Boston Flora

Wednesday, November 20, 7:00 pm – Holiday Sparkle

The North Reading Garden Club will present renowned floral designer Bill Graham at a meeting on Wednesday, November 20, beginning at 7 pm, entitled Holiday Sparkle. Mr. Graham has been a fixture in the North Shore for twenty five years, and is the proprietor of Beautiful Things, Ltd. in Salem. The event will take place at the Aldersgate United Methodist Church, 235 Park Street in North Reading.Â The cost is $10 in advance (contact Lisi Lesch at ecolesch@gmail.com) or $15 at the door.

Thursday, November 21, 6:00 pm – From Buffalo to Boston: Olmsted’s Evolving Vision of Urban Park Systems

The Friends of Fairsted presents From Buffalo to Boston: Olmsted’s Evolving Vision of Urban Park Systems, a lecture by Francis R. Kowsky, PhD,Â SUNY Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts Emeritus and author of the the book The Best Planned City in the World: Olmsted, Vaux, and the Buffalo Park System, on Thursday, November 21, at Wheelock College, 43 Hawes Street in Brookline.Â The reception and book signing will begin at 6, with the lecture at 7.

Beginning in 1868, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux planned the first metropolitan park system in America for Buffalo, New York.Â They designed three distinct parks linked by “parkways,” majestic, tree canopied boulevards that were linear parks in themselves.Â Displaying a map of Buffalo at the Paris Exhibition in 1878, Olmsted called it the best planned city in the world.Â That same year, he began to apply the concept he had pioneered in Buffalo to the Boston metropolitan area.Â Here, he planned six parks stretching from the Charles River to the harbor, a remarkable chain of green spaces today known as the Emerald Necklace.

Free and open to the public.Â Seating is limited and reservations are required.Â Email friendsoffairsted@gmail.com.Â Limited street parking is available.Â Public parking is not allowed in the Wheelock parking lot.

Thursday, November 21, 6:00 pm – Seeing Earthquakes Before They Happen

Geophysicist Brendan Meade, using satellite technology, generates images of current fault-line activity to help predict earthquakes and to better understand earthquake cycles and the tectonic development of continents. Find out more about his research and the progress being made in predicting the timing and magnitude of earthquakes on Thursday, November 21, at 6 pm, in a lecture sponsored by the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Free and open to the public. Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street. Free event parking is available in the 52 Oxford Street Garage after 5:00 pm.

Holiday Wreaths – Don’t Forget the Poinsettias

We go on and on about our beautiful wreaths, but let’s not forget the poinsettias.Â Our Garden Club of the Back Bay plants are huge – six inch pots, at least four main stems – healthy and full, a complete design statement.Â They will arrive carefully wrapped for protection from the elements.Â Order one or order multiples to create a poinsettia forest.Â You could even dispense with a tree!Â Order here.

Friday, November 15, 7:30 pm – Maize, Mysteries of an Ancient Grain

Edward S. Buckler is a Research Geneticist at the USDA-Agricultural Research Service, Adjunct Professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics at Cornell University. On Friday, November 15, beginning at 7:30 at the Smith College McConnell Hall Room 103 at The Botanic Garden of Smith College, 16 College Lane in Northhampton, he will be talking about genetic diversity of corn and how this diversity is the product of evolution and adaption over the last 5 million years and how it provides the potential for creating a more sustainable crop to satisfy nutritional needs facing many parts of the world. The lecture is free.

Thursday, November 21, 5:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Special Salute to Toni!

Please join Honorary Chair Henry Lee and Chair Pamela Lazares, along with the Friends of the Mounted Unit for complimentary libations and hors d’oeuvre in their continuing support of the Boston’s Park Rangers Mounted Unit on Thursday, November 21, from 6 – 8 in the Admirals Bank, John Hancock Tower, 200 Clarendon Street, 22nd floor, Boston. $150 per ticket.

Pamela Lazares invites you as well to a private reception honoring retiring Commissioner of Boston’s Parks and Recreation Antonia M. Pollak, from 5 – 6.Â The $500 VIP ticket includes the general reception.Â RSVP by November 16 – you may do so online and pay with PayPal at www.savebostonshorses.org.

Check in at the front desk, first floor of the John Hancock building – please bring proof of identification.

Friday, November 15, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Transformation: Through the Eyes of a Designer

Transformation: A Design Showcase in Rapid Images, features the work of landscape designers who have rejuvenated abandoned and tired spaces into places which inspire hope and delight. Presentations by contributing artists and contractors show the many layers, skills, and creative inspirations that go into making a truly memorable landscape.

Designers’ presentations will be in a Photo Flash format: Each presenter gets 10 slides and 20 seconds per slide to tell their story. The event takes place at Lexington Depot, home of the Lexington Historical Society, 1332 Massachusetts Avenue (Depot Square), Lexington, Massachusetts, on Friday, November 15, from 6 – 8.

So many stories to tell “Quickly”: From empty lot to happy dog park in Dorchester; from post-construction high school devastation to award winning campus in Lexington; from inner-city Boston grunge to fabulous neighborhood oasis; from tired turf to soothing garden for mourning kids in Arlington.

How do designers envision and create these miraculous transformations? Come find out, see the stories, mingle with designers, sip, munch.

Transformation: Through the Eyes of a Designer is a benefit event. All proceeds are used for the improvement of community parks and gardens. COGdesign, a Waltham-based non-profit, works exclusively with under-resourced organizations or in underserved neighborhoods. For further information, please visit the COGdesign web site (link below).

Admission is $10 in advance, $15 at the door, and includes appetizers. Specialty beer and wine available.

Sunday, November 10, 2:00 pm – Loudville Lead Mines: An Historical Discussion and Exhibit

Wayne Perrea will present an illustrated lecture entitled An Historical Discussion and Exhibit of the Loudville Lead Mines on Sunday, November 10, beginning at 2 pm at the Easthampton Community Center, 12 Clark Street, Easthampton.Â This is a fund raiser for the Pascommuck Conservation Trust’s Open Space Campaign, and the suggested donation is $5.

Friday, November 15, 6:30 – 8:30 pm – Inventing Wine: A New History of the World’s Most Ancient Pleasure

Join The Arnold Arboretum on Friday, November 15, from 6:30 – 8:30 in the Weld Hill Building, 1300 Centre Street, Roslindale, for a lecture and informal wine tasting with Paul Lukacs, professor by day and wine connoisseur by night.Â Paul will speak on the subject of his most recent book in which he chronicles the 8,000 year history of wine, from spiritual and bodily nourishment to an everyday pleasure.

Paul is the author of Inventing Wine: A New History of One of the World’s Most Ancient Pleasures; American Vintage: The Rise of American Wine, winner of the James Beard Foundation, International Association of Culinary Professionals, and Clicquot Wine Book of the Year awards; and The Great Wines of America: The Top Forty Vintners, Vineyards, and Vintages.Â He has been writing about wine and its cultural contexts for nearly twenty years.Â Attend the lecture and sample several vintages (must be 21 or older). $40 ($30 if an Arnold Arboretum member.)Â Phone 617-384-5277 to register.

Saturday, November 9, 9:30 am – 4:00 pm – Gem, Mineral, Rock and Fossil Show

Saturday, November 9 is the 17th annual Pioneer Valley Institute Gem, Mineral, Rock and Fossil Show and Sale at Greenfield Community College’s new Dining Commons in the Main Building. (If you haven’t been to GCC, don’t worry. You won’t get lost! Also, the newly reconstructed Core area with the Dining Commons is just beautiful.) The show opens at 9:30 and runs to 4 pm. ADMISSION IS FREE!

Besides geological specimens from around the world, come and see jewelry, beads, cabochons, and many other “gems” from the earth. Talented local artisans have crafted many items. The Jurassic Roadshow showcases specimens from the Connecticut Valley. Talk to the expert collectors. Bring in your specimens for identification. On display: an amazingly preserved baby dinoprint. You can also take a tour of the GCC Rock Park at the rear of the Main Building.

At 1:00 Historian Bob Herbert will present a program on ROSWELL FIELD, the owner of the famous Barton Cove dinosaur footprint quarry where so many Amherst College Hitchcock specimens were collected. This man, now mostly forgotten, was an important layman-scientist who met and corresponded with many world-famous scientists. You can see the whole Bob Herbert journal article here: http://www.gillmass.org/pdfs/2013-Robert-Herbert-Roswell-Field.pdf .