Friday & Saturday, May 10 & 11 – Berkshire Botanical Garden 47th Annual Plants and Answers Sale

Curated by BBG’s horticulture staff, this year’s Plant Sale features hundreds of perennials, annuals and vegetables with a focus on diversity and nature-based landscaping, a trend toward gardens that are exuberant and alive, out of the uniform and into something comfortable, and welcoming to birds, bees and butterflies.

As always, the popular “Ask Me” staff and volunteers will be on hand to provide expert advice. All proceeds from the Plant Sale support the Garden’s horticulture and education programs. Garden members receive early buying privileges and a discount on BBG plant purchases. Free admission and free parking.

Traditionally held on Mother’s Day weekend, the Plants-and-Answers Plant Sale began in 1977 as BBG’s harbinger of spring for gardeners in the Berkshires and beyond. This year’s sale carries on the tradition of supplying the very best robust plants for landscape and container gardens, along with a wide selection of organic vegetable and herb plants. Featured are a selection of plants which attract bees, hummingbirds, butterflies, moths and other pollinators. The Garden’s signature cone-shaped hanging container arrangements will also be available. 

Thank you to the following businesses who have donated to the Plant Sale:

Andrews Greenhouse
Broken Arrow
Callanders Nursery & Landscape
Campo de Fiori
Garden Magic d/b/a Country Caretaker
Glendale
Monrovia
The Plant Group
Randall’s Farm
Sixteen Acres Garden Center
Ward’s
Whalen Nursery
Zema’s Nursery

Early buying for BBG members – Friday, May 10, 9 – 11 am. General Public, Friday, May 10, 11 – 5, Saturday, May 11, 9 – 4 Admission and parking are free.

RSS
Follow by Email
Instagram

Tuesday, May 14, 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm Eastern – Herb Liberation, Online

Herbs are such beautiful plants, useful in the garden as well as the kitchen, so why sequester them in the herb garden? Use herbs throughout the landscape, in flower gardens, in vegetable gardens (to attract pollinators and other beneficial insects), as ground covers, specimens, and in containers. Liberate them from their traditional roles, use your imagination – and bring them into your daily life. Learn about plants we already grow that we don’t know are edible and easy ways to use herbs in food and drink. This online Massachusetts Horticultural Society class with Karen Bussolini will be held on May 14 at 6:30 Eastern, and is $23 for Mass Hort members, $32 for nonmembers. Register at www.masshort.org

Karen Bussolini is a nationally known garden photographer with 6 books to her credit, a writer and speaker, and an eco-friendly garden coach. Her art background and focus on environmental topics – ecological landscaping, native plants, biodiversity, xeriscaping, organic gardening, planting for wildlife, pollinators, and other beneficial insects – inform every aspect of her work. Her slide talks combine beautiful original images, recent scientific findings, personal observations, hands-on experience, and a touch of humor. She is a NOFA-Accredited Organic Land Care Professional and an active member of GardenComm (formerly GWA), The Association of Garden Communicators. Karen is currently the Senior Horticultural Advisor at White Flower Farm in Connecticut.

RSS
Follow by Email
Instagram

Sunday, May 12, 10:00 am – Duckling Day

Join The Friends of the Public Garden in Boston’s most beautiful parks on May 12 for Duckling Day! We are so excited to gather once again at Parkman Bandstand for the most adorable event in Boston. 

  • Playtime on the Common: 10:00 a.m
  • Duckling Day Parade: 12:00 p.m.

Before the Parade, join us for Playtime on the Common, a vibrant array of family entertainment from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. All activities are included with event admission.

Registration: $35 per family. Register https://friendsofthepublicgarden.org/events/ducklingregistration/

RSS
Follow by Email
Instagram

Wednesday, May 8, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm Eastern – People’s Parks: Parkitecture, The Essence of What Makes a Great Park

The People’s Parks are one of the finest legacies of the Victorian age. Designed and bequeathed to the masses as part of a movement encouraging green spaces and recreation, the public park came to symbolize one of the greatest contributions of the era.

Opened in increasing numbers in the industrious nineteenth century, by the end of the twentieth century many of our parks had become sadly neglected. But today they remain outdoor places for everyone to enjoy, acting as children’s play areas, sports grounds and even concert venues and have grown in popularity since the global pandemic. But what do we really know about them? The Gardens Trust is sponsoring a series of six weekly online lectures with Paul Rabbitts on Wednesdays from April 17 – May 22.

Buy a ticket is for the entire course of 6 sessions. or you may purchase a ticket for individual sessions, costing £8. [Gardens Trust members may purchase tickets at £31.50 for the series or £6 each talk]. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/peoples-parks-tickets-852833737667

So what makes a great park? what are the ingredients of these great institutions? what is it that we enjoy so much when we visit them? The legacy of our great Victorian parks includes the fantastic features within them – drinking fountains, bandstands, park lodges, palm houses, boating lakes, cafes, bridges, mansions, museums, glorious gates, statues, monuments and sculpture. Paul Rabbitts calls this ‘Parkitecture’. The architecture of the park. And what of the challenges facing those who have to manage these historic spaces and features when they no longer become relevant. Join me on a journey through some of Great Britain’s finest public parks and enjoy the feast of features within them – parkitecture!

RSS
Follow by Email
Instagram

Friday, May 24 – Opening of Sculpture at The Mount 2024

The Mount in Lenox, Massachusetts is pleased to announce that the annual outdoor sculpture exhibition produced in the Berkshires by SculptureNow for the past twenty-five years—and at The Mount for the past nine years—has been brought in-house as a formal Mount program, beginning with the 2024 exhibit! Twenty-five sculptures from artists across the region have been selected for The Mount’s annual exhibition.

With the retirement of SculptureNow’s founder and executive director, Ann Jon, the timing was right for a transition that promises a dynamic future for the further convergence of art and nature in the Berkshires. Below is a selection from Audrey Shachnow’s Golden Pears, which will be on display. For more information visit https://www.edithwharton.org/calendar/sculpture/

RSS
Follow by Email
Instagram

Saturday, May 11, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm – Inland Pine Barrens

Glacial outwash creates an unusual inland sandplain habitat of pitch pine (Pinus rigida) and scrub oak (Quercus ilicifolia) amidst forest and wetland in a 600-acre area known as “The Desert” at the Memorial Forest of Sudbury Valley Trust. Come observe this special plant community and its associated wildlife while learning about efforts to restore fire-dependent sandplain habitats through prescribed burns. This Native Plant Trust easy hike will also feature red pine and black huckleberry. The walk will be led by Neela de Zoysa on May 11 from 10 – 1, and is $51 for NPT members, $60 for nonmembers. Register at http://www.nativeplanttrust.org/events/inland-pine-barrens/

RSS
Follow by Email
Instagram

Friday, April 26, 12:00 noon – 1:15 pm Eastern – Butterflies and Moths: Winged Wonders, Online

Butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) are one of the most abundant groups of insects—one in every ten animals on the planet is a butterfly or moth. What are the secrets of their extraordinary success?

In a lively Smithsonian Associates Zoom presentation accompanied by stunning images, Emmy Award–winning wildlife documentary filmmaker Steve Nicholls presents some of the latest scientific discoveries as he explores the world of butterflies and moths to find out why they’ve been so successful. Along the way, discover the world’s deadliest caterpillars, a moth with a tongue over a foot long, a caterpillar that looks exactly like a venomous snake, and a butterfly that shares its world with polar bears at one extreme and penguins at the other.

Learn about moths whose wing scales have better sound-absorbing qualities than anything we can construct to hide from the sonar of hunting bats. Others have long tail streamers with sound-reflecting surfaces at their tips to give bats a false target. Yet others scream at bats to jam their sonar completely. It seems there’s no end to the tricks that evolution has come up with as it turned the Lepidoptera into one of the most successful of all insect groups.

The event takes place Friday, April 26 at noon, and is $20 for Smithsonian Associates members, $25 for nonmembers. Register at https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/tickets/butterflies-and-moths (Below: an io moth, photo Steve Nicholls)

RSS
Follow by Email
Instagram

Friday, May 3, 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Cape Ann Blossoms Preview Party

Join the Cape Ann Museum, 27 Pleasant Street in Gloucester, on May 3 from 6 – 9 for its signature event of the season, Cape Ann Blossoms. The festive evening will showcase inventive floral displays crafted by North Shore floral designers and artisans. The exhibition will be on view from Saturday, May 4 through Sunday, May 5 at the Museum, from 10 – 5. For tickets and more information visit https://www.capeannmuseum.org/event/cape-ann-blossoms-in-the-galleries-8/

RSS
Follow by Email
Instagram