Boston Flora

  • Wednesday, April 1, 7 pm – Water Smart Gardening

    A lecture by Massachusetts Horticultural Society Master Gardener Betty Sanders, sponsored by the Pinefield Garden Club, will be held Wednesday, April 1 at 7 pm at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 3 Maple Street, Framingham, MA.  Admission $5. For more information call Linda Hughes at 508-320-0041.

  • Thursday, April 9, 5-7 pm – Time and Places: A Retrospective of Landscape Design by Eleanor M. McPeck

    Attend the opening reception of the show which will run through April 23 at The Landscape Institute, 30 Chauncy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.  The hours of the show are Monday through Friday, 9-5. Ms. McPeck, on the faculty at Harvard, received her MLA from Harvard Graduate School of Design and is a practicing landscape consultant, a lecturer at Yale University, Rhode Island School of Design and University of California, Berkeley, and co-author of  Beatrix Farrand’s American Landscapes. Her work has appeared in Architectural Digest. To rsvp to the reception, email landscape@arnarb.harvard.edu.

  • Saturday, April 18 – Sunday, April 19 – African Violet Show

    Attend a spectacular show featuring a grand display of America’s most popular houseplants. Workshops on African violet care and propagation will be combined with guided tours of the show.  African violet plants and supplies will be offered for sale.  Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive, Boylston, MA.  Saturday 12 noon to 5:00 pm, Sunday 10:00 a.m. – 5 p.m.  Free with admission to Tower Hill.  For more information log on to www.towerhillbg.org.

  • Thursday, April 2, 7-9:30 pm – 50 Favorite Plants with Tracy DiSabato-Aust

    Tracy DiSabato-Aust has taught thousands of readers how to design and maintain their gardens. Her first book, The Well-Tended Perennial Garden, is widely considered the bible for perennial maintenance. Now with 50 Favorite Plants for High-Impact Gardens, Tracy presents 50 show stopping plants that are easy to grow. Each has passed Tracy’s test for toughness, beauty, and durability, chosen after years of studying how to make beautiful outdoor spaces with a minimum of maintenance. Tracy’s books will be available for purchase and signing. $15.  Newton South High School, 140 Brandeis Road, Newton, MA.

  • Saturday, April 18, 2-3:30 pm – Julie Moir Messervy Lecture

    Julie Moir Messervy, author of Outside the Not So Big House and known for her design of the award winning Toronto Music Garden, will show gardens that engender spirituality and reveal how spirituality can inform garden design.  Trinity Church, 206 Clarendon Street, Copley Square. Call 617-536-0944 for more information. Co-sponsored by the Arnold Arboretum. $20 Parishioners/Arboretum Members, $25 general public.

  • Wednesday, April 29, 10:00 a.m. – American Women Landscape Designers

    Title: American Women Landscape Designers
    Location: The College Club, 44 Commonwealth Ave.
    Description: Nancy Hubert will survey a number of designers, including Rose Nichols, Julie Messervy, Marian Presley, and Carol Kostial Maguire.  Postponed from earlier date.
    Start Time: 10:00
    Date: 2009-04-29

  • April 7 Garden Club of the Back Bay Meeting Postponed

    Our scheduled speaker, Nancy Hubert, will be out of the country on the date of our meeting on American Women Landscape Designers.  If we are able to reschedule for later in the Spring, notices will be sent and posted here.  We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and hope to see all of you on April 16 at The Country Club at the Boston Committee Spring Meeting.

  • Public Gardens To Visit

    Judith Tankard provided members attending The Garden Club of the Back Bay’s March 23 meeting with a list of U.S. public gardens designed by either Beatrix Farrand or Ellen Shipman which are open to the public.  For those of you unable to be with us at Wellesley, here is that list:

    Beatrix Farrand Garden at Bellefield, Hyde Park, NY (www.beatrixfarrandgarden.org)

    Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Jacksonville, FL (www.cummer.org)

    Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC (www.doaks.org)

    Garland Farm, Mt. Desert, ME (www.beatrixfarrandsociety.org)

    Harkness Memorial State Park, Waterford, CT (www.harkness.org)

    Hill-Stead Museum, Farmington, CT (www.hillstead.org)

    Longfellow House Garden, Cambridge, MA (www.nps.gov/long)

    Longue Vue House and Gardens, New Orleans, LA (www.longuevue.com)

    Moonlight Garden, Edison and Ford Winter Estates, Fort Myers, FL (www.efwefla.org)

    Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden, The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY (www.nybg.org)

    Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, Cornish, NH (www.nps.gov/saga)

    Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, Santa Barbara, CA (www.sbbg.org)

    Sarah P. Duke Gardens, Duke University, Durham, NC (www.sarahpdukegardens.com)

    Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens, Akron, OH (www.stanhywet.org)

  • April 6,13,20 &27, 1-4 pm – Introduction to Botanical Drawing and Painting: Woody Plants

    Study techniques for depicting the finer details of trees and shrubs – budding boughs, newly unfurled leaves, and blossoming twigs with artist Ruth Ann Wetherby-Frattasio.  Learn to see like an artist in an encouraging atmosphere. A simple drawing method will be demonstrated followed by instruction in painting techniques, including the color mixing necessary for achieving the neutrals of bark, the mossy greens of leaves, the whites of emerging buds, and the delicate pinks, violets, reds, and yellows of flowers. Beginners will start with a technique for placing an image on paper. Continuing students will develop their skills further. During this class, botanical works of artist Esther Heins will be on display in the lecture hall, providing inspiration. List of materials required will be sent upon registration.  Four Mondays, 1-4, in the Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Plain.   Offered in collaboration with Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture. $130 members of the Arnold Arboretum or the Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture, $155 non-members. For more information, call 781-283-3094, or log on to www.wellesley.edu/WCFH.

  • Tuesday, April 7, 10 a.m.- American Women Landscape Designers

    The April meeting of the Garden Club of the Back Bay will be held at The College Club, 44 Commonwealth Avenue, beginning at 10 a.m.  Nancy Hubert will speak on American Women Landscape Designers: Pioneers in a New Profession.  Nancy will survey a number of designers, including Rose Nichols, whose home in Boston is open to the public and who was the author of two importants early books on gardens. An optional lunch at the Club will follow the meeting ($19).  Notices will be mailed to Club members.  For more information, contact the Garden Club through the Contact link at the top of the page.