Boston Flora

Tag: Boston Committee

  • Thursday, May 9, 10:30 am – Boston Committee of the GCA Spring Meeting and Luncheon

    The Boston Committee of The Garden Club of America invites members of its constituent fourteen clubs to its Spring Meeting and Luncheon on Thursday, May 9, beginning with registration and coffee at 10:30 am at The Country Club, 191 Clyde Street in Brookline. The featured speaker will be John Tschirch, Director of Museum Affairs for the Preservation Society of Newport County, speaking on The Eden of America.

    John Tschirch is an architectural historian specializing the in the artistic and social evolution of historic houses and landscapes. He joined the Preservation Society of Newport County in 1986; in 2010, he became the director of the newly created Department of Museum Affairs, where he oversees curatorial, conservation and academic program functions. Mr. Tschirch has lectured widely on houses and gardens from the Renaissance through the nineteenth century. He is the author of the Preservation Society publication Newport Landscapes (2004) and The Evolution of a Beaux Arts Landscape: The Breakers in Newport, RI for the Journal of the New England Garden History Society (Fall 1999) and serves as historic advisor for the Preservation Society’s 11 historic landscapes.

    Newport was referred to as the “Eden of America” by Jedediah Morse in the First Geography of the United States (1789). This illustrated lecture presents landscape paintings by leading American artists and rare photographic views that capture Newport’s distinguished gardens from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Avid patrons, talented gardeners, legendary garden parties and present-day efforts to preserve this remarkable landscape heritage will come alive as historian and raconteur John Tschirch evokes the history he sees— quite literally—thick on the ground.

    The cost of the lecture and luncheon is $60, lecture only $30. Please make your check payable to The Boston Committee of the GCA and mail to Karen Gregg, 238 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston,  Massachusetts 02116 before Monday, May 6 and note on the memo portion of your check your Garden Club affiliation. All reservations will be held at the door. Garden Club of the Back Bay members will receive written invitations and a car pool notice in the mail.

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  • Thursday, November 15, 10:30 am – 1:30 pm – Park and Public Garden Design: Trends for the 21st Century

    The Boston Committee of the Garden Club of America invites members and guests to its Fall Lecture and Luncheon on Thursday, November 15, at The Country Club, 191 Clyde Street in Brookline.  The guest speaker will be Don Rakow, who will speak on Park and Public Garden Design: Trends for the 21st Century.  Don Rakow is the E.N. Wilds Director of the Cornell Plantations, including botanical gardens, a 150 acre arboretum and over 4,300 acres of natural areas of Cornell University.  Don also serves as an associate professor in the Department of Horticulture in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.  His own research focuses on the history and management of public gardens, and their role in human culture.  Don is the lead author of the textbook Public Garden Management, and is also writing a book on the evolution of European botanical gardens.  $50 lecture and luncheon, $25 lecture only.  If you are a member of a garden club affiliated with The Boston Committee, and have not already responded to your written invitation, send a check made out to The Boston Committee of the GCA and mail it to Karen Gregg, 238 Commonwealth Avenue, #5, Boston, MA 02116 by November 10.  All reservations will be held at the door.  If you are not a member but wish to attend, send your check as set forth above, and please note on your check that you have been referred by The Garden Club of the Back Bay.

  • The Garden Club of the Back Bay Announces 2012 Grants at Annual Meeting

    The Garden Club of the Back Bay Announces 2012 Grants at Annual Meeting

    The Annual Meeting of The Garden Club of the Back Bay, Inc. took place Monday, May 14, and $66,000 in grants and expenditures were unanimously approved by the membership. Co-President Jackie Blombach is pictured below announcing the grants to the attendees.

    Thirty thousand dollars has been set aside for street tree care, including planting, pruning, and inoculating.  In addition to this amount, the following organizations will benefit from our Club’s fund raising successes, including our holiday wreath project and our upcoming Twilight Garden Party:

    $5,000 to The Friends of Copley Square, for treating with fertilizer and fungicide the diseased trees (the ones not being removed) for root stress due to canker stain and compacted ground conditions.

    $5,000 to The Friends of the Public Garden, to continue the inoculation of elms against Dutch elm disease.  The street trees to be treated are not on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, but are located on Commonwealth Avenue beyond Massachusetts Avenue.

    $5,000 to The Esplanade Association, for the Eliot Memorial Demonstration Garden.

    $5,000 to the Commonwealth Avenue Mall Committee, for its Historic Elm Preservation Project.

    $3,000 to the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, to help pay for plant material for the completion of Mother’s Rest, at Boylston Street and The Fenway.

    $3,000 to City Roots/Urban Ecology Institute, for plant materials (trees and shrubs) for a project underway in Allston/Brighton, which also includes a citizen science and education component.

    $3,000 to the Boston Nature Center of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, supporting some level of scholarships to twenty children for the summer camp.  The children range in age from 5 to 14 and are from the local neighborhoods of Mattapan, Roslindale, and Jamaica Plain.

    $2,000 to the Charles River Clean Up Boat, helping keep our beloved river trash free.

    $500 to the Ellis Neighborhood Association, to inoculate an historic elm tree in the South End against Dutch elm disease. This contribution will cover half the expense of the treatment, with the other half being paid by the Ellis Neighborhood Association.

    $500 to The Blossom Fund of The Boston Committee of The Garden Club of America, for our five year fund raising effort to be awarded next year to a project in or around The Rose Kennedy Greenway.

    Additionally, we are purchasing four tree fences to be installed in the neighborhood, three in front of The First Lutheran Church on Berkeley Street, and one in front of The French Cultural Center of Boston, on Marlborough Street, at a total cost of $4,000.

    We congratulate all our grant recipients, and thank our supporters for giving us the ability to beautify Boston.

  • Thursday, April 26, 10:30 am – Boston Committee Spring Meeting and Luncheon – Living on Earth

    The Boston Committee of The Garden Club of America invites members of its constituent fourteen clubs to its Spring Meeting and Luncheon on Thursday, April 26, beginning with registration at 10:30 am at The Country Club, 191 Clyde Street in Brookline. The featured speaker will be Steve Curwood.

    In 1970, as a writer for the Boston Phoenix just out of Harvard University, Steve broke the story that Polaroid’s instant photo system was key to apartheid pass system in South Africa. Steve moved on to the Boston Globe as an investigative reporter and columnist and shared the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service as part of the Boston Globe’s education team.  His production credits in public broadcasting include reporter and host for NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered, host of NPR’s World of Opera, producer for the PBS series The Advocates with Mike Dukakis, and creator, host and executive producer of Living on Earth, the prize-winning weekly environmental radio program heard for more than 20 years on public radio stations  and distributed by Public Radio International (PRI) since 2006.

    The cost of the lecture and luncheon is $50, lecture only $25. Please make your check payable to The Boston Committee of the GCA and mail to Jensie Shipley, 40 Dunster Road, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467 before April 19, 2012, and note on the memo portion of your check your Garden Club affiliation. All reservations will be held at the door. Garden Club of the Back Bay members will receive written invitations and a car pool notice in the mail.

  • Request For Proposals for Boston Committee Grant

    Established in 1989, The Boston Committee of the Garden Club of America is a consortium of 14 garden clubs in the greater Boston area, from Buzzards Bay to the South, and coastal Maine to the north, with a total membership of 1,100 individuals. The Garden Club of the Back Bay is an affiliate member of The Boston Committee.

    Over the past years, the Boston Committee has awarded $110,000, through its Blossom Fund, to various not for profit groups in the City of Boston, for the purpose of beautifying our urban spaces. The Fund has been most effective when used to leverage larger grants. It has been at the forefront of projects such as the construction of the Blackwell Path at the Arnold Arboretum, which allows access to the Arboretum from public transportation. The Blossom Fund has helped with the construction and planting of a butterfly garden and maple tree allee at Massachusetts Audubon Society’s George Robert White Nature Center, in Mattapan. It has provided money for the restoration of the Kelleher Rose Garden on the Emerald Necklace. The Esplanade Association purchased irrigation equipment, the Charles River Conservancy restored the landscape surrounding the Eliot Bridge, and a garden was established at the Neighborhood Charter School, all with the help of the Blossom Fund.

    Now, the Boston Committee is soliciting proposals for a project in the vicinity of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway. We expect to award a single grant for $50,000, with the potential to collaboratively raise additional funds in the future.

    The Committee members agree that innovation, positive community impact, and horticultural achievement must be the hallmarks of a successful Greenway proposal. Sustainability and future maintenance are important considerations. The grant will not be awarded for general fund drives, endowments, or for operating or staffing costs. The successful applicant must work with us to raise additional monies in the final year of the fund drive. Importantly, applicants must be an exempt organization under the IRS code.

    Complete details may be obtained by email. Contact Michele Hanss, current Chairman of The Boston Committee, at m.hanss@comcast.net. Applications are due February 10. We have received notice that applications may be forthcoming from the Friends of Christopher Columbus Park, The Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, the Boston Aquarium, and the Boston Harbor Walk. After a full review and interviews, member Clubs will vote for the winning application, to be announced at our Annual Meeting in the fall of 2012, after which we will embark on the final year of fund raising. We encourage all groups in or around the Greenway to submit applications.

  • Garden Club of the Back Bay Announces Annual Grant Recipients

    Thanks in no small part to the continued success of our recent Twilight Garden Party, The Garden Club of the Back Bay announces that the following organizations will receive a total of $20,000 in financial grants for 2011:

    The Commonwealth Avenue Mall Committee – $5,000 to be credited to the Hereford Street to Massachusetts Avenue  air spading project fund.

    The Friends of the Public Garden – $4,000 to continue the inoculation of elms at risk for contracting Dutch elm disease.

    The Esplanade Association – $2,500 for the Elliot Oval Landscape Restoration, planting new trees and treating trees already on site, near the newly restored Community Boating docks.

    Emerald Necklace Conservancy – $2,500 for a planned meadow to be developed with native species and wildflowers.

    Boston Nature Center/Massachusetts Audubon Society – $2,500 to support six full scholarships for its summer camp.  The children attending the camp range in age from 5 to 14 and are from the local neighborhoods of Mattapan, Roslindale, and Jamaica Plain.

    Charles River Clean Up Boat – $2,000, to help continue the project of keeping the Charles River trash-free.

    Urban Ecology Institute – $1,000 to help with its Grow Boston Greener tree planting initiative.

    The Boston Committee of the Garden Club of America – $500 to the Blossom Fund, which is accumulating funds over a five year period to be awarded to a deserving project on or about the Rose Kennedy Greenway.

    For more information on all these important organizations and to learn more about the work they do, visit their website links above.  In addition to the above grants, The Garden Club of the Back Bay will spend an additional $20,000 on planting, pruning, and treating the street trees in our neighborhood over the coming year.  Thank you to all our volunteers and contributors for making our horticultural endeavors happen!

  • Thursday, April 14, 10:30 am – Boston Committee Spring Meeting & Luncheon: The Artful Garden

    The Boston Committee of The Garden Club of America invites members of its constituent fourteen clubs to its Spring Meeting and Luncheon on Thursday, April 14, beginning with registration at 10:30 am at The Country Club, 191 Clyde Street in Brookline.  The featured speaker will be Sheila Brady, a partner at the renowned landscape architecture firm Oehme, van Sweden and Associates, pioneers of the New American style.  Ms. Brady will talk about the new book The Artful Garden: Creative Inspiration for Landscape Design by James van Sweden and Tom Christopher.  Whether it’s a ten-foot-square city terrace or a ten-acre expanse, the same principles of design apply.  Ms. Brady will discuss the connection between the path in a garden and the horizon of an iconic painting, the syncopation of jazz and the free form of nature, the intrigue of a good novel, and the mystery of a thoughtfully sculpted landscape.  Copies of the book will be available at the meeting by pre-order, at a cost of $35, with proceeds benefiting The Blossom Fund.  The cost of the lecture and luncheon is $50, lecture only $25.  Please make your check payable to The Boston Committee of the GCA and mail to Diane Cullen, 52 Willow Street, Dover, MA 02030 before April 8, 2011, and note on the memo portion of your check your Garden Club affiliation.  All reservations will be held at the door.  Garden Club of the Back Bay members will receive written invitations and a car pool notice in the mail.

  • Thursday, November 18, 11:00 am – Annual Meeting and Fall Luncheon of The Boston Committee of the GCA

    The Annual Meeting and Fall Luncheon of The Boston Committee of the GCA will take place Thursday, November 18 at The Country Club, 191 Clyde Street, Brookline. Registration will begin at 10:30 am, with the meeting and lecture beginning at 11:00 am, followed by luncheon in the dining room.

    This year’s guest speaker is Dominique Browning. For over a decade, Dominique Browning brought gardening expertise to readers around the country as editor-in-chief of House & Garden magazine. But one Monday morning in 2007, the magazine folded and she was told to pack up her office. She also packed up the house where she had raised two children and had lovingly tended her own garden. After losing the job that defined her and the garden that inspired her, Browning started to cultivate a new garden, beginning a journey of self-discovery and reinvention. Join Browning, author of Slow Love: How I Lost My Job, Put on My Pajamas, and Found Happiness, as she shares how the spirit of a new garden helped her to love the unexpected, unanticipated life.  The book will be available for purchase for $23 by pre-order only, with proceeds benefiting The Blossom Fund.  Lecture and Luncheon: $45, Lecture only: $20.  To register, make checks payable to The Boston Committee of the GCA and mail to Mrs. William U. Shipley, 40 Dunster Road, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 no later than November 12.  Reservations will be held at the door.  Please indicate the name of your Garden Club on your check.

  • Wednesday, April 14, 10:30 am – The Boston Committee of the Garden Club of America Spring Lecture Luncheon

    On Wednesday, April 14, The Boston Committee of the Garden Club of America will host the Spring Lecture Luncheon at The Country Club, 191 Clyde Street, Brookline, with guest speaker Tupper Thomas, Administrator of Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York, who will speak on “Continuing the Olmsted Legacy.”  Also, the 2010 Boston Bowl will be awarded this year to two outstanding individuals, Betsy Shure Gross and Corliss Knapp Engle.  Registration begins at 10:30 am, with an 11:00 am lecture, followed by lunch.

    Appointed in 1980 as the first administrator of Prospect Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Ms. Thomas is responsible to the Commissioner for planning and overseeing the $100 million dollar capital restoration of Prospect Park.

    The meeting is open to members of the fourteen member and affiliate member clubs of The Boston Committee: Beacon Hill Garden Club, Garden Club of Buzzards Bay, Cambridge Plant & Garden Club, Chestnut Hill Garden Club, Cohasset Garden Club, Fox Hill Garden Club, Milton Garden Club, Noanett Garden Club, North Shore Garden Club, Piscataqua Garden Club, Garden Club of the Back Bay, Garden Club of Brookline, Junior League of Boston Garden Club, and the Manchester Garden Club, and their guests. The fee to attend is $45 for the lecture and lunch, $20 for the lecture only.  Please make checks payable to “The Boston Committee of the GCA” and mail to Mrs. William U. Shipley, 40 Dunster Road, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 before April 8.  Please note the name of your Club on your check.  If you have questions, you may email jwshipley@aol.com.

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  • Wednesday, September 30, 10 am – 1 pm – Two Collectors’ Gardens

    Visit two of the area’s finest fall gardens in their autumn glory.  The Dover garden sits on an acre of land, not far from the Charles River, with rich alluvial soil and plenty of moisture and light.  With these ingredients, Carrie Waterman has created an outstanding naturalistic garden, which has evolved to accommodate the owner’s passions for plant propagation, native plants and color. Plants with long bloom times and handsome foliage fill the mixed borders which peak in fall splendor. In nearby Needham, discover a fall garden that glows in the autumn light, highlighting a collection of brilliant maples, golden birches and deciduous confers, beech, bamboos and grasses of every type.  Using variation in foliage size, color, and texture, Ellen Lathi has achieved a bold and colorful effect for four-season interest. Natural stone, a bog filled with large-leafed plants, and a stream add to the fall scene. Both gardeners are fans of serendipity and love to see the native plants, with the help of the birds, spread themselves around and get comfortable!  Many Garden Club of the Back Bay members may remember seeing Ellen Lahti’s slide presentation at The Country Club last year, sponsored by The Boston Committee.  This tour is presented by The New England Wild Flower Society, and will cost $30 if a NEWFS member, $36 if a non member.  To register, log on to www.newfs.org, or call 508-877-7630.http://images.mooseyscountrygarden.com/mooseys-garden-tour/driveway-garden/autumn-garden-colors.jpg