Boston Flora

Sunday, February 27, 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm – Botanical Gardens World Tour: Innisfree and Fairchild Tropical Garden, Online

Smithsonian Associates invites you to indulge in a colorful midwinter escape as horticultural experts lead a series of virtual visits that highlight the beauty of notable botanical gardens in settings as far-flung as Shanghai, the Hudson River Valley, and Australia. In vibrant visuals they explore how each garden has taken a unique approach to design and interpretation as they all celebrate plant collections, conservation, education, and the distinctive environments and landscapes in which they bloom. On February 27, the third and final installment will feature Innisfree and Fairchild Tropical Garden.

Travel from the scenic Hudson River Valley to subtropical peninsular Florida to visit two diverse gardens. Developed between 1930 and 1960, Innisfree was the private garden of Walter and Marion Beck and drew its inspiration from scroll paintings of the 8th-century Chinese poet and painter Wang Wei. With the help of landscape architect Lester Collins from Harvard University, the garden journey was shaped to lead visitors through individual “cup” garden scenes inspired by the Chinese paintings, which meld seamlessly into one large cup around a glacial lake.

Fairchild Tropical Garden in Coral Gables (below) melds a sublime subtropical landscape with important plant collections and horticultural excellence, as well as research, conservation, and education. Palms are a particular specialty, with an outstanding collection of over 400 species. An internationally important collection of more than 3,700 cycads is displayed in sweeping beds under spreading oaks. The conservatory features orchids, aroids, and bromeliads. The garden is set against a backdrop of lakes in a park-like setting.

Presenter C. Colston Burrell is a lecturer, garden designer, and photographer. The author of 12 gardening books, he has twice won the American Horticulture Society Book Award.

$25 for Smithsonian Associates members, $30 for nonmembers. Register HERE.

Thursday, February 17, 10:00 am – Garden Club of the Back Bay February Meeting – A Growth of Trees: A Journey Through Time, Online

No single view of a tree is a fixed snapshot in time that tells the complete story. Join Michael Wojtech and discover how trees grow, reproduce, and interact with their environment across days, weeks, seasons, and years and over varying scales—from the intricate details of buds, flowers, leaves, and bark that we use for species identification to the collaborative roles of trees in ecosystems. Learn more about the function and experience the beauty of characteristics such as peeling bark, overwintering buds, lobed or toothed leaves, flowers by the thousands, and seeds that fly on the wind. This Garden Club of the Back Bay meeting will take place February 17 at 10:00 am.

Michael Wojtech earned his Masters degree in Conservation Biology at Antioch University New England, where his coursework brought a welcomed, intense immersion into the natural history and ecology of the plants, critters, and other organisms in the landscape. As a naturalist and educator, he strives to share the science and wonder of trees in an accessible and compelling fashion. He writes, photographs, illustrates, and presents programs about the structure, growth processes, and ecology of trees—including their bark, buds, leaves, roots, and wood—for audiences at all levels of experience.

Michael previously presented to the Garden Club of the Back Bay in 2013, when he spoke to us about his book, Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast. We are delighted to bring Michael back to speak to us again! To learn more about Michael Wojtech, visit his website at http://knowyourtrees.com. Please rsvp by February 11th by clicking HERE. A ZOOM link will be sent a few days before the program. The program will not be recorded.

Thursday, February 17, 6:30 pm – Swan House: A Collaboration in Classicism, Online

Morven Museum & Garden’s exciting Grand Homes & Gardens Distinguished Speakers Series returns with another stellar lineup. This year we travel to the Roaring 20’s starting at Innisfree in New York, then south to Swan House in Georgia, down to Ca’ D’Zan on Florida’s west coast; finally arriving in Miami’s Vizcaya. Held live in Morven’s Stockton Education Center, adjacent to the Museum, and simulcast on Zoom, in February and March, this illustrated lecture series brightens winter up and down the coast.

In person program includes light refreshments tailored to the theme of each week’s featured lecturer. Online virtual program includes recipes for make-at-home fare.

On Thursday, February 17 at 6:30, we will visit Swan House with Jessica VanLanduyt, Senior Vice President of Guest Experiences, and Sarah Roberts, Vice President of Goizueta Gardens. Completed in 1928 for prominent Atlantans Edward and Emily Inman, Swan House is most recognized for its grand design. Noted classicist Philip Trammell Shutze, designed Swan House in collaboration with interior decorator Ruby Ross Wood and homeowner Emily Inman. Originally intended as an adult home for entertaining and retirement, the home went through several stages as the Inmans’ lives changed the ways in which the family used the home. Hear from both Jessica VanLanduyt and Sarah Roberts about Swan House, its gardens and its enduring legacy in Atlanta.

Pricing ranges from $15 – $90. Register HERE.

Tuesday, February 15, 7:00 pm – 8:15 pm – Native Meadows: Let’s Get Real, Online

Wildflower meadows were introduced to the American gardening public in the 1960’s along with tie dye tee shirts and kaleidoscopic acid trips. But just like those 60’s acid trips, the colors never lasted. Alternatively, by planting site-adapted native perennials, managed according to the ecological processes that govern open field vegetation in the wild, long-lived vibrant meadows can be consistently achieved. In this August 12 online presentation by Larry Weaner, plant selection criteria, planting procedures, and management techniques will be illustrated through a series of residential case studies, including some over two decades old. $25. Register at www.ndal.org

NDAL (New Directions in the American Landscape) was founded in 1990 by Larry Weaner, and has presented programs throughout the US focusing on innovative theory, practical application, and an expansive vision of “Natural Design.” Programs also draw from a variety of disciplines, including agriculture, anthropology, history, and fine art. In 2016, NDAL received the first Regional Impact Award from the Native Plant Trust. This talk is cosponsored by the American Horticultural Association, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and Wild Ones – Native Plants, Natural Landscapes.

Friday, February 11, 9:00 am – 10:00 am EST – Women, Botany, and Art: From the Garden to the Easel, Online

In this highly illustrated Berkshire Gardens Trust talk on Friday, February 11, Dr Twigs Way will present an overview of the role of female artists in floral and botanic art from the 16th to the 19th century. Including discussion of the lives and works of female artists including Giovanna Garzoni, Maria van Oosterwijck, Rachel Ruysch, Elizabeth Blackwell, Mary Moser, Mary Delany (and Queen Charlotte); and Augusta Withers and Sarah Drake.

Floral art has been often dismissed as a ‘pleasing pastime’ for ladies of leisure, but this talk will explore how an association with floral and botanical works enabled women to enter the male-dominated worlds of art and science. Twigs will consider themes including perceived divisions between floral and botanic art, the amateur and the professional, the role of royal patronage and scientific studies, and of course the vexed question of marriage

Twigs Way is a garden historian, writer and researcher. Twigs is fascinated by the past and intrigued by the role of flowers, gardens and landscape in art and culture of all kinds. Her talks and books reflect that endless curiosity, with books on plants and gardens exploring themes of symbolism and meaning, class and gender, art and literature: every plant has a tale to tell, every garden a past.

Twigs is an accredited Arts Society lecturer and her history of the Chrysanthemum in art and culture was published by Reaktion in 2020. She is currently working on the “equally golden daffodil”.

Booking: Please book online. The tickets are £5 each. We will send you a Zoom link for the lecture a few days before the 11th February. The lecture will last approximately 1 hour, followed by questions. The lecture will NOT be recorded.

Queries: Please contact Janet by email at bgtmembership@gmail.com

*Still Life with Bowl of Citrons, late 1640s.By Giovanna Garzoni*

Monday, February 7, 1:00 pm Eastern Time – The Life and Work of John Bradby Blake, Online

The Gardens Trust presents a series of six online talks on Mondays from February 7 – March 14 at 1 pm Eastern time, exploring the extraordinary life and work of John Bradby Blake (1745 – 1773). Zoom access to each lecture may be purchased for £5 each or all 6 for £24. Each lecture is recorded and a link will be sent, accessible for one week, for those who have a time conflict. These Gardens Trust lectures have been uniformly excellent, and purchase through Eventbrite may be accessed by clicking HERE.

John Bradby Blake’s life was short but exceptional. During a span of only three years in the southern Chinese port city of Canton, Blake and his Chinese artist(s) produced several hundred exquisite, botanically accurate, colored drawings of Chinese plants, many of which were unknown in the West. Hidden from public view for more than two centuries, these singular and historically crucial collaborative artistic creations have only recently resurfaced.

This series of six illustrated talks, focusing on the botanical drawings, will lead you into a previously unknown world in London and Canton, which Blake participated in and shaped. It will explore the many meanings of the material results of a rich and unique cross-cultural encounter which continued to reverberate for decades after his death.

Our speakers, who have worked closely together on the Blake drawings and associated, scattered manuscripts and texts (in Chinese and western languages), are experts in the fields of botany, art history, garden history and the history of science; and they come to you from the United Kingdom, the United States and Taiwan.

The first talk on February 7 is entitled An Englishman Abroad: An Introduction to the Life and Times of John Bradby Blake, with Sir Peter Crane FRS, Oak Spring Garden Foundation in Virginia. Sir Peter writes: I first encountered the name of John Bradby Blake about a decade ago. Later, arriving at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation, I was surprised to discover a large archive of Bradby Blake material among the rare books and manuscripts assembled by the philanthropist Rachel Lambert Mellon. This unpublished archive, which includes a collection of more than 150 magnificent plant portraits, provides a rich insight into the activities of an emerging botanical scholar who was working as a trader for the British East India Company in Canton and Macau in the early 1770s.

Tuesday, February 15, 10:00 am GMT – Forgotten Women Gardeners: Viscountess Frances Wolseley, Online

The Gardens Trust presents the last in a series on Forgotten Women Gardeners with a focus on Viscountess Frances Wolseley at Glynde and Beyone with Garden Historian Twigs Way, on February 15 . £5. Register HERE. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and a link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards. The live airing is incredibly early in the US, but the recording link comes very quickly.

Founder of one of the earliest gardening schools for women, Frances Garnet Wolseley (1872-1936) was a champion of women’s right to work, and a lover of gardens. She was also a prolific author on topics relating both to her gardening school, women’s role on the land, and the countryside of Sussex. Her books on Gardening for Women (1908) and Women on the Land (1916) went beyond the confines of the school to suggest ways in which women could lead a revival of market co-operatives and smallholdings. During the war she took on official roles promoting the employment of women in farming but never lost her interest in the theory and practice of garden design.

Twigs Way is a garden historian, writer and researcher. Twigs’ talks and books reflect themes of symbolism and meaning, class and gender, art and literature, and her desire to follow unknown paths towards the unexpected. Twigs has a specific interest in the roles of women in and out of the garden, which was the topic of her first book. Twigs is an accredited Arts Society lecturer and her history of the Chrysanthemum in art and culture was published by Reaktion in 2020. She is currently working on the equally golden daffodil, but dreams of having a publisher for a biography of Frances Garnet Wolseley.

Friday, February 11, 2:00 pm – Valentine Flowers Design Class with Nancy Cyr, Online

The Garden Club of the Back Bay is once again pleased to present an online Valentine Flowers design class with member Nancy Cyr on February 11 at 2 pm. Valentine’s Day will be here before we know it. In this Zoom class, you’ll learn to make a formal arrangement in the Hogarth Curve style as shown in the picture below. This class will take the skills taught in earlier classes a bit further and will include instruction in wiring for those materials that won’t “sit-stay”. A list of materials will be sent to registrants in advance of the class. Please rsvp by February 7 by clicking HERE.

Sunday, February 20, 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm – Botanical Gardens World Tour: Chenshan Botanical Gardens and Huntsville Botanical Garden, Online

Smithsonian Associates invite you to ndulge in a colorful midwinter escape as horticultural experts lead a series of virtual visits that highlight the beauty of notable botanical gardens in settings as far-flung as Shanghai, the Hudson River Valley, and Australia. In vibrant visuals they explore how each garden has taken a unique approach to design and interpretation as they all celebrate plant collections, conservation, education, and the distinctive environments and landscapes in which they bloom. The February 20 session features Chenshan Botanical Gardens and Huntsville Botanical Garden.

Tucked in the suburbs of Shanghai, Chenshan Botanical Gardens create a green oasis within one of the largest population centers in the world. Learn how one of the most popular places on the grounds was carved out of a forgotten quarry; virtually stroll through the serpentine conservatories where plants have been collected from all over the world; and learn about the gardens’ extravagant horticultural festivals, which spotlight plants from roses to waterlilies.

On the other side of the world, Huntsville Botanical Garden blooms within a special ecosystem in the United States. Northern Alabama is a top biodiversity hotspot, and the gardens embrace and reflect that variety with masses of wildflowers native to the region and a bottomland forest lush with thousands of examples of trilliums.

Presenter Chelsea Mahaffey is the manager at NOVA Parks’ Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Virginia and a graduate of the Longwood Gardens Fellows program.

$25 for Smithsonian Associates members, $35 for nonmembers. Register HERE. Garden pictured is in Huntsville, should you wonder.

Thursday, February 10, 12:00 noon – 1:00 pm – Becoming a Guide at the Boston Public Garden Information Session, Online

Interested in telling the “Untold Stories” of the nation’s first public botanical garden? The Friends of the Public Garden currently seeks guides for the summer season of Untold Stories of the Public Garden tours.

Our next virtual information session will take place on Thursday, February 10 from 12:00pm – 1:00pm.Please email jan@friendsofthepublicgarden.org to register or for more information.