Join us for an evening of story-telling at Berkshire Botanical Garden in West Stockbridge on October 20 at 6 pm. With a theme of “Harvests and Hope,” storytellers will share experiences of finding human connection through nature connection. From gardens, fields and forests, these stories are sure to inspire and entertain. Interested in sharing a story? Please reach out to bstone@berkshirebotanical.org.
Decorate a real mini-pumpkin using cut flowers, succulents, air plants, moss and foliage. Your adorable embellished pumpkin will last for several months! This New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill workshop takes place October 22 from 1 – 3 with instructor Mary Beth Hayes.
Mary Beth is an avid gardener and floral designer who began studying floral design so she could bring the beauty of the garden into her home. She’s taken classes with the Mass Horticultural Society and Cass School of Floral Design in Watertown, MA. She has studied with noted floral designers Francoise Weeks, Holly Chapple and Hitomi Gilliam. Mary Beth loves to share the techniques she’s learned with others so we can all “play with flowers” and create beautiful, natural flower arrangements and more.
$80 Member Adult; $95 Adult; $105 Adult Pair (Registration includes admission to the Garden) If you sign up as a PAIR your will receive ONE SET of supplies. A pair ticket is designed for two people to work together to make ONE PROJECT. All materials will be provided. Please bring your own clippers/floral scissors. Register at www.negb.org
The talk is part of a 6-part Gardens Trust online lecture series, exploring how flowers and gardens have inspired textile artists, begins Mondays at 18:00 BST, equivalent to 2 pm Eastern time. Here in their latest series of talks they are taking a sideways view by exploring how gardens and flowers have influenced and inspired other arts and crafts. This first series of 6 will focus on textiles and explore some of the historical and technical aspects of embroidering, weaving and printing using floral designs on fabric. You will look at textiles from Elizabethan crowns to Edwardian table linen to see how flowers provided inspiration, taking in the prolific art embroiderers of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Then you will be brought bang up to date with two contemporary embroiderers with very different approaches to floral imagery who will share their design processes with us.
The development of the English cottage garden in the hands of the Irish horticulturalist and journalist William Robinson (1838-1935) had a marked effect on the textile arts during the final decades of the nineteenth century. His revolutionary approach was reflected in the choice of botanical imagery featured in the work of many Arts and Crafts designers, including two of the leading exponents of art embroidery: Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932) and May Morris (1862-1938).
Jekyll’s reputation as an artist and craftswoman has been eclipsed by her contribution to garden history. Few of her admirers today are aware that her skills as an interior designer were much sought after by the Victorian elite. In 1874, she was commissioned by the Royal School of Needlework to design a suite of sixteen wall hangings, twelve of which have recently come to light, for the great drawing room at Eaton Hall in Cheshire, home of the Duke of Westminster (1825-1899). Jekyll’s elaborate, floriated pattern reveals her indebtedness to the designer Christopher Dresser (1834-1904), with whom she studied botanical drawing and ornament at the National Art Training School in South Kensington.
A constant theme in the work of May Morris is her love of English meadow plants and cottage garden flowers. Throughout her life, she made detailed studies of plant life to familiarize herself ‘with all the possible peculiarities and diversities of such things.’ But like many other writers on art embroidery, she recognized that the designer’s work ‘should merely recall nature, not absolutely copy it’ (Decorative Needlework, 1893). Morris’s approach to conventional design will be examined through her work for the embroidery department at Morris & Co. and her special commissions and gifts for family and friends.
This ticket (purchase HERE) is for this individual session and costs £5, and you may purchase tickets for other individual sessions, or you may purchase a ticket for the entire course of 6 sessions at a cost of £24 via the link here.
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.
Former Archivist at the Royal School of Needlework, Dr Lynn Hulse is a Fellow of both the Royal Historical Society and the Society of Antiquaries of London. She is also co-founder of Ornamental Embroidery, which specialises in the teaching and designing of historic hand stitch through workshops in museums, art galleries and historic houses across the UK. Recent exhibitions include The Needle’s Excellency: contemporary raised work at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (2017) and the Knitting and Stitching Show (2018), and The Needle’s Art: contemporary hand embroidery inspired by an early Tudor pattern book at the Bodleian Library, Oxford (2021-2022). Lynn has published widely on the development of art embroidery and is the editor ofMay Morris: Art and Life(2017), long listed for the 2018 William M. B. Berger prize in British Art History, and The Needle’s Excellency: English raised embroidery(2108). She is currently completing a book on Lady Victoria Welby and the founding of the Royal School of Needlework, which celebrates its 150th anniversary this year.
Have you ever wanted to collect seed from the garden to create more plants? This Berkshire Botanical Garden workshop on October 16, led by garden writers and horticulturists Lee Buttala and Shanyn Siegel, teaches gardeners everything they need to know in order to harvest and collect seed that they can then sow in the seasons ahead. This half-day workshop begins inside with a presentation on the rudiments of how plants create seed. (Plants set seed all on their own; the gardener only needs to facilitate this process and learn to identify the right moment to collect seed.) The workshop will include a review of basic collecting and cleaning practices for dry- and wet-fruited plants. After the presentation, attendees will head out into the garden to identify and collect ripe seed. The class then heads back inside where attendees will “get seedy” and learn to thresh and winnow dry-fruited species and how to clean and prepare wet-fruited seeds for future use. Participants will walk away from the class not only with seeds in hand, but with a knowledge of how to isolate, identify and collect seed of some of their favorite species and varieties of plants.
Shanyn Siegel, the co-editor of The Seed Garden who has a nursery focused on growing locally collected ecotypes of native plants in Connecticut. Lee Buttala is the former executive director of Seed Savers Exchange, an heirloom vegetable gene bank that is the only non-governmental organization storing seed at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. He has also worked for BBG and the Garden Conservancy, and currently serves as chair of the Historic Landscapes Committee of the APGA. Lee won an Emmy award for his role as a garden television producer for “Martha Stewart Living” and was the creator of PBS’s “Cultivating Life.” He is the editor of the award-winning book, The Seed Garden: The Art and Practice of Saving Seed, writes a weekly garden column for The Berkshire Edge and serves on the board of Hollister House Garden in Washington, Conn. Lee studied garden design at the Chelsea Physic Garden, the New York Botanical Garden and the Kyoto School of Art and Design. He lives in Ashley Falls, Mass.
On Wednesday, October 19 from 9:30 – 11:30, explore the beauty of butterflies and moths. This two-hour online workshop will introduce observational drawing techniques with pencil and then dive into colored pencil techniques used to create a rich, vibrant image. All skill levels are welcome. Fees: $30 HMNH members/$35 nonmembers. Advanced registration is required at https://reservations.hmsc.harvard.edu/Info.aspx?EventID=11
Richard Barley joined the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew in 2013, relocating from Victoria, Australia. He was formerly Chief Executive Officer of Open Gardens Australia, and before that a Director within the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, where he worked for 30 years. Richard has extensive experience of balancing the needs of a world-class horticultural site and visitor attraction, while maintaining and developing important scientific living collections. In his current role he has overall responsibility for the living collections and landscapes of the Kew and Wakehurst sites, and also for Kew’s School of Horticulture, Learning and Participation programmes, Interpretation and Safeguarding, together with a selection of capital building programmes. Richard holds a degree in Applied Science (Horticulture), from Burnley College (University of Melbourne) and in addition to being a Council member of the CIH, he is a Trustee of the Castle Howard Arboretum Trust, the National Garden Scheme, and the Kew Guild; and is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Gardeners.
On October 12 at 2 pm Eastern time, Richard will speak about the continuing evolution of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, from its inception and first planting in 1846 (in Melbourne’s infancy), through the phase of development of a ‘scientific botanic garden’ under German botanist and explorer Ferdinand Mueller, the remodeling with subtropical influences under William Guilfoyle’s direction, to the contemporary improvements as the climate warms and water sustainability becomes one of the most significant challenges. This Gardens Trust lecture is part of a four part series organized by The Gardens Trust.
This ticket for this individual session costs £5, and you may purchase tickets for other individual sessions, or you may purchase a ticket for the entire course of 4 sessions at a cost of £16 via the link here. (Subscribers to Historic Gardens Review will be able to purchase a series ticket for £8.) 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.
Students in this New England Botanic Garden class on October 20 from 1 – 3:30 will use a gelatin printing plate, acrylic paints, botanical materials, and handmade stencils to make beautiful prints. Different stencil making and printmaking techniques will be explored. Prints can be used as greeting cards, bookmarks, gifts tags, for scrapbooking/art papers, or as works of art on their own. Participants will go home with a stack of prints and a gelatin printing plate to continue printing at home. All materials provided.
Suzanne Hauerstein is a professional teaching artist and the Coordinator of Volunteer & Intern Services at New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill. She has over 25 years of experience designing and facilitating art-based programs for informal learning environments. Suzanne is committed to creating programs that are accessible, positive, and enjoyable learning experiences for students of all ages and abilities.
$40 Member Adult; $55 Adult (Registration includes admission to the Garden) All materials will be provided. Register at www.nebg.org
The Athol Bird & Nature Club is excited to announce the speaker series for our ABNC monthly meetings. The meetings occur on the second Wednesday of the month @ 7:00 PM. We hope to be providing a hybrid opportunity for most of these webinars where you can participate in person at the Environmental Center or watch online via zoom. January and February are exceptions as our speakers will be joining us from across the Country and those of us locally can avoid driving at night in potential snowstorms. A special thanks to all the scientists and naturalists for including ABNC in their lives. On Wednesday, October 12, photographer Dale Monette will present Genius of the Swamp.
Secrets of the Quabbin Watershed is a book released by Dale Monette and Haley Publishing in September of 2017. Dale has spent over 4 years and many thousands of hours on the 82,000 acre Quabbin Reservoir watershed in central MA photographing wildlife and 130 of his best photographs were released in a beautiful book. . Monette is an expert in the nature and history of the Quabbin; he worked 25 years as an educator and a naturalist at the Quabbin Reservoir. Dale’s website: http://www.northquabbinphotography.com.
Native Plant Trust, the nation’s first plant conservation organization and the only one solely focused on New England’s native plants, is pleased to announce that it will screen the documentary Mardi & the Whites on Saturday, October 15, at 3:30 pm at Garden in the Woods in Framingham. A film made and directed by Paula Champagne, featuring Dorchester resident Mardi Fuller, Mardi & the Whites chronicles the deep relationship that outdoorswoman Mardi Fuller has built with New Hampshire’s White Mountains, which has also been complicated by the overwhelmingly white hiking and outdoors community.
Mardi says that she is “thrilled to share my experiences as a Black outdoorswoman with this audience, at such an iconic local garden venue, and in partnership with Native Plant Trust, an organization committed to land stewardship and community education. My hope is that my story will shed light on patterns of exclusion in outdoor institutions and lead audience members to consider ways they might participate in the movement to improve access to nature for marginalized groups. I’m looking forward to a meaningful conversation and I know I will be inspired by the setting.”
The screening will be followed by a conversation and reception with Mardi, and attendees are welcome to arrive early at Garden in the Woods and enjoy a stroll through the garden before the program. To register for this event, please visit www.NativePlantTrust.org. Garden in the Woods is located at 180 Hemenway Road in Framingham, Massachusetts.
The first Cambridge Entomological Club meeting of the year will take place Tuesday, October 11th at 7:30 in the Gilbert Room of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, and online on Zoom HERE. Mayra Vidal of UMass Boston’s Department of Zoology will speak on the Ecology and Evolution of Interactions Between Insect Herbivores and Plants. Nature can be seen as an ‘intertwined web of interactions’, where species directly or indirectly influence each other. Interactions between different species can drive the evolution of traits and potentially lead to the formation of new species, thus contributing to the diversity of organisms we have on Earth. Insect herbivores are one of the most diverse groups of organisms, and the interaction with their host plants is arguably a major driver of their diversification. In this talk, Mayra will explore how host plants and natural enemies influence the evolution of a generalist herbivore, and how global environmental changes affect the interaction between insect herbivores and their host plants.
For those able to attend in person, the Club will have an informal dinner at 5:45 pm at Cambridge Common Restaurant with the speaker, followed by our formal meeting (7:30 – 9:00 pm) in the Gilbert Room (there will be signs to help direct). The meeting will begin with club announcements, followed by a 60-minute presentation by the invited speaker and Q&A. Membership is open to amateur and professional entomologists.
