Boston Flora

Thursday, June 23, 12:00 noon – 1:30 pm – Longwood Gardens: A Close-up Look, Online

Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, is best known for its stunningly beautiful flower displays, 1,000 acres perfect for wandering, and fountain shows. However, Longwood is much more than just a pretty place to visit: It’s a center for horticultural science.

Orchid expert Barb Schmidt leads a virtual tour of the Longwood Gardens grounds and the newly reopened Orchid House. In addition, she offers a unique behind-the-scenes look at Longwood’s Research and Conservation Division of Horticulture. Schmidt offers an overview of the work being done by the division’s staff, including orchid conservation, plant exploration, management of important Longwood display collections, research in tissue culture, and various aspects of plant breeding.

This Smithsonian Associates online program will take place June 23 at noon, and is $25 for Smithsonian Associates members, $30 for nonmembers. Register at https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/tickets/longwood-gardens

Now Through Fall, 2022 – Sobek: Art on the Boston Common

Our parks are home to 42 pieces of public art – the largest collection in Boston. Temporary public art gives us all the opportunity to explore our parks in a new way. We are excited to share the most recent piece commissioned specifically for the Common, with the community. With a unique canvas to fill, the Friends of the Public Garden went looking for a uniquely Boston artist to share their talents with our community. We are thrilled to welcome Sobek and his surrealist aerosol work to Boston Common. Sobek has created a mural depicting the history of the Common, specifically for the seasonal restroom trailer along Charles Street. This installation will be in place through fall. For a biography, and artist’s statement, visit https://friendsofthepublicgarden.org/our-parks/the-common/public-restrooms/

The Friends acknowledge the term “graffiti” has negative connotations for many of us. Here in the parks we spend thousands of dollars and many hours dealing with this type of vandalism. But graffiti can also be art. Graffiti art takes the techniques and methodologies behind street graffiti and applies them to other mediums. Graffiti art takes graffiti off the streets and allows it to be sold, exhibited, and displayed in other environments. The Friends also want to celebrate the 30th year of the Mayor’s Mural Crew employing Boston high schoolers to create large-scale public art projects across Boston’s neighborhoods and City parks.

Friday, July 8 and Saturday, July 9, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Falmouth Garden Club Garden Tour

The Falmouth Garden Club is pleased to feature three stunning gardens in this year’s Cape Cod Hydrangea Festival. Each is owned and maintained by a member of the Falmouth Garden Club and is in its own way, a hidden gem which is rarely if ever on tour.

Garden #1 Seasonally Evolving Garden – Address to be announced
Transformation of this Ballymeade blank-slate property began in 2014, with the goal of creating a garden that transitions with the seasons. Against a backdrop of conservation land and native species, you will find hardscaped stone paths, a patio deck and fountain, lattice trellises, various ornamental pieces and a flagpole to honor veteran owner and Marine. Trees include a ginkgo, weeping Norway spruce, Japanese Snowball, Steward and 18 different Japanese Maples. Shrubs include Hydrangeas, Rhodedendrons, Fothergilla, Inkberry, dogwoods, Japanese cedar and Japanese Holly, many varieties of boxwood, andromeda aeuonuymus. Shade plants include hostas, astilbe, ferns, and grasses. Open for tours: Friday, July 8 and Saturday, July 9.

Garden #2 Award-Winning, 360-Degree Gardens – Address to be announced
This third-generation property features award-winning English-inspired front, side and back gardens, each with their own unique flavor and focus. The front yard’s boxwood-bordered cottage garden has been featured in several garden magazines and overflows with roses, astilbes, feverfew, and primrose. The side garden is home to a boat-house-turned-tiny-guest-cottage that is surrounded by woodland gardens, meandering paths and a cozy firepit and features hostas, ferns, smoke bush, heuchera, oakleaf and climbing hydrangea. The backyard kitchen garden provides beauty and bounty in the form of flowers, vegetables, fruits and herbs. And to help with all this gardening is a honeybee hive – these busy ladies live just beyond the kitchen garden. For more, follow designer on Instagram at @gardenonthecape. Open for tours: Friday, July 8 and Saturday, July 9.

Garden #3 Private Niche Designed for Entertaining and Wildlife – Address to be announced
Tucked away off a main road, you would never know the house, which dates back to at least 1930, and its surrounding gardens were there. Designed with entertaining in mind, the property boasts a large fountain in front and hardscaping by Billy Bourne, with outdoor lighting and a firepit out back. The current owners, who purchased the property three years ago, have been busy updating older plant stock with newer varietals and building shaded beds suited to their passion for reading and enjoying the wildlife that wanders by throughout the year. Plantings include a host of sedums, astilbe, rhodedendrons, along with climbing clematis and ivy. Open for tours: Friday, July 8 and Saturday, July 9.

The proceeds from the garden tours will benefit Falmouth Garden Club. Admission is $5 per garden tour. RAIN or SHINE. For information on addresses, visit https://www.capecodchamber.org/event/falmouth-garden-club-garden-tours%3A-july-9/44584/

Thursday, June 23, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm – Frog Pond Spray Pool Opening

For 2 glorious months after school ends, Frog Pond on the Boston Common turns into a spray pond and becomes the best place to cool off in the city … if you’re 12 or under. The Grand Opening Celebration features family-friendly entertainment, music, art, a gala ceremony, and of course, the chance to play in the 30-foot spray at the center of the pond. Lifeguards will be on duty this summer during all open hours.

When: June 23, 11am (to be confirmed); remains open from 11am to 6pm every day through Labor Day, unless there’s a thunderstorm.

Thursday, August 25 – Sunday, September 4 – The Gardens of the Netherlands and Floriade Expo

The American Horticultural Society is offering a newly-scheduled excursion to the Netherlands August 25 – September 4 with hosts Jane and George Diamantis. From French-influenced formal to the Dutch Wave, we will explore a range of garden styles, complemented by a timeless landscape that echoes the paintings of the Old Masters. In addition to admiring glorious gardens, we include a focus on the art and architecture of Amsterdam and smaller historic towns and villages, such as the enchanting city of Groningen. While in Amsterdam, we’ll enjoy a once-in-every-10-year opportunity to experience the famous Floriade Expo, an International Horticultural Exhibition! Luxury accommodations for this program offer a unique blend of historic charm and contemporary comforts. The Hotel Prinsenhof, a stylish city-center hotel with its own formal garden, will be our home base in Groningen. In Brummen, we will find ourselves in a grand country castle set on 250 bucolic acres – including landscaped gardens, a golf course, and even a private forest. In Amsterdam, our nights will be spent at the Pulitzer Hotel, centrally located in the heart of this historic city. View our brochure and registration form

Sunday, June 26, 12:00 noon – 4:00 pm – Connecticut’s Historic Gardens Day

Celebrate the nineteenth annual Connecticut’s Historic Gardens Day at Historic New England’s Roseland Cottage, chosen by Connecticut Magazine as Connecticut’s Best Public Garden. Amanda Shaw, Roseland Cottage’s gardener, will be on site to discuss our formal parterre garden, including the history, significance, and theory behind the garden layout and design; how Andrew Jackson Downing’s theories are reflected in that design, and any other questions you have about our historic garden. Visit https://my.historicnewengland.org/13915/ros-hist-garden

Free. Please call 860 928-4074 for more information.

Wednesday, July 13 – Friday, July 15 – AHS Centennial Year National Children & Youth Garden Symposium, Live and Online

The American Horticultural Society is looking forward to an in-person conference where we can learn from each other in face-to-face interactive and hands-on ways, visit and tour gardens and greenspaces, and network in both the facilitated and unfacilitated ways that conferences provide.

Mark your calendar for July 13-15, 2022 to join us for the 30th annual National Children & Youth Garden Symposium in Richmond, Virginia. The past two years of global health crisis have compelled many Americans to reevaluate what is truly important in their lives. In 2021, more adults than ever before reported taking part in some form of outdoor recreation, 20 million people became first-time gardeners, and National Parks were flooded with visitors upon reopening, all clear signs that for so many, nature is one of those things that we value most. Beyond the clean air and open spaces, the opportunity to grow our own healthy foods, and the awe-inspiring landscapes that give us respite from our daily routines that became so important during the pandemic, nature can help us solve other major challenges that society is facing today including a growing mental health crisis and climate change. Join us as our National Children & Youth Garden Symposium 2022 speakers explore the resilient and hopeful topic of nature as healer, teacher, and mentor.

Find out more about registration rates and travel and accommodations in Richmond. Educational sessions and speakers have been chosen – check out the fantastic array of topics! Check out the comprehensive symposium schedule and descriptions of field experience in and around Richmond. Keynotes by Lily Urmann with Rosanna Ayers and Carolyn Schuyler will be offered as stand-alone events available to a virtual audience. Meredith Henne Baker will welcome attendees to Richmond with a historical perspective on youth engagement by Virginia’s garden clubs.

Register today In order to ensure a safe and healthy conference environment, all attendees must be vaccinated for COVID-19. More details will be available on safety procedures as the event gets closer, subject to change at any time based upon CDC and local health department recommendations.

Saturday, June 25, 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm – An Artist’s Garden: A Living Tapestry

The Garden Conservancy presents Digging Deeper on Saturday, June 25 from 4 – 6 in Peterborough, New Hampshire.

In this intimate workshop, designer Maude Odgers will walk us through her renowned, deeply personal garden, revealing how her lifelong work as an artist has influenced her unique approach to garden design. A passionate plant collector with an eye for the unusual, Maude is drawn to plants, shrubs, and trees with interesting foliage and texture-elements which weave strong and subtle forms together creating living tapestries. Using her own evolving landscape as illustration, she’ll discuss her method of garden composition and highlight the subtle details that enhance a garden’s structure, theme, and impact, both visually and spiritually. For more than 40 years Maude has worked and reworked this land that she and her husband cleared and planted, and upon which they built their home. Her gardens consist of many meandering mixed borders (influenced by English gardens), several woodland gardens, an herb garden, a garden with a pond, an orchard, and a small unique raised-bed vegetable garden. Her garden has been featured in numerous garden journals.

Admittance to this garden’s Open Day on June 25 is included with a purchase of the corresponding Digging Deeper ticket. For more information, please contact the Garden Conservancy by telephone 845.424.6500, M-F, 9-5 Eastern, or email events@gardenconservancy.org. $40. These Digging Deeper events sell out fast, so act quickly.

Tuesday, June 21, 6:30 pm – Introduction to Dragonflies

Dragonflies help humans by controlling populations of pest insects, especially those that bug us most, such as mosquitoes and biting flies. A single dragonfly can eat anywhere from 30 to hundreds of mosquitoes per day! What kinds of dragonflies live here?

Presented by Dave Small, President and Acting Director of the Athol Bird and Nature Club, at the Athol Public Library 584 Main Street in Athol.

For over twenty-eight years, Dave has been the charismatic leader of the Club. His skills as a naturalist, trip leader, and presenter are in demand throughout New England. Through Dave’s efforts, the Center is recognized as the place to hold meetings that relate to natural history and the environment. This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services – Dig-In Grant.

Registration is required for this event. Please register at https://athol.librarycalendar.com/events/dragonflies or by calling 978-249-9515. Free and open to the public.

Tuesday, June 28, 9:30 am – 11:30 am (Rain Date June 29, 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm) – Charlesgate Alliance Tree Dedication

Representatives from the Charlesgate Alliance, Emerald Necklace Conservancy, Department of Conservation and Recreation, Landing Studio, elected officials, as well as our partner organizations the Esplanade Association and Friends of the Public Garden will be on hand to join the celebration.

Tuesday, June 28th, from 9:30-11:30am

Rain date:
Wednesday, June 29th, from 1:30-3:30pm

This achievement, more than a year in the making, and stewarded from start to finish by Garden Club of the Back Bay Past President Margaret Pokorny in conjunction with Dan and Marie Law Adams of Landing Studio, has given the Charlesgate area its first new trees in many years.

The dedication will take place in The Grove area of Charlesgate Park, where 14 of the 15 new trees were planted. You can reach the area at the terminus of Marlborough Street and Charlesgate East, bounded on the north by Beacon Street.

With the addition of the new trees, recently refurbished DCR lighting, and red chair seasonal seating, the Grove is starting to look like the park it was always meant to be.