Bryan Connolly will speak at Elm Bank on Thursday, July 30 beginning at 7 pm in the Parkman Room on the techniques and benefits of seed saving. Connolly is author of the Organic Seed Production and Saving: The Wisdom of Plant Heritage, which covers both the history and cycle of seed saving. This colorful presentation will give you the courage and knowledge to try seed saving. Lecture Fee: Mass Hort Members $10, Non-Members $15. Register on line at www.masshort.org.
Move beyond the commercial teabag and explore how to blend your own unique herbal teas. In this Massachusetts Horticultural Society class at Elm Bank on Thursday, July 16 from 7 – 8:30,you will learn how to create delicious, personal tea beverages and experience different techniques of making cold and hot water infusions. Steph Zabel, herbalist, ethnobotonist and educator, will review the art of choosing roots, leaves, flowers, and berries to make harmonious blends and will also discuss the health benefits of the herbs we use. Come prepared to sample lots of tea!
Steph Zabel is an herbalist and educator based in Somerville, Massachusetts. For over a decade she has combined her passions for natural medicine, community outreach, and education. She holds a Master’s degree in ethnobotany and has completed several herbal apprenticeships including a three-year training in clinical herbalism. Prior to launching her herbal business, Steph began her professional career working in the botanical collections of the Harvard University Herbaria. Her current work focuses on teaching practical and inspiring herbal classes and offering dynamic wellness sessions for her clients. Steph is also the founder of HERBSTALK, Boston’s vibrant community herbal conference, through which she creates accessible educational opportunities for all plant enthusiasts! To learn more about Steph, visit her website http://www.flowerfolkherbs.com.Â
Mass Hort members $10, non-members $15. Register today using the following link to reserve your spot – space is limited: http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07eaw9weedbc6ae09b&llr=kzaorjcab Contact Hannah Traggis at htraggis@masshort.org or 617-933-4943 for more information. Phone Number: 617-933-4943.
Join the Massachusetts Horticultural Society at Elm Bank on Thursday, July 23, from 6 – 8:30 pm, for our summer music and arts series, sponsored by Wellesley Bank Charitable Foundation. This evening will feature an Art Walk of artists showcasing their work throughout the gardens. It is a chance for the community to buy original art from the artists who make it. Enjoy live music in the Maple Grove, bring a picnic, and wander the gardens. We will also have family art projects for kids. Free to all!
If you are interested in being one of our showcased artists on our Art Walk, please complete the Artist Application to be found at www.masshort.org and return it as soon as possible to reserve your space. If you have any questions, please email Amy Rodrigues at amyrodrigues2@aol.com.
Massachusetts Horticultural Society Garden Keeper Susan Hammond will show you how your plan from seed catalogs grows into a producing vegetable garden. She will discuss the unique varieties growing in our educational garden, the techniques used to increase yields, and give you firsthand experience troubleshooting common garden problems. We’ll discuss late season planting, maintenance and harvest. And assess how all that snow affected our gardens. Come with questions!
The first part of this Saturday, July 11 program (10 – noon) will be held in the Elm Bank Education Building, and the program will end in the Garden to Table Vegetable Garden.
Susan Hammond is a Lifetime Master Gardener with the Massachusetts Master Gardener Association. She’s been gardening since childhood, with a special focus on edible plants. She is responsible for the Mass Hort’s 6,000 square foot Garden to Table Vegetable Garden, where she enjoys teaching visitors and volunteers about vegetable gardening. Lecture Fee: Mass Hort Members $10, Non-Members $15. Register online at www.masshort.org. Photo from www.sharpercut.com.
Karen O’Brien will guide participants through Elm Bank’s Teaching Herb Garden, and show how easy it is to propagate herbs, either by sowing, layering, dividing or through cuttings, in this Massachusetts Horticultural Society class on Saturday, June 27, from 10 – 12. Participants will take away an herb or two for their own gardens or pots, and a greater understanding of how herbs can enhance their lives.
Karen O’Brien is a member of the New England Unit of The Herb Society of America (NEUHSA) and maintains their Teaching Herb Garden at Elm Bank. The NEUHSA installed the Teaching Herb Garden on the grounds of the Gardens at Elm Bank in 2001. The garden was designed by Marie Stella, a noted landscape historian and designer, and a former member of the New England Unit of The Herb Society of America.
Please attend dressed to get your hands a little dirty in the garden. Lecture Fee: Mass Hort Members $5, Non-Members $8. Register online at www.masshort.org.
Join Chef John Lawrence from Peppers Fine Catering as he prepares an early spring dinner featuring local produce and herbs that will way up all your senses. Enjoy a class of wine and seasonal cocktail as John teaches us how to make the most of the early season’s offerings. The dinner will take place in The Crockett Garden at The Gardens at Elm Bank on Tuesday, June 2, from 6 – 8:30. Cost: Mass Hort Members $65, Non-Members $70. Register at http://www.masshort.org/eventdetail/142/422|427|433/garden-to-table-s-spring-dinner-in-the-crockett-garden?filter_reset=1.
Living in an apartment? Have no yard? Downsizing? Attend this Massachusetts Horticultural Society lecture on Thursday, May 28 from 7 – 8:30 in the Parkman Room of Elm Bank Education Building, 900 Washington Street in Wellesley, to gain tips and tricks on how to grow your own garden in small spaces even if you have no soil to call your own.
Gretel Anspach is a Trustee of Mass Hort, a Lifetime Master Gardener, Education Coordinator and past president of the Massachusetts Master Gardener Association and a retired systems engineer for Raytheon. Gretel is also a member of the Garden to Table committee at Mass Hort and helped to establish and maintain a food production garden at Raytheon that has provided fresh produce to the Marlboro Food Pantry for five years. Image from www.ecosalon.com.
Lecture Fee: Mass Hort Members $10, Non-Members $15. Register online at http://www.masshort.org/eventdetail/172/422|427|433/urban-gardening?filter_reset=1.
Let the Massachusetts Horticultural Society introduce you to the beautiful world of rhododendrons and azaleas on Thursday, May 21 from 7 – 8:30 in the Parkman Room of Elm Bank Education Building, 900 Washington Street in Wellesley. Learn how adaptable they are to all garden spaces and floral interests. Don Brophy, president of the Massachusetts Chapter of the Rhododendron Society will share his experiences gardening in Elm Bank’s sunny Rhododendron Display Garden, and in smaller, private landscapes. At Elm Bank, there is opportunity to focus on the “other†rhododendrons and to test many plants for sun tolerance. The garden today is a mix of old plants, newer mature plants, and even newer trial plants under evaluation.
Don Brophy currently serves as President of the Massachusetts Chapter of the Rhododendron Society. The Massachusetts Chapter has several programs in place, including the Display Garden at Elm Bank, educational lectures, truss shows and sales at Mass Hort’s Gardeners’ Fair, and a fall foliage show. Photo of ‘Surrey Heath’ from www.rhodoland.nl.
Lecture Fee: Mass Hort Members $10, Non-Members $15. Register online at http://www.masshort.org/eventdetail/171/422|427|433/rhododendrons-for-our-garden-yours?filter_reset=1.
This Massachusetts Horticultural Society six session course in landscape design is directed to the do-it-yourself home gardeners who would like to design their own garden space. Mark Ahronian of Ahronian Landscaping and Design will lead you through all the steps of designing your chosen space. The goal is for participants to leave the class with a complete design of their own making.
Course is $275 for Mass Hort members, $300 for non-members. Course meets at Elm Bank, 900 Washington Street, Wellesley, on Tuesday evenings, April 5 – April 28 6:30-8:30pm, and two Saturday mornings, April 18 and April 25 10am-Noon.
Registration is limited and pre-registration is required. Register online at http://www.masshort.org/eventdetail/94/422|427|430|433/fundamentals-of-landscape-design?filter_reset=1.
Alan Banks of the National Park Service will be at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society on Thursday, February 26, from 7 – 8:30, to present on the firm Frederick Law Olmsted founded over a century ago which was involved in over 1,200 landscape architecture projects throughout Massachusetts, ranging from expansive 500-acre public parks to intimate private gardens. One of its greatest achievements is a six-mile “emerald necklace” of ponds, parks, and parkways that winds its way through Boston. This one-hour slide lecture will sample this rich landscape legacy and explore the ideas that shaped some of the most treasured lands in Massachusetts – including the work of the firm for the Baltzell family at Elm Bank.
Alan S. Banks oversees the historical interpretation of Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site in Brookline, Massachusetts. During the last 23 years he has researched and developed a variety of landscape walking tours, slide lectures and presentations on the Olmsteds and their work across the country. In 2010, he was an invited speaker at the Appalachian Institute at Biltmore Estate in North Carolina and later that year he traveled to Milwaukee to speak on Olmsted-designed, Lake Park. Last year he was the keynote speaker at the regional meeting of the American Society of Landscape Architects in Atlanta. He also recently was seen on Olmsted and America’s Urban Parks, a documentary screened on PBS across the country featuring Kevin Kline and Kerry Washington.
Lecture Fee: Mass Hort Members $10, Non-Members $15. The lecture will take place in the Parkman Room of the Elm Bank Education Building, Washington Street in Wellesley. Register online at http://www.masshort.org/eventdetail/140/422|427|430|433/frederick-law-olmsted-the-massachusetts-legacy?filter_reset=1.
