Boston Flora

Wednesday, September 23, 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm – GCBB Fall Flower Arranging Workshop on Zoom

The first meeting of The Garden Club of the Back Bay’s 2020/2021 program year will be a virtual flower arranging workshop on Wednesday, September 23 from 4 – 6 pm. Join Garden Club members for a late afternoon session led by GCBB member, Nancy Cyr. Nancy is a Senior Flower Associate at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She studied flower design with a number of teachers including Francoise Weeks. She believes that flower arranging is for everyone and that, while it is fun to have access to special and unusual flowers, you can achieve beautiful effects with flowers from the grocery store and weeds picked on your walks. At the end of the workshop, Nancy will take questions from participants.

There will be a $40 fee for flowers and vase. To pay your $40.00 fee through the Garden Club’s website, click here: http://www.gardenclubbackbay.org/shop/

Or if you prefer, pay by check (made out to the Garden Club of the Back Bay) and mail to Jolinda Taylor, 276 Marlborough Street, Boston, MA 02116. Responses and payment must be received by September 18.

Flowers/vase can be picked up on Wednesday morning, September 23 between 10 and 11 am at the parking lot of the First Lutheran Church, 299 Berkeley Street. These will be the same flowers/vase that Nancy will use for her demonstration. There is a limit of 20 people for this option. NOTE: Please wear a mask when you arrive to pick up your flowers/vase.

Floral supplies limited to 20 attendees. Others may join the call with their own flowers and vase. There will be no charge if you are participating with your own materials, but in order to receive the Zoom link and list of recommended materials, you must email Jolinda by clicking HERE.

Thursdays, September 17 & 24, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm – Homesteading Workshop (Cancelled)

Have you ever wanted to raise bees for honey or grow your own herbs and vegetables? Learn these new practical skills and more needed for a self-sufficient lifestyle with The Trustees’ Homesteading Workshop Series this Fall to celebrate the current season and seasons to come. Each week in the month of September at The Stevens-Coolidge Place, 137 Andover Street in North Andover, we will explore a different aspect of Homesteading through hands-on and interactive workshops that will provide you with the knowledge and technical skills to bring these Homesteading practices back to your home.

APOLOGIES – THIS WORKSHOP HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO COVID CONCERNS BUT WILL BE RESCHEDULED IN THE FUTURE.

Thursday, September 10, 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm – Green Infrastructure Beyond Flood Risk Reduction, Online

The Graduate School of Design at Harvard University is pleased to present a series of talks and webinars broadcast to our audiences via Zoom. This lecture will be ONLINE ONLY. For security reasons, virtual attendees must register. Scroll down to find complete instructions for how to register.

Event Description

This lecture explores whether it is possible to achieve both social justice and environmental sustainability in efforts to mitigate urban flood risk. The expanding scale of urban flooding under climate change has renewed interest in large-scale restoration projects that make room for water in metro centers. However, ecologically functioning green infrastructure – unleashed rivers, sprawling wetlands – is inconsistent with the current governance landscape of fragmented local governments seeking to maximize local land values and minimize affordable housing. Moreover, even smaller-scale urban greening projects have resulted in gentrification, suggesting that larger-scale green infrastructure projects will produce still more racist, classist, and exclusionary development. The design imagination for new ecological landscapes has far outpaced a reimagination of the institutional and governance arrangements needed to enable nature-based solutions that advance social justice and ecological sustainability under climate change. This lecture provides an introduction to U.S. development practices implicated by these transitional landscapes, suggests future directions such as urban food production and regional governance, and invites conversation about ways to bridge traditional disciplinary silos in creating racially just, ecologically sustainable, and fiscally functioning cities.

Linda Shi, MUP ’08, is Assistant Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University. Her research concerns how to plan for urban climate adaptation in ways that improve environmental sustainability and social justice. She assesses how aspects of urban land governance – including the fiscalization of land use, property rights regimes, and metropolitan regional institutions – shape climate vulnerability and adaptation responses. An urban environmental planner by training, Shi has worked for AECOM, the Institute for International Urban Development, and the Rocky Mountain Institute, and consulted for the World Bank and American Institute of Architects on projects and research in the U.S., Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Shi received a Ph.D. in urban and regional planning from MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning, a master’s in urban planning from Harvard Graduate School of Design, and a bachelor’s and master’s in environmental management from Yale / Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

Register to attend the lecture here. Once you have registered, you will be provided with a link to join the lecture via Zoom. This link will also be emailed to you.

The event will also be live streamed to the GSD’s YouTube page. Only viewers who are attending the lecture via Zoom will be able to submit questions for the Q+A. Live captioning will be provided during this event. After the event has ended, a transcript will be available upon request.

Friday, September 25, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm – THRIVE: A Plant-Art Virtual Experience

Join Native Plant Trust on September 25 at 6 for an evening of innovative, interdisciplinary exploration inspired by plants’ perseverance. Cutting-edge visual, musical, and literary performance art will lead us on a hopeful journey, revealing how plants thrive through challenges and how humans can do the same. In a time of social distancing, this online social and educational event will reconnect us with nature and with each other. $15 for NPT members, $25 for nonmembers. Register at http://www.nativeplanttrust.org/events/thrive-plant-art-virtual-experience/

Wednesday, September 23, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Native Bees: Our Pollination Powerhouses

Grow Native Massachusetts is proud to present our 2020 Evenings with Experts lecture series. These talks at the Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge, are free and open to all.

Join us for this September 23 talk beginning at 7 pm with Heather Holm, the author of Bees: An Identification and Native Plant Forage Guide. This program was originally scheduled for May but had to be rescheduled due to Covid-19.

Native bees are the most important and effective pollinators for our flowering plants. Although they play a crucial role in sustaining biodiversity, they are poorly understood and under threat from human activity.

Heather Holm will teach us how to recognize common bee genera, and enlighten us about their fascinating life cycles, nesting habitat, and foraging needs. Come learn more about the mutualistic relationships that they have with native plants – a powerful reminder that the salvation of one is inextricably linked to the proper stewardship of the other.

Heather Holm is an expert on pollinators whose first book, Pollinators of Native Plants, brought her national attention. She is a sought-after speaker who is passionate about educating audiences. Her recent book, Bees: An Identification and Native Plant Forage Guide, won the 2018 American Horticultural Society Book Award.

Thank you to our community partners, the Cambridge Public Library, Mount Auburn Cemetery and the Boston Society of Landscape Architects, for their support of this series.

Through September 7 – Studios Without Walls: See Change 2020

The Emerald Necklace Conservancy invites you to enjoy the final days of Studios Without Walls: See Change 2020, hostd by Brookline Parks and Open Spaces, on the Riverway Park, next to the Longwood T Station in Brookline, through September 7. This exhibition of site responsive sculpture includes work by Gail Bos, Grey Held, Liz Helfer, Linda Hoffman, Janet Kawada, Bette Ann Libby, Madeleine Lord, Julie Lupien Nussbaum, Maria Ritz, Bob Shannahan, Marnie Sinclair, Allen Spivack, and Delanie Wise. The self guided tour and treasure hunt maps can be picked up in the red info boxes along Riverway Park, or visit www.studioswithoutwalls.org.

Friday, September 9, 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm – Online Orchid Growing Workshop

You don’t need a greenhouse to grow orchids. On Friday, September 9 at 4 pm, learn the essentials to achieve success on your windowsill, from selecting the right plants to proper lighting, watering, fertilizing, and re-potting.

This online workshop is taught by Historic New England’s Greenhouse Manager Lynn Ackerman. The session will conclude with a Q&A.

Registered participants will receive a discount on plants at Historic New England’s Lyman Estate Fall Orchid Sale, scheduled for September 11-13.

The link for the Historic New England webinar/workshop will be sent to registered participants in a separate email.

$20. Register at https://my.historicnewengland.org/6792/10815

Wednesday, September 30, 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm – Tracing Landscape History: Cambridge

What can the presence (or absence) of greenery teach about the layered history of a place? Together, we walk and analyze the changing landscape, guided by evidence from significant trees in the neighborhood. The discussion addresses local inhabitants’ relationship to native plants over generations. This Native Plant Trust outdoor session with Courtney Allen takes place Wednesday, September 30 from 1:30 – 3:30. $30 for NPT members, $36 for nonmembers. Masks required. Meeting location will be shared following registration at http://www.nativeplanttrust.org/events/tracing-landscape-history-cambridge/

Sunday, September 13, 10:30 pm – 12:30 pm – Beginning Tropical Bonsai

Discover the ancient Japanese art that is making a contemporary comeback. Bonsai is a tree in a pot, but that’s just the beginning. This is a hands on Tower Hill Botanic Garden workshop on September 13 from 10:30 – 12:30 and you will create your own tree to take home and care for. You’ll learn the basics of designing a tree and the horticultural knowledge to keep it healthy and happy. Fee ($75 Tower Hill members, $90 nonmembers) includes materials. Register at www.towerhillbg.org. This program will be held under our open sided outdoor canopy tent. Group size will not exceed current state restrictions. Max Participants: 10

Joel Mullen has been studying bonsai for over 10 years He has practiced and trained with many of the Northeast’s finest artists. Joel is the president of the Kaikou Bonsai Study Group.

Friday, September 19, 10:00 am – 2:30 pm – Horticultural Therapy: The People-Plant Partnership

Horticultural Therapy uses the cultivation of plants and plant-related programs to heal, rehabilitate and improve the overall well being of the population it serves. Often referred to as “the new health care tool”, horticultural therapy is effective in achieving therapeutic, rehabilitative and vocational outcomes. Registered Horticultural Therapist Anne Meore will lead Berkshire Botanical Garden participants through experiential activities that will deepen the participant’s understanding of this therapeutic modality and enhance perspective on the benefits of our relationship with plants and the natural environment. The class is scheduled for September 19 from 10 – 2:30 at the Garden in West Stockbridge, and as with all in person classes during the current pandemic, please reconfirm during the week preceding the class to be sure the class has not been moved online. $75 for BBG members, $90 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/horticultural-therapy-people-plant-partnership

Anne Meore LMSW, HTR, is a Registered Horticultural Therapist with the American Horticultural Therapy Association and is the owner of Planthropy LLC, serving populations with special needs through horticulture therapy programming and therapeutic garden design for area hospitals and rehabilitation programs. She is the program advisor and a faculty member in the Horticultural Therapy Certificate Program in the School of Horticulture at New York Botanical Garden, has been an instructor in the Edible Academy since 2011, and serves as an adjunct faculty member in the Biology Department at Manhattanville College, teaching Therapeutic Horticulture. She holds an advanced degree in guidance counseling and social work, a license in social work and a certificate in horticultural therapy from the NY Botanical Gardens.