In her New York Times bestseller Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Motherand Other Botanical Atrocities, Amy Stewart takes on Mother Nature’s most appalling creations. It’s an A to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend. Drawing on history, medicine, science, and legend, Stewart presents tales of bloodcurdling botany that will entertain, alarm, and enlighten even the most intrepid gardeners and nature lovers.
Join Arnold Arboretum Manager of Plant Production Tiffany Enzenbacher on Saturday, December 2, from 9 – 12:30 in the Dana Greenhouse Classroom, 1050 Centre Street in Jamaica Plain, to learn how to propagate woody plants from fall cuttings. Students will collect and stick cuttings of several taxa (Ilex and Pieris to name a few), and will take their propagules home. After rooting, small plants may be ready to transplant as early as next year. Post-class nurturing will be required. Fee for all materials is included in the cost of the class. Students should bring their own pruners to class and dress for the weather. Register at my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.
Diane Samuels’ incredible 20” x 160’ scroll is a hand-transcription in micro-script of Richard Powers’ The Overstory. The text side is made of strips of recycled drawings, prints, and papers from the artist’s studio. The dimensions of the scroll correspond to a common vertical section of a coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens). The non-transcribed side is collaged with 99 bookplates. Each bookplate is made by a rubbing from a piece carved with the image of the leaf/needles identified with each of the nine characters in the book. The Arnold Arboretum exhibit will be found in the Hunnewell Building through January 30.
Join the Arnold Arboretum’s Director William (Ned) Friedman for the annual Director’s Series. To celebrate the Arboretum’s sesquicentennial, this year’s series will explore the Magic and Meaning of a Garden of Trees. Over the course of four sessions, we will trace the Arnold’s significance in the landscape architecture movement, value for the people of Boston, and leadership in creating global connections between plants and people. This final session will feature a talk from Director Friedman on fellow organisms in the Arboretum. The program is free and is offered both in person and livestreamed.
Parking is available on-site at the Weld Hill Research Building, 1300 Centre Street in Boston. Find directions here. All attendees must be masked while indoors. Register HERE for live event.
This event will also be livestreamed to YouTube. To sign up for the virtual live stream instead, click here.
Ceramics provide a vehicle for Natalie Andrew’s exploration into the sublime aesthetics inherent in lichen. An artist and a biologist, Andrew was permitted by the Arnold Arboretum’s curation department to observe the ‘spontaneous flora’ of lichens occurring in the landscape. The resulting works highlight the texture, depth, and form of lichen against the surface of ceramic.
Natalie Andrew is both a professional biologist and a visual artist whose explorations converge around mosses, slime molds, and other denizens of the forest floor. Integral to her practice is the crossing of the boundaries that separate art and science, allowing them to feed off of each other.
Natalie is currently a Resident Artist at the Harvard Ceramics Program, MA, is the 2018 Artist in Residence at the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, KY, and has had residencies at Wellesley College, MA and the McColl Center for Art, NC. She lectures and gives workshops on art and science, and has exhibited in various galleries in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
As a scientist, Natalie has most recently worked at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self Organization in Germany, researching flows and contraction behavior in protoplasmic slime molds. Her previous positions include postdocs at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School, and she has published in Nature Cell Biology, PNAS, PLoS Computational Biology and others.
Natalie has received a Ph.D. in Biology, a Masters degree in Cognitive Science, and a Bachelors Degree in Physics with Electronics, all from the University of Birmingham, UK.
This Arnold Arboretum art show will run from Friday, October 14 through February 13. For more information visit www.arboretum.harvard.edu
Rosetta S. Elkin reveals that planting a tree can either be one of the ultimate offerings to thriving on this planet, or one of the most extreme perversions of human agency over it. Plant Life exposes the relationship between human and plant life, revealing that afforestation is not an ecological act: rather, it is deliberately political and distressingly social. This Arnold Arboretum sponsored talk will take place live and online on October 5 at 7 pm.
Using three supracontinental case studies—scientific forestry in the American prairies, colonial control in Africa’s Sahelian grasslands, and Chinese efforts to control and administer territory—Elkin explores the political implications of plant life as a tool of environmentalism. By exposing the human tendency to fix or solve environmental matters by exploiting other organisms, this work exposes the relationship between human and plant life, revealing that afforestation is not an ecological act: rather, it is deliberately political and distressingly social.
Plant Lifeultimately reveals that afforestation cannot offset deforestation, an important distinction that sheds light on current environmental trends that suggest we can plant our way out of climate change. By radicalizing what conservation protects and by framing plants in their total aliveness, Elkin shows that there are many kinds of life—not just our own—to consider when advancing environmental policy.
Rosetta S. Elkin is associate professor and academic director of landscape architecture at Pratt Institute, principal of Practice Landscape, and research associate at the Harvard Arnold Arboretum. She is author ofTiny Taxonomy: Individual Plants in Landscape Architecture.
This event will also be presented in-person at the Arboretum’s Weld Hill Research Building at 1300 Centre Street, Boston, MA 02131. To sign up for the in-person event, click here. To sign up for the virtual presentation, click here.
The Garden Club of the Back Bay’s year continues on Tuesday, October 11 at 1:00 pm with a field trip to the Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain and a presentation on the Arboretum’s bonsai collection by Tiffany Enzenbacker, head of plant production. The field trip is limited to just 20 members. Members have received notification of all details, but if you need the information resent, email HERE.
Tiffany works alongside the Arboretum’s plant propagator and greenhouse horticulturist to produce the next generation of accessions destined for the permanent collections, as well as to ensure the long-term survival of existing lineages through repropagation techniques, including cuttings and grafting. The department also shares propagules with partner institutions and distributes plant material for research purposes. Additionally, they work to produce plants for Arboretum events, such as the Arbor Day Seedling Mailing and Lilac Sunday. She also oversees the Bonsai Collection and is involved in projects throughout the organization, including plant collection expeditions for the Campaign for the Living Collections.
Tiffany obtained a BS in plant sciences from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a MS in plant pathology from Michigan State University. Prior to joining the Arnold Arboretum in 2014, she worked at the Chicago Botanic Garden, The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL, and in the Department of Biology at Boston College.
The Arnold Arboretum Bonsai & Penjing collection began with the donation of the Larz Anderson Collection of Japanese Dwarfed Trees in 1937, and has grown over time with additional specimens donated by a number of private collectors. Today, the collection comprises 36 masterfully curated trees representing a range of evergreen and deciduous species, including compact Hinoki cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Chabo-hiba’), Japanese white pine (Pinus parviflora), trident maple (Acerbuergerianum var. trinerve), Japanese maple (Acer palmatum), and cedar elm (Ulmus crassifolia).
The Larz Anderson Collection of Japanese Dwarfed Trees at the Arnold Arboretum was originally imported into the United States by the Honorable Larz Anderson in 1913, upon his return from serving as ambassador to Japan. In April 1937, Isabel Anderson donated the majority of her late husband’s bonsai collection (30 plants) to the Arnold Arboretum, along with the funds necessary to build a shade house for their display. The rest of the Anderson bonsai came to the Arboretum following Isabel’s death in 1949.
The core of the collection consists of 5 large specimens of compact hinoki cypress—each between 150 and 275 years old—that Anderson purchased from the Yokohama Nursery Company. Additional bonsai have been acquired or added to the collection over time.
For the sixth year, woodturners from throughout New England will exhibit their work at the Arnold Arboretum. Using a lathe to form their pieces, woodturners create practical objects or “turn” to the purely aesthetic, resulting in a show that appeals to the eye and the touch. For more information on this free exhibit, including hours, visit https://arboretum.harvard.edu/events/#ds-3 (Image: “Cherry Root Bowl,” Steve Wiseman)
Join the Arnold Arboretum and Andrea Appleton, Harvard PhD candidate in Organismic & Evolutionary Biology, on September 20 at 10 am for an exploration of plant diversity and an introduction to methods of plant preservation. Using plant cuttings brought from home, we will carefully observe and compare morphological characteristics, discuss why they may have been favored over evolutionary time, and learn how to press specimens for scientific study. Following the workshop, we will tour the Harvard University Herbaria, where we will learn about the importance of preserved specimens and see how scientists use them for scientific research. Meet at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street in Cambridge.
This program had to be canceled but contact the Arnold Arboretum if you are interested in learning about a rescheduled date.
Frederick Law Olmsted’s Bicentennial inspires this day-long celebration of shared use, shared power and shared health along Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace linear park system. Join neighbors and friends old and new to enjoy what makes you most grateful for YOUR parks! Come together for a special program of picnicking, dancing, creating, learning, relaxing & connecting.
Parkfest features:
FREE performances
Kid’s activities
Pop-up art making
Storytelling
Ribbon-cutting
Learning with local community groups
Explore the parks with DJs on trikes, scavenger hunts, bike decorating and riding, walking tours, doggy meet-cutes, selfie destinations and more. Extra restrooms, signage, food trucks and volunteers will be on site. Look for treats and surprises throughout the parks.
When: 1-7pm, Saturday, September 24. Rain date: Sunday, September 25
Where: All 5.5 miles of the Emerald Necklace, including Charlesgate Park, Back Bay Fens, Riverway, Olmsted Park, Jamaica Pond, Arnold Arboretum and Franklin Park
