Boston Flora

Saturday, June 1, 11:00 am – 2:00 pm (Tower Hill Members 9:00 am – 11:00 am) – Tower Hill Plant Sale

The Spring Tower Hill Botanic Garden Plant Sale on June 1, the region’s largest, most diverse plant sale, will feature pollinator-friendly, neonic-free plants. Find inspiration among the hundreds of annuals, perennials, vegetables, trees, shrubs, and more. Shop from the northeast’s most distinguished specialty nurseries, plant societies, and garden artisans. Tower Hill members save 10% on the Garden’s own offerings.

Only named member card-holders will have access to the Plant Sale before 11 am. However, other guests are welcome to visit the gardens and the Garden Shop’s Members Appreciation Event, and enter the Plant Sale at 11 am. Due to our current limited parking capacity, we encourage you to consider car-pooling.

MEMBERS-ONLY / 9am–11am
Members receive free admission. Must show your valid Tower Hill Membership Card. The Garden gate will open at 8 am for vehicle entry. By order of the Boylston Police Department, cars will not be allowed to queue on French Drive waiting for the gate to open.

Access to the very finest selection from 9am–11am before the general public.
10% discount at Tower Hill tables (sorry, no discount at vendor tables). Not a member? Please join now.

GENERAL PUBLIC / 11am–2pm
Included with General Admission: Adults $16, Seniors (65+) $11, Youths (6-18) $6, Children (5 and under) Free. The Garden will open at 10 am for vehicle entry. By order of the Boylston Police Department, cars will not be allowed to queue on French Drive waiting for the gate to open.

There will be plenty of fantastic plant selections available for sale, plus you can enjoy our beautiful gardens, visit the Garden Shop, and savor lunch at Farmer and the Fork café. The Plant Sale will end at 2 pm, but the Garden will remain open until 5 pm.

Saturday, June 1, 9:00 am – 2:30 pm – Grow Native Plant Sale

Grow Native Massachusetts’ sale at the UMass Waltham Field Station, 240 Beaver Street in Waltham om June 1 from 9:00 – 2:30, is now in its fifth year! Native plants are the foundation of our local food webs. Help support birds, pollinators, and other beneficial insects by adding more natives to your landscape.

Perennials for sun, shade, part-shade, and all types of soil conditions. 
A large selection of ferns, both evergreen and deciduous.
Grasses and sedges, for cool season and warm season interest. 
Trees and shrubs, at small sizes you can take home in your car. Remember that native trees and shrubs do the most to increase biodiversity and to enhance the wildlife value of your landscapes.
This year we will have three previously unavailable species—sweet goldenrod, bluestem goldenrod, and spotted beebalm—custom grown just for our sale.

All of our plants are native to the eastern United States, and the majority are indigenous to New England.

Our friendly native plant and landscaping Experts will be available all day to answer your questions and give advice on plant selection. All sale proceeds support our programs. For complete information, and to download a pdf of the flyer, visit https://www.grownativemass.org/programs/plantsale

Saturday, June 1, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm – Identifying Ferns at the Arnold Arboretum

Considering its size and location New England has a relatively rich flora of ferns and fern allies (clubmosses, spikemosses, and quillworts). While it is possible to see almost all these species somewhere in the state of Massachusetts, several can be found at the Arnold Arboretum. Fern specialist Jacob Suissa will teach the anatomy, reproduction, and key identifying characters that will help you to identify the ferns and fern allies of the Arboretum and New England. Participants will begin indoors at the Arboretum’s Weld Hill Research Building with a lecture and then move outdoors to Hemlock Hill and Bussey Brook for a fern foray. Dress for indoor and outdoor learning. The class will be held June 1 beginning at 9:30 am. Meet at the Weld Hill Research Building.
Fee $40 Arboretum member, $50 nonmember Register at http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.

Friday, May 31 & Saturday, June 1, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm – 30th Annual Concord Garden Tour

Attend the Concord Museum’s 30th Annual Garden Tour on Friday, May 31 & Saturday, June 1 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. each day, organized by the Concord Museum’s Guild of Volunteers to benefit the Museum’s educational initiatives. There are seven beautiful private Concord gardens on the list for this year and we look forward to sharing their elegant designs and inspiration with you!

Tickets are valid for both days, but each garden may only be visited once. Rain or shine; no refunds; no photography.

Early-bird tickets through May 26, 2019:

Concord Museum Members $30; Non-Members $40 (After

Please register at https://concordmuseum.org/events/30th-annual-garden-tour/

Friday, June 21, 11:30 am – 1:30 pm – India Hicks Lecture and Luncheon

Enjoy an elegant seated luncheon on the grounds of the Newport Flower Show at Rosecliff in Newport on June 21, beginning at 11:30 am, and then remain for the entertaining and educational speaker presentation.

One of this year’s keynote speakers at The Newport Flower Show will be internationally known lifestyle expert, India Hicks. Ms. Hicks will delight guests with her talk titled “Live an Extraordinary Life.”

India Hicks is the author of three beautifully illustrated lifestyle books, and is a former fashion model, TV personality, royal commentator and preservationist. She is the granddaughter of The Earl Mountbatten of Burma, and her godfather is the Prince of Wales. Her father was famed interior decorator David Hicks, and her mother is Lady Pamela Hicks, whose father was the last viceroy of India, hence India’s name.

Admission: Luncheon & Lecture $100/Lecture Only $50 (Both include one-day Show admission) Purchase tickets online at https://www.newportmansions.org/events/newport-flower-show/lectures-and-demonstrations

Friday, June 21 – Sunday, June 23 – Newport Flower Show: Audubon Artistic Adventures

American ornithologist and painter John James Audubon (1785-1851) declared that he only came alive when “in the field” of this wild new land. His artful hand created a pictorial journal not only of the birds he loved but also of their habitats. Join The Preservation Society of Newport County at Rosecliff as we travel with this visionary naturalist in our own Artistic Adventure.

Friday, June 21, 2019: 10:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Saturday, June 22, 2019: 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Sunday, June 23, 2019: 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Show Highlights

Festive Opening Night Party (June 21, 6 – 9)
Colorful floral designs
Horticulture exhibits
Garden displays
Unique shopping opportunities
Afternoon Tea
Moonlight Movie
Champagne & Jazz Brunch
Lectures and demonstrations
Children’s activities All proceeds from the Newport Flower Show benefit the preservation and restoration of the historic landscapes of The Preservation Society of Newport County. Purchase tickets online at https://www.newportmansions.org/events/newport-flower-show

Tuesday, May 28, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm – Gardens of the Arts & Crafts Movement

In this May 28 illustrated lecture, landscape scholar Judith B. Tankard surveys the inspiration, characteristics, and development of garden design during the Arts & Crafts Movement. Tankard presents a selection of houses and gardens of the era from Britain and the United States, with an emphasis on the diversity of designers who helped forge a truly distinct approach to garden design. Her lecture is the first event in a series of exhibition programming for The Gardens of Rose Standish Nichols, 1890-1935 opening May 16, 2019 at the Nichols House Museum. The lecture, beginning at 6 pm, will take place at the New England Historic Genealogical Society, 99 Newbury Street in Boston. $20 general admission, $15 students or members of NHM or NEHGS. Register by calling 617-227-6993, or online HERE.

Judith B. Tankard is a landscape historian, award-winning author, and preservation consultant. She taught at the Landscape Institute of Harvard University for more than twenty years. She is the author or coauthor of ten books on landscape history, including Gardens of the Arts & Crafts Movement, Ellen Shipman and the American Garden and Beatrix Farrand: Private Gardens, Public Landscapes. A popular lecturer in the United States and Britain, Judith is a speaker at symposia and conferences devoted to the preservation of historic landscapes. She is also a member of The Garden Club of the Back Bay.

Saturday, May 25, 8:30 am – Wellfleet Gardeners Plant Sale

Wellfleet Gardeners will hold their 2019 plant sale on Saturday, May 25 beginning at 8:30 am, rain or shine, at the Town Hall on Main Street. Shrubs, trees, perennials, tomatoes, along with many fine donations from local nurseries, will be offered for sale.

The Wellfleet Gardeners is a group of plant and garden enthusiasts who gather once a month to share experiences and learn from speakers with expertise in specific fields. Meetings are open to the public. Regular meetings are held Sept thru June on the 3rd Wednesday of each month (except December’s meeting is 2nd Wednesday) at 9:30AM in the Wellfleet Public Library. Special events (garden tours and trips) are held in July & August. Contact Judith Dalmas, President: jvdalmas@comcast.net.

Thursday, June 6, 11:00 am – 4:00 pm – Battery Park City Walking Field Study: Garden Designers Showcase

This Berkshire Botanical Garden program on June 6 will begin at Grand Central Station, NYC. Participants will have the option to meet at Grand Central Station at 11 am or to carpool with BBG staff to Wassaic NY and take Metro North to GCT departing from Wassaic at 8:28 am returning to Wassaic approximately 6:45 pm. Cost of program does not include train fare to NYC or lunch.

Join the staff of the Berkshire Botanical Garden for a visit to Battery Park City, located at the tip of Manhattan. We will tour this extensive landscape—perhaps one of the most concentrated parklands in America—with our engaging instructor David Dew Bruner, who will focus on design. We will visit areas of the park including Michael Van Valkenburgh’s Teardrop Park, Oehme van Sweden’s Rockefeller Park, two gardens designed by Lynden Miller, and landscapes by Olin Partnership and other exceptional designers. In addition to these amazing gardens, there is abundant public art to view, including the Irish Hunger Memorial designed by Brian Tolle, the magnificent “Ice Wall” by Ann Hamilton and Michael Mercii, and sculptures by Jim Dine, Louise Bourgeois and many more.

Dress for the weather, rain or shine, and bring a water bottle and bagged lunch or plan to buy your own. BBG member price $70, nonmembers $85.

Register online at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/battery-park-city-walking-field-study-garden-designers-showcase

Solar Power at the Arnold Arboretum

In 2016. the Arboretum launched a major initiative to reduce emissions and cut energy costs with the installation of two solar arrays to help power the Hunnewell Building and Dana Greenhouses. In 2019, the Arboretum broke ground on the Weld Hill Solar Project, which contains 1,297 solar panels, generates more than 25% of the energy required annually to support research and education at the Weld Hill Research Building, contains a unique battery storage array to reduce peak demand on the local electrical grid, and keeps the equivalent of 401 metric tons of carbon out of the atmosphere each year.

To support local insect biodiversity in the face of global insect decline, the project design incorporates a native-focused pollinator meadow beneath the panel arrays, with wild-collected plant material sourced and propagated by the Arboretum staff. Together, the Weld Hill solar/battery array and pollinator meadow will serve ongoing education programs focused on climate change, renewable energy, and sustainable design.

Help power world-class research, and be a part of the Arnold Arboretum’s legacy of environmental stewardship. Sponsor a panel for $1,000. For more information, email Janetta Stringfellow, Director of Development, at 617-384-5043, or email her at janetta_stringfellow@harvard.edu.