Boston Flora

Tag: David H Smith

  • Wednesday, August 6, 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm – Lessons from Stoneleigh: Reimagining Traditional Landscapes with Native Plants

    Join the Polly Hill Arboretum and Ethan Kauffman on August 6 at 5:30 pm for the Annual David H. Smith Memorial Lecture, Lessons from Stoneleigh: Reimaging Traditional Landscapes with Native Plants. The program will be held at the Arboretum, 795 State Road in West Tisbury, and is $10 for PHA members, $15 for nonmembers. Please Pre-Register

    With a 150-year history as a private estate, Stoneleigh: a natural garden became one of the newest public gardens in the Philadelphia region in 2018. Informed by the growing understanding of the connectedness of all living things, a vision arose during the transition: to reimagine a historical landscape as an ecologically vibrant wonderland of native plants. Relying on both tried-and-true gardening techniques and intrepid experimentation, the emerging garden is an exuberant exploration of cultivating native plants in the modern landscape.

    Join Stoneleigh Director Ethan Kauffman as he reveals the unexpected plants, expressive design philosophy, and unconventional practices that are driving Stoneleigh’s exciting transformation.

  • Wednesday, August 14, 5:30 pm – Connect to Protect for Biodiversity

    The Annual David H. Smith Memorial Lecture at the Polly Hill Arboretum will take place Wednesday, August 14 at 5:30 pm and is funded by a grant from The Nature Conservancy, and sponsored by the Dukes Soil Conservation District.

    Jennifer Ceska, Conservation Coordinator at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia, will share the Connect to Protect philosophy and gardening methodology. All gardeners have an opportunity to help support wildlife by layering native plants into their displays, even with potted plants on a patio or cheerful mailbox gardens. Displays can also be larger like grand formal borders, looser cottage style compositions, and even pocket prairies along roadsides, driveways, and rights-of-way. Grasslands, prairies, and meadows are essential on the land or we face losing bird and insect species within our lifetimes. We garden for ourselves and for the bees, butterflies, beetles, birds, bats, and box turtles that rely upon those plants. Native species have looks and personality; they have ecological relevance; and they warrant a spot in your garden.

    $10 / $5 for PHA members.

  • Wednesday, August 12, 7:30 p.m. – Bringing Nature Home

    Can gardeners make a difference for the future of biodiversity in our communities? Come to the Polly Hill Arboretum in West Tisbury, Massachusetts for the Annual David H. Smith Memorial Lecture on Wednesday, August 12, beginning at 7:30 p.m.

    Yes we can! In this talk based on his book, Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens, Douglas Tallamy, professor and chair of the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, reveals the importance of the interaction between plants and insects in our own backyards.

    Tallamy will illustrate the unbreakable link between native plant species and native wildlife: when native plants disappear, native insects disappear, impoverishing the food source for birds as well as other animals. Learn how as gardeners we can help sustain this link by planting native species that support our native wildlife population. Book signing after lecture. $10/$5 for PHA members. Begins at 7:30 pm.  Sponsored by SBS: the Grain Store.  For more information contact Karin Stanley at karin@pollyhillarboretum.org, or call her at 508-693-9426.