Boston Flora

Tag: City Roots

  • Garden Club of the Back Bay Announces 2013 Grants

    At the Annual Meeting of The Garden Club of the Back Bay, members voted to approve the grant recommendations proposed by its Co-Presidents Jackie Blombach and Jolinda Taylor and by the Executive Committee of the Club.

    Our major focus in the coming year will be the completion of the Linden Project on Beacon Street.  Over 60 historic linden trees will be professionally pruned, at a cost of $35,000.  $5,000 of the total will be paid with a grant received from the City of Boston, with The Garden Club of the Back Bay contributing the balance.  In addition to our tree care project, we will give $5,000 to the Commonwealth Avenue Mall Committee for its tree, turf and soil project on the Charlesgate block of the Mall, and another $5,000 to the Friends of the Public Garden to continue the inoculation of elms against Dutch elm disease.

    Other organizations receiving Garden Club of the Back Bay grants this June are the Boston Nature Center of the Massachusetts Audubon Society – $2,000 to support scholarships for its summer camp for children aged 5 – 14, $2,000 to City Roots/Urban Ecology Institute for a project in partnership with Roslindale Wetlands and the Boston Parks and Recreation Department’s Urban Wilds Initiative, $2,500 to the Esplanade Association for the Eliot Garden Project, and $1,000 each to the Charles River Cleanup Boat and The Friends of Copley Square, and $500 to The Boston Committee of the GCA, in support of a grant made by the Blossom Fund to The Friends of Christopher Columbus Park for a landscape design plan to beautify a neglected circle adjacent to Christopher Columbus Park.

    Finally, $1,000 has been set aside to honor the victims of the Marathon bombing through a donation to a healing garden at one of the area’s hospitals or rehabilitation centers. In the next few weeks members of the Club will visit potential grantees and assess where the donation will have the most impact.  We will report back when a decision is made.

    Thanks go to all our supporters, those of you who buy a ticket to our Twilight Garden Party on June 4, or a holiday wreath in December, for without your generosity, these worthy expenditures of $56,000 could not be made.

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  • 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.

  • Garden Club of the Back Bay Holiday Wreaths – “Green Spending”

    Why should you buy from us? Yes, we know you could order from local florists (at a significantly higher price, we might point out), or from the nurseries or groceries stores (at perhaps a slightly lower cost, with a corresponding drop in quality.) Purchasing our wreaths comes with the satisfaction of knowing you are supporting many wonderful local organizations, in addition to our own.

    Each year we make grants to not for profit groups which are making a difference in our lives. In addition to the Friends of the Public Garden and the Commonwealth Avenue Mall Committee, we donate to the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, the Charles River Clean Up Boat, the Boston Nature Center of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, the Esplanade Association, COG, and to City Roots/The Urban Ecology Institute. This is by no means the complete list of beneficiaries (click on to our Projects page on the menu above for details) but we give approximately $20,000 annually to area groups accomplishing great works which we do not have the expertise or manpower to do ourselves. The dollar amount of these grants is dependent upon our earnings, so we urge you to be generous and allow us the opportunity to enhance your holiday environment with our fresh balsam wreaths.  We also directly pay for the planting, pruning, and inoculation of the street trees in our neighborhood – another $20,000 annual expenditure, give or take a thousand.  As Everett Dirkson used to say,  and I paraphrase, “A million here, a million there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.”  Click HERE for an order form.