Boston Flora

Wednesday, October 19, 12:00 noon – The Mysterious World of the Garden Grotto, Online

Join Dr. Gerald and Margaret Hull for a virtual presentation taking attendees on a trip across the world exploring the origins of the garden grotto. Discover and discuss the meaning of these mysterious and unique spaces, and their translation to homes and estates in the United States, ultimately providing visual and historical context for Annis Stockton’s lost grotto at Morven.

When Annis Boudinot Stockton established a terraced garden on Morven’s grounds in the 1760s, she added a grotto inspired by poet Alexander Pope’s gardens in England. Today, the location and design of Annis’ grotto is unknown. Explore the origins of the garden grotto in Europe, the meaning of these mysterious and unique spaces, and their translation to homes and estates in the United States. Speakers Dr. Gerald and Margaret Hull have spent the last fifteen years visiting and photographing over 300 grottoes, shell houses, and associated artifacts. Their presentation will take virtual attendees on a trip across the world ultimately providing visual and historical context for Annis’ lost grotto.

Dr. Gerald and Margaret Hull just released an extended version of their book Conchinilia Journey II: Shell Artists and Collectors. You can learn more by visiting: www.shellhouse-talks.com.

This Morven Museum program will be held virtually only. The Zoom webinar link will be shared via email prior to the event. A recording will be sent to those registered following the program. Free for Morven members, $5 for nonmembers. Register through Eventbrite HERE.

Monday, October 24, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm – The Fabric of Flowers: The Embroiderer’s Floral, Online

This is the last talk in the Gardens Trust’s online series exploring how flowers and gardens inspired textile artists.

This ticket (purchase HERE) is for this individual session and costs £5. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards.

Lecturer Janet Haigh says:

‘During recent Covid times, I returned to my original practice of stitching flowers onto fabric usually seen as garden portraits. Re-researching my old workbooks, I found delight and reassurance revisiting these earlier drawings, designs and techniques. I particularly enjoyed the hidden symbolism within my “Flora” series, which was inspired by the lengths that man has gone in the attempt to control and manipulate nature, and both the beauty and folly of the results. I imagined a journey from the Roman goddess “Flora”, an earthly “Paradise” and via “Tulipomania” to “Current Breeding Objectives”.

Recently I have stitched real bunches of garden flowers gifted to me during last year’s lockdowns. Made as celebratory embroideries during such difficult times, imagine my shock and utter delight to find that the ‘meanings’ of the beautiful Dahlias, Anemones, Hellebores and Achilleas, when checked against my much-thumbed dictionaries of the arcane “Language of Flowers”, are – instability, sickness, scandal and war’.

Janet Haigh studied Fashion and Textile at Liverpool art College in late 1960’s. Initially a fashion and textile designer in London, she took the post of Senior Lecturer in Textile Design at Bristol UWE. Later becoming a Senior Research Fellow developing textile techniques for other substrates. Janet then developed Heart Space Studios in Bristol, as a hub for teaching and exhibiting local textile practitioners. She has published many stitching books including The Embroiderer’s Floral (2002). Her work now is designing and making varied stitched textile-based work for exhibitions, commissions and publishers, and is at present developing a business to sell Giclee prints of her stitched works.

Sunday, October 23, 10:30 am – 12:30 pm – Historic Back Bay Walking Tour

Join the ICAA New England, Historic Preservation Consultant William Young, and FAIA Patrick Ahearn for a stroll through Boston’s historic Back Bay and a discussion of the architectural styles that define the neighborhood. Along the way, Patrick and William will share some of their favorite urban renovation projects and new builds, and will explain the design details that blend them into the rich fabric of the city. This is a not-to-be-missed experience with an architect and preservationist whose hands helped revitalize and protect this historic area ending in coffee and croissants at a local bakery.

Celebrated as one of America’s top classical architects, Patrick Ahearn, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, began his career with ambitious adaptive-reuse public projects and for the past 25 years has focused primarily on historically motivated, site-sensitive private residences in New England and beyond. Whether carefully restoring century-old landmarked townhouses in Boston’s Back Bay or creating new homes that reimagine the local vernacular of Martha’s Vineyard, Ahearn demonstrates an unparalleled ability to combine the romance of traditional architecture with the ideals of modernism. With his work, he sensitively balances preservation with innovation to design residences that feel truly timeless. Raised in Levittown, New York, and based in Boston for the past four decades, he earned degrees in architecture and urban design from Syracuse University. Today, he oversees the firm that bears his name while also deftly drafting firsthand. Based in Boston and Edgartown, Patrick and his work have earned countless awards, and have been featured in publications including Architectural Digest, The Wall Street Journal, New England Home, and many more.

William Young’s lifelong interest in architectural history was sparked at an early age, growing up on the coast of Maine admiring local works by Richard Upjohn, John Calvin Stevens and McKim, Mead & White. After earning degrees in English from Boston College, he entered the Boston University graduate program in historic preservation; this led to more than two decades on the staff of the Boston Landmarks Commission, from which he retired as Director of Design Review. As an independent consultant, William now guides his clients to meet historic preservation regulations at the local, state and federal levels, while remaining active on the lecture and walking-tour circuit. His recent projects include residential renovations in the Back Bay and on Beacon Hill, and new-construction retail and life-sciences buildings on Newbury Street and in the South End. William has also served three times as a commercial juror for Traditional Building magazine’s Palladio Awards, most recently in 2022.

Tickets are $35. Meet the group at the George Washington Statue in the Boston Public Garden. Purchase tickets in advance at http://www.classicist-ne.org/events

Thursday, October 27, 8:30 am – 4:30 pm – 2022 Season’s End Summit, Live and Online

Our goal as both professionals and home gardeners is to create habitat for all. In order to achieve this, we must design with an ecological sensibility, implement with an ecological sensibility and manage our landscape with that same ecological sensibility. Over time all landscapes evolve and we try to set a path for the design to follow, to create the palette we envision, but it could also take a surprising and scenic turn depending on plant/animal/insect/human interactions. The way we care for our designs can have a pretty significant impact on that design and considerations such as light, noise, and carbon emissions should be part of our plans. Our goal is to create habitat, a functioning ecosystem for all. So, are we getting it right?

This Ecological Landscape Alliance fall conference on October 27 at New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill has engaged five professionals to tell their stories of landscape interaction of plants, the environment, the management and the creatures that rely on them (including humans). Two Landscape Architects will talk about projects over time – what surprises they found, whether maintenance or management impacted their design and what accommodations they felt were necessary. We also have speakers who will address plant selection, the function of native, nativar and non-native plants in the landscape and importance of the plant selection on pollinator and insect/plant interactions. Does our plant selection affect the wildlife that uses it and do certain plant groups create greater impact. All of these stories also rely on the way that we manage and its implications on the landscape. Learn about new directions in management and the difference they can make to your design.

Attend Season’s End in person and get the value of visiting New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill and its acres of varied landscapes. Or attend virtually from anywhere in the country and get the benefit of hearing these great stories from experienced professionals.

Sam Hoadley will present Knockout Natives. Sam is the Manager of Horticultural Research at Mt. Cuba Center where he evaluates native plant species, old and new cultivars, and hybrids in the Trial Garden. Sam earned his degree in Sustainable Landscape Horticulture from the University of Vermont.

Next comes Fostering Pollinator Populations: New Ideas and Other Ecological Perspectives with Pawel Pieluszynski. He specializes in ecological horticulture at Brooklyn Bridge Park with a keen interest in entomology and native plant communities. He is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Biology at CUNY College of Staten Island. The talk is followed by Mark Richardson and Robert Graham on Making the Move to Green Equipment.

Finally, Toby Wolf speaks on Designing for Change at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Toby Wolf is the owner of Wolf Landscape Architecture, whose designs connect people with the natural world. He has developed master plans, site designs, and planting designs for Wellesley College, the Native Plant Trust, Cornell Botanic Gardens, Colby College, Mount Auburn Cemetery, and homeowners throughout the Boston area. Mr. Wolf is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University. He has taught at Cornell, RISD, and SUNY ESF and has served as President and board member of the Ecological Landscape Alliance and the Horticulture Committee of the Friends of the Public Garden.

$149 for nonmembers of ELA, for either virtual or live attendance. Register at https://www.ecolandscaping.org/event/ela-summit-2022/

Saturday, October 22, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Before the Flood

Have you ever wondered where your water comes from? Today, roughly three million people in Massachusetts enjoy water from the Quabbin Reservoir, but that has not always been the case. In Before the Flood, author Elisabeth C. Rosenberg explores the story of the Quabbin, the people who built it, and the residents who were displaced to make way for its construction.

Please join the Waterworks Museum on October 22 in welcoming Rosenberg for a discussion of this fascinating history, which will be followed by a book signing. This program will take place live at the museum, 2450 Beacon Street in Boston, and is free of charge. Doors open at 6:30pm. Masks are currently recommended but not required. Reserve your free ticket in advance to secure your place HERE. If seats are still available, walk-ins will be welcome on the day of the program.

Elisabeth C. Rosenberg is a writer and editor who focuses on the interplay between individuals, demographic groups, and disruptive technology. She has contributed to The Boston Globe, Boston Magazine, Fast Company, Harvard University Press, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center. She divides her time between Washington, DC, and Amherst, MA.

Free Admission. The Garden Club of the Back Bay enjoyed a wonderful tour of the Museum during our “Water” year of programming, and we think everyone will enjoy the venue and the talk.

Tuesday, October 25, 5:00 am – 6:30 am – Garden Designs Around the French Riviera: Modernism and the Counterblast to White, Online

The Gardens Trust will offer a four part online series exploring contrasts, conflicts and harmonies in French Riviera garden design on Tuesdays, beginning October 25. The live webinar begins at 10 British Standard Time, which is really, really early in the morning, but a link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session ends and will be available for one week. The registration link HERE is for the entire course of 4 sessions, for £16 through Eventbrite, or you may purchase a ticket for individual sessions, costing £5. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days (and again a few hours) prior to the start of the first talk.

This is a series that moves inland from the coast but never far from Mediterranean blues whether from the sky or the sea. Fertility was created in these ancient landscapes by forming terraces or restanques which can still be seen planted with vines, olives, fruit or vegetables. The gardens that surround many of the villas we will explore have used these terraces to decorative and productive effect. Renoir understood that you don’t paint the leaves on olive trees but the play of light between them, Mediterranean light has inspired artists in every sphere. We can appropriate Homer and the Odyssey to take a journey from this landscape’s classical roots to its challenging contemporary art by way of impressionism and surrealism. The tastes are eclectic and the plantsmanship glorious set within an array of architecture and arboreal canopies.

We set the scene in the first session in the 1920s with Comte Charles de Noailles and his wife Marie-Laure who were painted by Picasso following their marriage in 1923. They commissioned Robert Mallet-Stevens to build a summer Modernist villa in the hills above Hyères, an innovative modernist response linking the gleaming white house and garden – the Villa Noailles. The gardens were designed by Gabriel Guevrekian. Edith Wharton was a neighbour and good friend to both the Noailles and Lawrence Johnston. In contrast writer, designer, caricaturist, decorator, painter, ironworker, landscaper and French lithographer Ferdinand Bac argued that architecture should look to the colours of the ancient Mediterranean cultures. From 1919-1927 he designed his masterpiece across 6 hectares at Les Colombieres above Menton for the Ladan-Bockairy’s. From 1995 the house and gardens were restored by Michael and Margaret Likierman.

Presenter Caroline Holmes is an experienced and accomplished lecturer working for a wide range of organisations including leading tour and cruise operators. She is an Accredited Lecturer of The Arts Society and is also a Course Director for the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education. Her own gardens are open to the public and have featured in many magazine articles and on television in both Britain and Japan. Since the 1990s she has been researching, writing about and lecturing on the Riviera. Caroline is author of 12 books, her latest being Where the wildness pleases – the English garden celebrated (2021).

Wednesday, October 26, 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm – A Song of Heat, Ice, and Water: Impact of Climate Change on Alpine Glacier and Water Resources, Online

Climate change is significantly impacting alpine glaciers around the world. Their response is similar though the water resource impacts vary. Over four decades Dr. Mauri Pelto, Ph.D. Professor at Nichols College, Science Advisory Board at NASA’s Earth Observatory. observed climate change impact on glaciers in the Pacific Northwest, and for three decades the impact on water resources in Central Massachusetts. Our focus will be on visual summaries of these observations and some commonalities to these different verses. He has been an Environmental Science professor at Nichols College since 1989 and is currently an Associate Provost. He is the Director of the North Cascade Glacier Climate Project since 1983 which measures the mass balance of three reference glaciers of the World Glacier Monitoring Service. Responsible for writing the chapter on Alpine Glaciers each year in the State of the Climate report for the Bulletin of American Meteorological Society. Member of Science Advisory Board for NASA Earth Observatory. Author of the American Geophysical Union blog “From a Glaciers Perspective”, writing one article a week on glacier response to climate change.

Sponsored by CounterAct Climate Change and New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill. Free. Once registered, you will receive a Zoom link. To register, visit www.nebg.org

Tuesday, October 18, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm – The Deep History of Amazonian Agroecological Urban Forests: Why Do They Matter Today?

In this Harvard Graduate School of Design talk on October 18 at 6:30 in the Piper Auditorium of Gund Hall in Cambridge, Ana María Durán Calisto will discuss the design principles of ancient Amazonian agroecological urban constellations; the ways in which colonialism disrupted (and continues to disrupt) Amazonian patterns of inhabitation and habitat construction; and the visions Amazonian urban history offers to inform our ability to reimagine future urban ecologies. Free and open to the public.

Ana María Durán Calisto is an architect, urban planner, environmental designer and scholar from Quito, Ecuador. In 2002, she founded the award-winning design group Estudio A0 with her husband, British-Punjabi architect Jaskran Kalirai. Estudio A0 has designed a diverse array of projects, at all scales, in close collaboration with its clients and community partners. Its building QPH obtained the first Leed Gold of continental Ecuador and was ranked 8th among the 500 best socio-environmental projects in Latin America at the 2015 Latin American Green Awards. In collaboration with Del Hierro AU and L + A Arquitectos, it won the competition for the Ikiam University campus, which eventually was awarded First Prize in the SDSN Amazonia Infrastructure Award, COP 21, in Paris. Its incremental housing scheme received Second Prize in a Social Housing Competition sponsored by UN Habitat. Estudio A0’s projects have been extensively published. Recent features include 30 arquitectos más relevantes de América Latina (Línea Editorial y Lexus Editores, 2020), Office Design (Booq Publishing, 2019), Company Gardens: Green Spaces for Retreat and Inspiration (Braun Publishing, 2019), and International Houses (Taschen, 2018).

Durán Calisto is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the urban planning department at UCLA. Under the advice of Susanna Hecht, she is writing a dissertation on the urban history of Amazonia, with a focus on indigenous systems of territorial planning and colonial disruptions. She is a member of the Science Panel for the Amazon, convened by SDSN & the UN. She co-authored its report ́s chapter on urbanization. In2022, she received the Mark Cousins Theory Award. Durán Calisto is a lecturer at the Yale School of Architecture and has taught research seminars and design studios at FADA-PUCE, the Harvard GSD, Columbia University, the University of Michigan, IAAC, Universidad Católica de Temuco, and UCLA ́s Institute for the Environment and Sustainability. She curated the XV Quito Architecture Biennial: Visible Cities (2006) and was National Curator for the IX BIAU. She co-edited the books Ecological Urbanism in Latin America (2019), Beyond Petropolis: Designing a Practical Utopia in Nueva Loja (2015), IV Taller Internacional de Vivienda Popular (2007).

Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the events office at (617) 496-2414 or events@gsd.harvard.edu.

Thursday, October 27, 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Night of Illumination at Garden in the Woods

Night of Illumination is back and tickets are on sale now! All Native Plant Trust personal members are eligible to purchase tickets to our annual members-only fall event, Night of Illumination. Stroll along paths at Garden in the Woods lit by more than 1,000 luminaria on Thursday, October 27, 2022. There will be food for purchase brought to the Garden by Anzio’s Brick Oven Pizzeria food truck. Join us for this wonderful evening filled with intriguing sights and seasonal strolls.

Tickets must be purchased online and in advance. There will be no on-site ticket sales on the night of the event.

Adults – $14.00 (18+)

Children – $7.00 (6-17)

Children 5 and under – free

Parking for Night of Illumination will be available at Hemenway Elementary School (729 Water Street, Framingham, MA 01701), Potter Road Elementary School (492 Potter Road, Framingham, MA 01701), King Elementary School (454 Water Street, Framingham, MA 01701), and Cameron Middle School (215 Elm Street, Framingham, MA 01701). There will be a continuous shuttle bus service throughout the evening to bring you to and from the Garden.

Night of Illumination is an exclusive event for Native Plant Trust members and their guests, but tickets will go quickly. Get your tickets today!

Tuesday, October 25, 10:00 am (Rain Date Wednesday, October 26) – Fall Photography Walk

Join Stephanie Fletcher, the Garden Club of the Back Bay’s extraordinary Instagram site creator, for a photography walk around the Back Bay on Tuesday, October 25, with a rain date of Wednesday, October 26. Take in the sights of the fall foliage and Halloween decorations and learn some tools for how to get “just the right shot.” No prior photography experience necessary! You can bring your phone or camera.

We’ll take some photos based on theme: Color, Halloween, Autumn foliage, etc. and share them amongst ourselves after the walk.

The walk is free, but an RSVP is required. Space is limited. RSVP HERE. Meet at the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Arlington Street.