Boston Flora

  • Friday, March 8, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm – Growing Fruit in a Healthy Orchard Ecosystem

    The morning Berkshire Botanical Garden program with orchard health expert Michael Phillips will have participants embracing a whole new way of thinking about growing fruit holistically, as well as understanding the principles and practices for growing healthy fruit. The afternoon session will be an offsite field study in a home orchard, where the instructor will conduct an orchard evaluation and discuss how major insect challenges can be resolved safely and organically. He will discuss how to deal with disease from a holistic perspective, so that challenges faced at your locale will become far more manageable, as you build a system that keeps trees healthy from the get-go. Pruning for fruit production will be demonstrated.

    Michael Phillips is known across the country for helping people grow healthy apples and understand the healing virtues of plant medicines. He helped found a “community orchard movement” that provides a full immersion into the holistic approach to orcharding (www.GrowOrganicApples.com). His Lost Nation Orchard has two acres of trees and supplies local families with many varieties of organic apples. The program takes place Friday, March 8, from 9 – 4, and is $150. You may register on line at www.berkshirebotanical.org.

  • Wednesday, March 6, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Meadowscaping in Urban & Suburban Spaces

    Grow Native Massachusetts is sponsoring a public lecture series through June, 2013, from 7 – 8:30 on the first Wednesday of each month at the Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway in Cambridge. The next in its series of Evenings With Experts will take place Wednesday, March 6, with Catherine Zimmerman, author of Urban & Suburban Meadows, speaking on Meadowscaping in Urban & Suburban Spaces.  Join us to learn why meadow and prairie habitats are so beneficial, both economically and environmentally. Then, consider the benefits of meadowscaping.  Ms. Zimmerman is passionate about getting Americans to forgo their devotion to monocultures of pesticide-ridden lawns. She will give us a step-by-step primer on reducing lawn size and installing a beautiful meadow garden in its stead. No space is too small. Join the movement to bring back native habitat for wildlife and human life! Ms. Zimmerman is a filmmaker, author, and founder of the Meadow Project.  The event is free and open to all.

  • Wednesday, February 27, 6:00 pm – Jurassic Mothers from China: Origins and Evolution of Mammals

    Paleontologist Zhe-Xi Luo, Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago, will discuss both the origins of modern mammalian biological adaptations in the deep times of the Mesozoic—dominated by the dinosaurs—and how Jurassic fossils discovered in China shed light on the earliest evolution of placental mammals. The Wednesday, February 27 program is part of the Evolution Matters Lecture Series, supported by a generous gift from Drs. Herman and Joan Suit. Free and open to the public. Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street. Free event parking for evening lectures in the 52 Oxford Street garage.

  • Saturday, March 2, 8:30 am – 4:00 pm – Outdoor Living Extravaganza

    For the fifth year, Proven Winners is bringing this enjoyable and educational gardening seminar to cities across North America. On Saturday, March 2, from 8:30 – 4, the event will take place at Four Points by Sheraton in Norwood, 1125 Boston Providence Turnpike, Norwood. You’ll learn from our experts about all the latest and great new varieties to hit the market for 2013, how to put together exceptional containers and much more. Rick Schoellhorn, Niki Jabbour, and Susan Martin will join Keynote Speaker P. Allen Smith for this event.

    In addition, you’ll be treated to a bag of exciting gifts-including a brand new plant for 2013 that will be hard to find at retail; you’ll enjoy a delicious lunch, beverages, and snacks throughout the day; and you’ll have plenty of chances to win great prizes. Even your non-gardening friends will enjoy this relaxed and entertaining look at what’s new in outdoor decor, Proven Winners style. We look forward to seeing you there! $70 per person (plus a free calendar). To sign up, call 877-865-5818, or reserve online at http://www.provenwinners.com/catalog/events.

  • Saturday, March 2, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Two Lives, Two Books, and Some Common Themes

    Join two beloved authors, Katrina Kenison and Margaret Roach, on Saturday, March 2 at 1 pm at the Berkshire Botanical Garden for readings and conversation inspired by their much-anticipated new books, Magical Journey: an Apprenticeship in Contentment and The Backyard Parables: a Meditation on Gardening, and Life. Katrina has spent 25 years nurturing a marriage, raising two sons to adulthood and tending to the myriad demands of home and family life. Margaret has spent precisely the same amount of time nurturing countless plants in the garden—a generous plot that has proven to be as worthy and complicated a life partner as any human mate. Now, despite different paths and charges, they find themselves in much the same spot, asking “What next?”—even as they learn to let go of what was, clearing space for new growth. Come connect with two authors, two friends, two lives, two books—and some common themes for discussion by all.

    Margaret Roach is the author of A Way to Garden and the memoir, And I Shall Have Some Peace There. She has been an editor at The New York Times, fashion editor and garden editor at Newsday, the first garden editor for Martha Stewart Living and the editorial director of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Margaret is now a consultant and avid gardener, keeping fans up to date on her website, awaytogarden.com.

    Katrina Kenison is the author of The Gift of an Ordinary Day and Mitten Strings for God: Reflections for Mothers in a Hurry, and, with Rolf Gates, Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga. Her writing has appeared in O: the Oprah Magazine, Real Simple, Family Circle, Redbook, Woman’s Day and Health. From 1990 until 2006, Kenison was the series editor of The Best American Short Stories, published annually by Houghton Mifflin. She co-edited, with John Updike, The Best American Short Stories of the Century. A certified Reiki master and Kripalu yoga teacher, Katrina lives with her family in rural New Hampshire.

    Register on line at www.berkshirebotanical.org.  $15 for BBG members, $20 for nonmembers.

  • Monday, February 25, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Bring the Rainforest Indoors: Terrariums

    The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts will sponsor a Horticulture Morning on Monday, February 25, from 10 – noon at South Church, 41 Central Street in Andover.  The speaker is Wanda Macnair, past president of the Buxton Branch of the American Begonia Society, on the subject Bring the Rainforest Indoors: Terrariums.  Ms. Macnair is active also in the New England Chapter of The Gesneriad Society. She is a member of the Nomenclature Committee, and the Amateur Horticulture Committee of the New England Spring Flower Show. She writes a column entitled “A Passion for Plants,” for the Lincoln County News, Damariscotta, ME. For complete information call 781-237-0336 – office hours are 9 – 2, Tuesday through Thursday, or email gcfm@verizon.net.

  • Saturday, February 24, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Jazz Under Glass: A Greenhouse Celebration

    Join The Food Project on Saturday, February 24 in the Dudley Greenhouse , 11 Brook Avenue in Roxbury, from 1 to 3 p.m. Greenhouse tours, Fulani Haynes & The Jazz Collaborative, and delicious treats from our neighbors will help to heat things up on a winter’s day. Will you be there? While The Dudley Greenhouse operates as an intensive year-round food production space, it is equally serious about education, fun, cooking and community! The “Grow Well, Eat Well, Be Well” philosophy for learning and growing is inspired by neighborhood farmers and gardeners, who are equally talented chefs and whose health reflect this lifestyle. On Sunday, February 24, the greenhouse doors will open so you can join in experiencing this culture, and support the work toward building a stronger local food system through the community work in the greenhouse.

    Hosted by The Food Project and the Dudley Greenhouse Advisory Committee, the benefit event will feature music, food, tours, and children’s activities. While the weather outside may be cold and blustery, this garden party will give you a taste of the spring that awaits us around the corner! Food Project staff and interns will lead greenhouse tours where attendees will learn more about the work of The Food Project and the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative to support healthy lifestyles in the Dudley neighborhood. Fulani Haynes and The Jazz Collaborative will serenade guests and everyone will enjoy delicious food from the many cultural traditions of the Dudley neighborhood, prepared by local gardeners and restaurants. The $25 ticket price goes directly to supporting community programs in the Dudley Greenhouse. Buy tickets on line at www.thefoodproject.org.

  • Sunday, February 24, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm – The Secret Life of Cones

    Led by Emerald Necklace docent Barbara Balasa, this informal talk on The Secret Life of Cones, Sunday, February 24, from 1 – 2:30, at the Shattuck Visitor’s Center, focuses on all things coniferous and will feature a hands-on exhibit of a variety of cones from North America, including the curiously named “widow-maker!” Space limited, reserve online at https://25749.thankyou4caring.org/eventregistration?erid=140278&trid=419898e4-8a51-4a9b-9bd7-1eba4020b332  or call 617-522-2700.  Photo from www.wildliferanger.co.uk.

  • Saturday, February 23, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Fruit Tree Pruning at The Shirley-Eustis House

    The Shirley-Eustis House, a National Historic Landmark house museum and carriage house in Roxbury, Massachusetts is pleased to announce a fruit tree pruning workshop will be held on Saturday, February 23, 2012 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.  Please join the Shirley-Eustis House, Boston Urban Forest Council and Boston Natural Areas Network for a free workshop presentation entitled Fruit Trees: Pruning and Care at the Shirley-Eustis House, 33 Shirley Street, Boston.

    Routine pruning is vital for healthy fruit trees. In this hands-on workshop, experts will demonstrate basic tree pruning techniques and guide you as you help prune the Shirley-Eustis House orchard trees.  The workshop will teach you how and when to make pruning cuts, methods to boost the production of quality fruit and strategies to improve the health of fruit tree orchards.

    Please register for this event by calling 617-542-7696 or by emailing info@bostonnatural.org. This event is free and open to the public. All pruning tools and equipment will be provided but we ask that you provide your own gloves and eye protection gear.

     

  • Friday, March 1, 6:45 pm – The Nymph’s Ugly Cousin: Studies in Nuphar

    The New England Botanical Club welcomes Dr. Donald J. Padgett, Department of Biological Sciences, Bridgewater State College, to its March 1 meeting to discuss The Nymph’s Ugly Cousin: Studies in Nuphar.  The meeting, which is open to the public, will begin at 6:45 in Haller Lecture Hall, Room 102, Geological Museum, 24 Oxford Street in Cambridge.  For information, visit www.rhodora.org.