Boston Flora

Tag: Bok Tower Gardens

  • 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.

  • Sundays, April 3 and 10, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Garden Adventurers Lectures

    On Sundays, April 3 and April 10, come to Heritage Museum & Gardens, 67 Grove Street in Sandwich, and travel to exotic gardens vicariously through the exploits of other Garden Adventurers! On April 3, Jonathan Shaw will share his visits to Japan’s most beautiful and unique gardens, including Kenrokuen Garden (The Six Sublimities, pictured below) in Kanazawa and Saihoji (The Temple Moss Garden). Mr. Shaw was formerly Director of the New England Wildflower Society at the Garden in the Woods near Boston, and is the retired President of Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales, Florida. He lives in Sandwich, his native town, where he has an extensive garden in the Village that he and Norwegian wife Eugenie maintain. Then on April 10, Linda Calmes Jones, who chairs Heritage’s Board of Trustees, will share her garden travel experience to London’s Chelsea Flower Show (The Great Spring Show) and various English gardens. Join them for both of these inspiring presentations, free with museum admission.  For more information, log on to www.heritagemuseumsandgardens.org, or call 508-888-3300.  Image from www.kanazawa-tourism.com.