Boston Flora

Saturday, June 7, 9:00 am (Rain Date June 8) – President’s Walking Tour of the Emerald Necklace

Join Emerald Necklace Conservancy President Karen Mauney-Brodek for the Annual Walk of the entire Olmsted-designed Emerald Necklace on June 7. Take in the sights, sounds and scale of these historic parks on a guided tour stretching from Franklin Park to Charlesgate. Rain Date June 8. Meet at Refectory Hill, Franklin Park, Boston 02115. Register at https://emeraldnecklace.org/. Do we need to say wear comfortable shoes?

Saturday, July 5, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Gloucester Garden Tour

This year on Saturday, July 5, Generous Gardeners welcomes you to the Magnolia neighborhood in Gloucester. Magnolia is storybook beautiful, with its stunning ocean views along Shore Road and a welcoming community. The gardens are a delightful mix of styles and sizes and includes an amazing historic Olmsted garden. The tour is a lovely 1.6 mile stroll from the starting point at the Magnolia Library. Parking is available on streets all around the tour area and shuttle buses will be available to assist.

Rain or shine. No pets. Photography welcome. Tickets: $35. Purchase tickets at https://generousgardeners.org/2025-gloucester-garden-tour/

Tuesday, July 8 – Wednesday, July 9 – New England Botanic Garden and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Tour

Federated Garden Clubs of Vermont has created a two day Massachusetts garden tour with renowned horticulturist Charlie Nardozzi on July 8 and 9. Meet your Garden host Charlie Nardozzi and trip director Deb Flanders at the Williston Park and Ride. Board your private coach with stops in Montpelier and White River Junction on the way to Massachusetts. Our first visit is the beautiful New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill. Upon arrival enjoy boxed lunch provided by Farmer and the Fork before exploring the gardens.

The Worcester County Horticultural Society, founded in 1842, established New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill in Boylston as a horticultural resource where people can experience the wonder of plants and learn about the natural world. Opened in 1986, the garden sits on 200 acres and includes conservatories, formal and naturalistic gardens, a café, Garden Shop, walking trails, accessible pathways, and expansive views of the Wachusett Reservoir. After the botanical garden visit, depart for Boston and check in to the Colonnade Hotel Back Bay. Enjoy dinner at one of the many fine restaurants in Boston (dinner paid individually).

On Wednesday after breakfast at the hotel, board the bus with your bags and transfer to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum for a private tour. Isabella Gardner chose to site her Museum on the edge of the newly built Back Bay Fens, a part of Frederick Law Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace, because she saw the potential for this new landscape to enable, inform, and enhance the city of Boston. Today the museum continues to recognize the importance of landscape architecture through its landscape department, landscape lectures, and landscape exhibitions. The gardens, both interior and exterior, are an integral part of the Gardner Museum experience today. She created an experience that was as much about flowers and plants, artfully arranged, as it was about masterpieces of art. The culmination of that vision is the Courtyard but botanical images can be found throughout the Museum.

After the tour explore the outside gardens at your leisure. Enjoy a snack or a light lunch (paid individually) at the museum cafe before boarding the coach back to Vermont.

ACTIVITY LEVEL IS MODERATE TO HIGH: There is a fair amount of walking on this tour, especially in the New England Botanical Gardens. It has a 1.1-mile loop trail that’s good for walking and hiking.

$619 per person. Register at https://www.vermontfgcv.com/2025-boston-nebotanical-garden

PLEASE NOTE: Goodspeed Tours LTD reserves the right to alter the order of events or to make changes in the itinerary deemed necessary for the comfort, convenience, and safety of the participants. Every effort will be made to adhere to the printed itinerary, but weather conditions and transportation difficulties may arise beyond the control of Goodspeed Tours LTD and local suppliers could force the cancellation or substitution of events or specific services.

Thursday, November 13 & Friday, November 14 – Historic New England Summit 2025, Live and Online

New England’s largest conference about our collective roles in creating livable and resilient communities. Summit discussions focus on New England while addressing topics that resonate nationally and globally as we work together to transform preservation into an accessible and essential ethic in community sustainability.

2025 Summit Themes Include:
Civic Action
Authenticity & Access
Culture Building
Climate Resiliency
Preservation as Transformation

Join us November 13 and 14 at the historic Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut. Can’t make it to New Haven? Join us via livestream!

Summit Early Bird Registration is ON now. Visit summit.historicnewengland.org

Friday, June 6, 7:30 pm – 10:30 pm – Glow in the Park

Kick summer off in style with music, dancing, games, your favorite Greenway food trucks, craft beverages, and more. Our annual young professionals fundraising event, Glow in the Park, lights up the night every June, and it’s your chance to support the Greenway Conservancy and have a blast while doing it. Funds raised at Glow in the Park support the Conservancy’s work to connect neighborhoods and people through nature, public art, and community-led programming in ways that are sustainable, equitable, and welcoming. This year’s date is June 6, and tickets ($125) are available at https://www.rosekennedygreenway.org/glowinthepark

Now On View – Emeralds

Emeralds is a new, intimate collection of stunning crystals, gemstones, and jewelry on display in the Earth & Planetary Sciences Gallery at the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture,

Highly coveted by a wide variety of cultures, emeralds have played a significant role in shaping human history, helping to facilitate trade and even build empires. From rough stones to sophisticated jewelry, emeralds continue to captivate with their beauty and historical significance, symbolizing luxury and power across cultures and eras. While emeralds are rare, they can be found in countries throughout the world, including Colombia, Madagascar, and Egypt, to name a few. Emeralds formed inside rocks millions of years ago. Those from South Africa are known to be about 2.9 billion years old, while Colombian emeralds date back over 48 million years! The unique characteristics of emeralds provide valuable insights into the processes that formed them. With the use of new AI technologies, scientists are making major advances in unraveling their stories and tracing their origins. Below: _{Metamorphosis} _{Brooch created}_{by Wallace Chan}_{Emerald 16 pcs 52.44 tcw Diamond, Ruby, Amethyst, Citrine, Blue Topaz, Crystal, Butterfly Wings, Mother of Pearl, Tsavorite Garnet, Sapphire, Yellow Diamond, 18K White Gold, Titanium.} _{On loan from George and Sherry Huang Collection}

Friday, June 10, 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm – Annual Summer Solstice Fundraiser at Wright-Locke Farm

Summer is nearly here, and Wright-Locke Farm in Winchester is thrilled to welcome the season with one of its most beloved traditions, the Summer Solstice Fundraiser. Join them under the magical lights of the historic 1827 Barn for an unforgettable evening filled with community spirit, great food, and meaningful support for one of Winchester’s most treasured assets. This annual event gets better and better, with live performances by talented musicians from the Winchester Community Music School. gourmet bites by internationally acclaimed chef Saba Wahid, live and silent auctions, and farm inspired cocktails upon arrival. Thank you to Shepherd Financial Partners for sponsoring this event. Tickets may be purchased at https://www.wlfarm.org/solstice/ $100 each or 4 for $350.

Saturday, June 7, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Grass Menagerie

Grasses are an integral component of naturalistic plantings, the garden style popularized by New York City’s High Line and the “Dutch Wave.” But with names like Schizachyrium, Spodiopogon, and Hakonechloa, they can be bewildering to even experienced gardeners. Join plantsman Robert Clyde Anderson at Berkshire Botanical Garden on Saturday, June 7, from 1 to 4 p.m., for an overview of the most useful and beautiful species and cultivars for our climate, with an emphasis on their ecological value, distinguishing characteristics, and design possibilities. This three-hour session will include an illustrated lecture, handouts, and an on-site walkabout on the BBG grounds, as well as time for questions and shared experiences. BBG members $50, nonmembers $70. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/grass-menagerie

Robert Clyde Anderson is a garden designer, consultant and writer who found his way to the Hudson Valley after a New York City career in illustration and book design. A native of Louisiana and a lifelong gardener, he has designed and maintained gardens in Columbia County as well as working in area nurseries, most recently at Pondside Nursery in Hudson for five years and before that, at Loomis Creek Nursery in Claverack for eight years. Robert makes his home in Stuyvesant, where he maintains a two-acre “laboratory” garden that includes shrub borders, a sunny, terraced xeric garden, a shady, wooded streamside area, a moist meadow planting, a kitchen garden, and a small flock of chickens.

Wednesday, June 4, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm – Gardens on Film: The Most Filmed County in England, Online

Historic parks and gardens play a frequent – and frequently tantalizing – role in films and on TV. Where is the 18th century landscape that forms the background to scenes in Bridgerton? Which English country estate serves as Paris for both James Bond and Sherlock Holmes? Is that really a world heritage site being flooded for a scene in The Secret Garden?

Join The Gardens Trust on Wednesdays in May for behind-the-scenes at some of the locations used in costume dramas, children’s adventures, murder mysteries and much else. We’ll hear from a location manager on choosing the right gardens for shoots and from a garden historian on films in her own county, as well as the experience of three major players who regularly manage film crews in their historic landscapes – the National Trust, the Royal Parks and English Heritage. This ticket costs £35 for the full series of five talks or you may purchase a ticket for individual talks, costing £8. To sign up, visit Eventbrite UK HERE. 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.

Buckinghamshire has been described by VisitEngland as the ‘most filmed county in England’. The range of productions in which the county’s historic parks and gardens can be seen is certainly extraordinary, ranging from the perhaps predictable Midsomer Murders and a number of James Bond films, to the less expected, such as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Home to 46 registered parks and gardens, including Stowe, West Wycombe and Cliveden, Buckinghamshire does have some fabulous material on which to draw. This June 4 talk will identify some of the many film locations across the county, and explore the featured gardens, along with some garden history and wider context to this county that’s always ready for its close-up.

Dr. Victoria Thomson’s professional background is in town planning and historic conservation, and her work has included stints in local and national government, a government agency, academia, and the third sector. Her personal and research interests are very much focused on historic parks and gardens, and particularly on their protection. A trustee of the Gardens Trust, and a member of the Buckinghamshire Gardens Trust, she’s been interested of late in how often her home county appears on screen.

Monday, June 2 (Time to be Announced) – Insectopolis

Peter Kuper will introduce his new book, INSECTOPOLIS, at the Harvard Bookstore, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge on Monday, June 2. To confirm time, click https://www.harvard.com/events Peter Kuper’s work appears regularly in The New Yorker, The Nation, and Mad , where he has written and illustrated “Spy vs. Spy” for over 26 years. He is the co-founder of World War 3 Illustrated, a political comix magazine now in its 45th year of publication. He has produced over two dozen books including Sticks and Stones (winner of The Society of Illustrators gold medal), The System, Diario de Oaxaca, Ruins (winner of the 2016 Eisner Award) and adaptations of many of Franz Kafka’s works into comics including The Metamorphosis. His most recent graphic novels include Kafkaesque (winner of the 2018 Rueben award and 2022 Lucca award for short stories) and an adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.Translations of his work have appeared in Greece, Italy, France, Spain, Slovenia, China, Brazil, Poland, Sweden, Israel, Germany and Mexico.

Peter has lectured extensively throughout the world and teaches Harvard University’s first class dedicated to graphic novels. He was the 2020-21 Jean Strouse Fellow at The New York Public Library’s Cullman Center and received a 2022 Yaddo residency. His Exhibition INterSECTS: Where Arthropods and Homo sapiens Meet was on display at the New York Public Library Jan. 14- Aug 13th 2022. INSECTOPOLIS, a graphic novel on the history of insects, will be published by W.W. Norton MAY 2025. He is the winner of the 2024 RFK Journalism Award in cartooning.