy offers regular volunteer days on the first Saturday of each month. You can help remove invasive non-native plants, rejuvenate the soil, restore paths, and plant for species diversity and forest health.Please sign up in advance to projectassistant@emeraldnecklace.org . Bring a trowel if you have one and your own water bottle. We will provide gloves. Meet at the Daisy Field parking lot. For directions, log on to www.emeraldnecklace.org.
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Friday, June 5 – Sunday, June 21 – Fields of Lupine Festival
Gorgeous purple and pink lupines in bloom are reason enough to visit New Hampshire’s Franconia region each June. The 15th annual Fields of Lupine Festival provides added incentive for travelers, including special tours, art events, concerts and more. For information, call 603-823-5661.