Boston Flora

Tuesday, October 29, 10:00 am – Boston Committee of the GCA Fall Lecture and Lunch

The Boston Committee of the Garden Club of America is pleased to announce its Fall Lecture and Lunch featuring David O’Neill of the Massachusetts Audubon Society as the featured speaker. David is a Conservation Superhero: prior to his senior roles with Audubon, he served as Vice President at the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Executive Director of the Chesapeake Bay Trust, and Director of Land Use Policy and Outreach for the Urban Land Institute

Members of garden clubs who are part of the Boston Committee will receive notice of the October 29 meeting, and a link to register, but if you are missing the information visit https://bostoncommitteegca.org/

Tuesdays, October 15 – 29, 5:00 am – 6:30 pm Eastern (but recorded) – Unforgettable Gardens Book Launch, Online

Celebrate the launch of The Gardens Trust book on Unforgettable Gardens with online talks from three of its contributors. Ticketholders will receive a code for a 30% discount on pre-orders of the book from Batsford, the publishers.

Unforgettable Gardens explores the history of British garden design through some of the most beautiful, intriguing, unusual and important gardens, parks and landscapes in the UK, with stunning photography accompanied by insightful profiles from leading garden historians and conservators.

Arranged chronologically, Unforgettable Gardens covers over 50 individual gardens, most of which are open to the public, which have been carefully selected to give an overview of British garden design from the 16th to the 20th century. Each century opens with an illuminating essay, exploring the wider changes in social context, taste and style in each period.

Curated by the Gardens Trust, the UK conservation charity dedicated to protecting, researching and celebrating historic gardens, this book is intended to inform, inspire and encourage everyone to enjoy, visit and support our national heritage of parks and gardens.

This ticket is for the entire series of 3 talks, or you may purchase a ticket for individual talks, costing £8 via the links below. (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 3 for £15.75).

Ticket holders can join each session live and/or view a recording for up to 2 weeks afterwards. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days (and again a few hours) prior to the start of the first talk (if you do not receive this link please contact us) and a link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 2 weeks.

Week 1. 15th October: the Bobarts and Oxford Botanic Garden with India Cole. First in a series of 3 online lectures, £8 each or all 3 for £21 (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 3 for £15.75) Jacob Bobart the Elder (c.1599-1680) was the first keeper of the Oxford Physic Garden (as the Botanic Garden was originally known). Bobart’s early life is shrouded in mystery, and he is best remembered now for his supposed eccentricity, but he deserves recognition for establishing the garden’s original (impressive) plant collection with limited resources. His son, Jacob Bobart the Younger (1641-1719) later became the second superintendent of the garden and was crucial in its development and on-going success. Bobart the Elder’s other son, Tilleman (?-1735), gained a position working as a gardener at Blenheim Palace and then Hampton Court. This talk will give an overview of the Bobarts and their contributions to botany and horticulture, as well as considering how mercantile and commercial interests informed, influenced, and aligned with their pursuits of gardening and botany in the early-modern period.

Week 2. 22nd October: Margery Fish and East Lambrook Manor with Catherine Horwood. Second in a series of 3 online lectures, £8 each or all 3 for £21 (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 3 for £15.75) In 1980, John Sales, then Head of Gardens for the National Trust said of East Lambrook Manor, in Somerset, that ‘in the development of gardening in the second half of the twentieth century, no garden has yet had greater effect.’ This effect was to create a passion in Britain for ‘cottage garden’ planting brought to prominence through the enthusiasm and hard work of its creator, Margery Fish.

In this talk, Dr Catherine Horwood will look at how Margery Fish was able to take cottage gardening forward into becoming a national movement by telling her life story, and the legacy she left behind. As well as describing Fish’s work at East Lambrook Manor, she will reveal how her books, starting with We Made A Garden published in 1956, show Fish’s knowledge of plant material having amassed over 2,000 different species and cultivars from a network of horticultural friendships and wayside finds.

Week 3. 29th October: Castle Howard with Sally Jeffery. Last in a series of 3 online lectures, £8 each or all 3 for £21 (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 3 for £15.75) The dramatic and varied landscape at Castle Howard was designed in the early eighteenth century by John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor with the active participation of the owner, Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle, and is among the most memorable and innovative ever created. As Horace Walpole wrote: ‘Nobody had informed me that at one view I should see a palace, a town, a fortified city, temples on high places, woods worthy of being each a metropolis of the Druids, the noblest lawns in the world fenced by half the horizon, and a mausoleum that would tempt one to be buried alive…’. Its main lines survive today, and its history can be further illuminated by surviving drawings and documents.

Tuesday, October 15, 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm Eastern – Shannon Nichol: Forms, Weeds, and Real Life, Online

As co-founder of Seattle-based landscape design firm GGN, Shannon Nichol is committed to specifying local native plant palettes through long-term and norm-breaking collaborations with local horticulturalists and landscape managers around the world. Stemming from a lifelong enthusiasm and amateur familiarity with her home region’s under-used native plants, Nichol has documented the successes and failures of incorporating native plantings into her own gardens over the last 15 years, a process that has heavily influenced her professional work and led to many creative explorations and friendships along the way.

Hear from Nichol as she shares learnings and insight from projects including; Chicago’s Lurie Garden at Millenium Park, the Gates Foundation Campus in Seattle, and the Seattle Residence: Native Gardens. This New York Botanical Garden webinar will take place October 15 at 6:30 pm. NYBG members $35, nonmembers $39. Register at www.nybg.org

Monday, October 28, 8:30 am – 4:00 pm – Conference on Newburyport and the China Trade

Join The Museum of Old Newbury on October 28 for a full day Conference on Newburyport and the China Trade, 1844-2024: Commerce, Diplomacy, and the Arts in the Years of the Dragon.

In 1843, Caleb Cushing of Newburyport resigned from the U.S. Congress to become America’s first commissioner to China. He arrived in China with four American warships, laden with gifts including revolvers, a telescope, and an encyclopedia, and used both threats and flattery to achieve his ends. The subsequent 1844 Treaty of Wanghia, named for the village where it was signed, was the first treaty between the U.S. and China. It was one more way in which Newburyport and the China Trade were inextricably linked.

Join Eric Jay Dolin, author of When America Met China, and Dane Morrison, author of True Yankees: The South Seas & the Discovery of American Identity, along with art, shipbuilding, and modern China experts to evaluate the impact of the China Trade on various aspects of our community, our nation, and the world.

This full-day event includes lunch and all sessions and is hosted by The Governor’s Academy, 1 Elm Street, Newbury, Massachusetts.

Tickets are $45 for Museum of Old Newbury Members; $60 for non-members. Register at www.newburyhistory.org

Twelve Thousand Posts and Counting

Boston Flora achieved a milestone in September. The number of highlighted events of horticultural and environmental interest written since its debut as the blog for The Garden Club of the Back Bay now exceeds 12,000. The exact number is a bit fuzzy since some recurring annual events such as major fundraisers are edited, not rewritten, so the post numbers remain the same. A couple of years ago The Garden Club of the Back Bay launched a different site, https://gardenclubbackbay.org, focusing on Club activities, while Boston Flora remains committed to broadening public awareness of educational opportunities nationwide. When COVID lockdowns expanded online lecture opportunities, I jumped on the challenge, and now Boston Flora has followers across the country. Still, New England is my spiritual home, and local organizations are prioritized. If you are not already registered, please sign up for the daily email through the website – thousands of households already do. There are no advertisements – the site is maintained on a volunteer basis as a labor of love. Feel free to let me know about events you think may be of interest, and I will do my best to include them. Boston Flora has a Facebook page and an Instagram account @bostonflorablog. On Instagram, you won’t see the daily posts, since the platform prioritizes the visual. To see what is going on, you really need to check out the website. Thank you all for following Boston Flora and me, Francine Crawford!

Monday, October 21, 6:45 pm – 8:00 pm Eastern – The Great Wide Ocean, Online

Smithsonian Associates presents a Zoom talk on October 21 at 6:45 pm Eastern on The Great Wide Ocean. The open ocean, far from the shore and miles above the sea floor, is a vast and formidable habitat that is home to the most abundant life on our planet, from giant squid and jellyfish to angler fish with bioluminescent lures that draw prey into their toothy mouths.

In an illustrated lecture, sea-going scientist Sönke Johnsen explores how life thrives in one of the most mysterious environments on Earth and vividly describes how life in the open sea contends with a host of environmental challenges. He also interweaves stories about the joys and hardships of the scientists who explore this beautiful and mysterious realm, which is under threat from human activity and rapidly changing before our eyes.

Johnsen is professor of biology at Duke University. His new book, Into the Great Wide Ocean: Life in the Least Known Habitat on Earth (Princeton University Press), is available for purchase at registration. The lecture is $20 for Smithsonian members, $25 for nonmembers. Register at https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/programs/great-wide-ocean

Saturday, October 26, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm Eastern – Houseplant Design Workshop, Online

Do you prefer simple and clean or wild and lush? Whatever your preference, learn to use basic principles of repetition, symmetry, and color theory to blend your beloved collection of houseplants into a unified design. We’ll discuss a broad palette of plants, how to mix and match them, and how to select the best pots or shelves to complement your decor. Walk away with a unique potted houseplant. Price includes a $30 materials fee. This New York Botanic Garden online workshop takes place October 26 from 10 – 1 online, and is taught by Daryl Beyers. NYBG members $130, nonmembers $140. Register HERE.

Image courtesy of Instagram @melissamlo

Monday, October 14, 1:00 pm Eastern – The Tradescants: 17th Century Gardeners to the Aristocracy and Royalty, Plant Hunters and Nurserymen, Online

John Tradescant and his son, also John were an extraordinary pair: Gardeners to the aristocracy and royalty in the 17thc, as well as plant hunters, nurserymen and founders of the first museum to be open to the public. Famous in their own lifetimes, and continuously in the centuries since, their lives have even been romanticized by a modern novelist. Dr. David Marsh, Garden Historian, will speak online on October 14 at 1 pm Eastern, sponsored by the London Historic Parks and Gardens Trust. A recording of the lecture will be available to registrants for one week following the talk. £8.00 Register at https://londongardenstrust.org/lecture-details/?event=Tradescants

Wednesday, October 23, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm – Gardens and the Written Word: Jane Austen and the Landscape Garden

Through an exploration of drama, diaries, novels and magazines, this Gardens Trust Wednesday five part series will examine how writers have used gardens and plants to evoke memories, capture ideas of taste and fashion, satirize attitudes, champion social change and give deeper meaning to the world. The chosen authors cover almost four centuries of literature and, through examining their words, we can gain new understandings of the roles, meanings and emotive power of historic landscapes and horticulture. This ticket link https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gardens-and-the-written-word-tickets-930348275737 is for the entire series of 5 talks, or you may purchase a ticket for individual talks, costing £8 via the links on that page. (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 5 for £26.25). All purchases are handled through Eventbrite.

Ticket holders can join each session live and/or view a recording for up to 1 week afterwards. Ticket sales close 4 hours before the first talk. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days (and again a few hours) prior to the start of the first talk (If you do not receive this link please contact us), and a link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 1 weeks.

On Wednesday, October 23, Dr. Laura Meyer will speak on Jane Austen. 2017 marked two hundred years since the death of Jane Austen, at the age of 41, on 18 July 1817. Just like the English landscape garden, her novels have become one of Britain’s greatest cultural exports and made her one of the world’s most celebrated authors. Austen is justly famous for her sharp social satire, however, as this lecture will demonstrate, she was also highly attuned to the shifting sensibilities surrounding landscape.

Nature and landscape – whether real or imagined – and her characters response to these inform all of Austen’s novels, from Pride & Prejudice’s wickedly funny take on the Picturesque, to the lampooning of Humphry Repton in Mansfield Park. She was, after all, a writer who recognized that ‘to sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment’.

Dr Laura Mayer is an independent lecturer, writer and researcher, with an MA in Garden History and a PhD in eighteenth-century patronage. She has published extensively – particularly on Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, and Jane Austen’s contemporary, Humphry Repton – and works as a consultant for the National Trust and Land & Heritage. Laura shares Elizabeth Bennett’s appreciation of Gilpin’s Picturesque, as well as her talent for tramping about a garden inappropriately shod. She lectures regularly for Cambridge University Botanic Gardens and has been known to pen the odd limerick about Fitzwilliam Darcy.

Thursday, October 17, 9:30 am – 10:15 am – Climate Beacon Conference, Harborside Stage: Municipal Movers Chat with Mayor Wu and Susan Goldberg

Climate Beacon, the region’s premier global climate change gathering, is back from October 16-18 at the UMass Club and the Boston Society of Architects. This is where corporate, municipal, institutional, and community leaders all come together with experts and practitioners to share information, get down to brass tacks, and chart paths to more sustainable, livable futures.

On October 17, GBH President and CEO Susan Goldberg will host Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and other phenomenal municipal leaders to dive into the decisions that are being made to try to keep our cities at the forefront of scaling climate change solutions while also ensuring healthier, safer, and more equitable communities for everyone. The event takes place at the Boston Society of Architects, 290 Congress Street in Boston. For tickets and more information visit https://www.wgbh.org/events/climate-beacon-conference