Boston Flora

Tag: Arnold Arboretum

  • Saturday, May 12, 8:00 am – 11:30 am – Nature Photography Workshop

    Improve your photographs of nature in this half-day Arnold Arboretum workshop–a talk followed by hands-on experience. The class with freelance photographer Erik Gehring takes place at the Arnold Arboretum at one of the most beautiful times of year. Learn about composition, color, light, depth of field and focus. Bring your camera and manual and familiarize yourself with the operation of your camera prior to the workshop. Fee $70. Offered with the Eliot School of Fine & Applied Art. Register on line at www.my.arboretum.harvard.edu.

  • Thursday, May 10, 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm – Lilac Comprehensive with Jack Alexander

    Combining botany, lore, and personal opinions, lilac specialist Jack Alexander will present a sweeping overview of lilac care, culture, and history on Tuesday, May 8, from 4 – 6 at the Arnold Arboretum. You’ll learn when to prune your lilacs, how to rejuvenate them, and what their optimal growing conditions are. Jack will show examples of various growth and flower forms and point out examples of the best lilacs for fragrance, disease resistance, color, and length of flowering season as you walk in the Arboretum’s extensive lilac collection. Come with questions and a clipboard and paper for note-taking. Be prepared for rigorous walking since the Arboretum’s lilac collection is located on steep terrain. Meet at the Dana Greenhouses at 4:00 to walk to the lilacs with the instructor. Rain date: Thursday, May 10. Fee $20 Arnold Arboretum member, $25 nonmember.  Register on line at www.my.arboretum.harvard.edu.

  • Saturday, May 5, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – A Natural Curiosity: A Retrospective of Images by Gordon Morrison

    Attend a reception this Saturday, May 5, from 1 – 3 at the Hunnewell Building Lecture Hall at the Arnold Arboretum, in honor of the opening of a new art show, A Natural Curiosity: A Retrospective of Images by Gordon Morrison. From Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide to The Curious Naturalist magazine, from the Garden in the Woods in Framingham to the Missouri Botanical Gardens tropical rainforest exhibit, Gordon Morrison has been reflecting and illuminating the natural world for over four decades. This retrospective focuses largely on his botanical work, highlighting the best of the thousands of illustrations he has done for education and conservation organizations.  The show will run through July 1, and there will be an artist’s talk on Wednesday, June 27, from 7 – 8:30 pm.

  • Monday, May 21, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Defining Gardens: A Global View

    From meadows and forests to desert or barren glacial till, how do cultures in different environments satisfy their need for gardens? Is the focus on planned order or wild nature, on plants or man made structures? Are there favorite plants or flowers? How do the residents interact with their gardens? Wellesley College Professor Emerita Mary Coyne’s extensive travels to many lands always include garden visits. With her as our guide, we’ll armchair-wander to the Arctic, Europe, Asia, South and North America, and Africa to take a peek at gardens old and new. After many years teaching in Wellesley College’s Department of Biological Sciences, Mary Coyne embarked on a retirement career as a landscape designer. She received her Certificate from the Landscape Institute in 2010. The Harriet B. Creighton Educational Garden (below) across the driveway from the Visitor Center is designed and maintained by her. The May 21 lecture will be preceded by tea at 2 pm. Co-sponsored by the Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture and by the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, the cost to attend is $10 for members of either sponsoring organization, or $15 for non-members. Register at www.wellesley.edu/WCFH.

  • Thursday, May 17, 7:00 pm – Designing a Dramatic Perennial Garden

    Once limited to a handful of tried-and-true choices, gardeners today can choose from an abundance of cultivars when creating a perennial garden. Creating that dramatic garden is a matter of both choosing the right plants and knowing how to combine them to best effect. Join the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and Laura Eisener of Laura Eisener Landscape Design on Thursday, May 17, at 7 pm at Elm Bank in Wellesley. Register online at www.masshort.org.  Based in Saugus, Massachusetts, Landscape Designer Laura Eisener also teaches at the Arnold Arboretum Landscape Design Institute of Harvard University.

  • Saturday, April 28, 9:30 am – 12:00 noon – Arnold Arboretum 2012 Members’ Tour Day

    Enjoy the brilliance of spring and reconnect with the landscape on Arnold Arboretum’s Members’ Tour Day. Members are invited to come for refreshments and staff-led tours in the living collection on Saturday, April 28 beginning at 9:30am. This year, reserve space for Members’ Tour Day via an online registration system, or contact the membership office. Please respond by Friday, April 20. The staff hopes you’ll join us for a morning of fun, seasonal highlights, and the fellowship of our staff and members on April 28!  Fraxinus lanuginosa, in bloom at the Arboretum in April, pictured below.

  • Sunday, May 13, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Lilac Sunday

    FREE! Join lilac enthusiasts from all over New England to celebrate a beloved Boston tradition on Sunday, May 13, from 10 – 4. This year Lilac Sunday is on Mother’s Day—what better way to celebrate Moms! Delight your senses with a hillside of heavenly fragrances and dazzling colors. There will be tours, live outdoor music, art, children’s activities, and food vendors (picnicking is allowed on this special day only). 2012 Lilac Sunday T-shirts and other and other merchandise will be for sale.

    On Lilac Sunday, the Arboretum is open as usual from dawn to dusk, with special activities from 10:00am until 4:00pm (full program schedule coming online soon) at http://arboretum.harvard.edu/plants/lilac_sunday.html

    Parking is limited, so use of public transportation is strongly encouraged.

    HIGHLIGHTS:

    Tours of the Lilac Collection: (every hour)

    Tours from the Visitor Center to the Lilacs: (every 30 minutes)

    Tours of Special Collections: (various times) Explorers Garden, Leventritt Shrub & Vine Garden, Bradley Rosaceous Collection, and more

    Family Activities: (various times): Build-a-flower, Mother’s Day cards, Coloring & drawing, Science station

    Performances (various times): Delta Swingers trio featuring Erin Harpe, The J-Way String Quartet, Lloyd Thayer, and more.

    Food vendors: Clover Fast Food, Slush King, Lefty’s Silver Cart, Cupcakory, and more.

    Displays: Library display, information about the Aboretum’s programs, science research, and more!

    Free lilac plant if you join the Friends of the Arnold Arboretum on Lilac Sunday!

    The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University is the oldest public arboretum in North America, and one of the world’s leading centers for the study of plants. A unique blend of beloved public landscape and respected research institution, the Arnold Arboretum provides and supports world-class science research, horticulture, and education programs that foster the understanding, appreciation and preservation of trees.

  • Saturday, April 28, 2:00 pm – Traffic-Stopping Container Gardens

    Deborah Trickett, MCH, and owner of The Captured Garden, will speak at Weston Nurseries of Chelmsford, 160 Pine Hill Road in Chelmsford, on Saturday, April 28, beginning at 2 pm. Deborah is an award-winning designer whose work has been featured in The Boston Globe, in Garden Gate Magazine, and on the TV show New England Dream Home.  She is a frequent lecturer at the Boston Flower & Garden Show as well as at the Philadelphia International Flower Show. She also teaches classes and workshops at the Arnold Arboretum.  She’ll help make your container gardens the talk of the neighborhood!  Free.  For directions, visit www.westonnurseries.com.

  • Monday, April 23, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Syrup, Seeds, and Bees: Exploring Links in Maple Ecology

    Elizabeth Crone’s research as Population Biologist at Harvard Forest focuses on the population ecology, life history, and conservation of plants and insects. Most recently, she has turned her attention to a signature “industry” of New England—maple syrup production. She is trying to determine any links between pollinator populations, quantity of maple flower and seeds, and sap flow. Join The Arnold Arboretum on Monday, April 23, from 7 – 8:30 in the Weld Hill Research Building  to learn if each responds independently to the weather or if there are possibly complex, but subtle, interactions taking place in the sugar bush.  Free, but registration requested.  Visit http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu/Info.aspx?EventID=1#April.  Offered with the Cambridge Science Fair and the New England Wild Flower Society.

  • Arnold Arboretum Appoints Iris Gestram as Deputy Director

    The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University is pleased to announce that Iris Gestram has been appointed as the new Deputy Director. She will join the organization in May 2012. Iris comes to the Arboretum from the National Association for Olmsted Parks where she served as Executive Director. Previously, Iris headed the Education and Visitor Services Department at historic Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA, where she oversaw guest services, education, public programs, public relations, and marketing for the 1,000-acre public garden. Iris also served as Director of Education and Visitor Services at the Olmsted-designed Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales, FL, adjacent to Mountain Lake Community with its numerous residential landscapes designed by the Olmsted firm. Iris offers the Arboretum extensive experience in non-profit management, strategic planning, and program development. She holds a master’s degree in plant science from Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, and a master of science degree in public horticulture administration from the Longwood Graduate Program, University of Delaware. While in the Longwood Program, Iris developed a preservation plan for the historic landscape of Gibraltar in Wilmington, DE, designed by pioneer woman landscape architect Marian Cruger Coffin.

    An active participant nationally in the fields of historic landscape preservation and public horticulture, Iris has served on the Longwood Graduate Program Executive Committee and the Gibraltar Landscape Advisory Committee for Preservation Delaware, Inc. She recently completed a strategic plan for the Smithsonian Horticulture Services Division that initiated a name change to Smithsonian Gardens to better reflect the organization’s stature and operations as a public garden, educational institution, and horticultural display garden.