Boston Flora

Tag: Elm Bank

  • Thursday, May 17, 7:00 pm – Designing a Dramatic Perennial Garden

    Once limited to a handful of tried-and-true choices, gardeners today can choose from an abundance of cultivars when creating a perennial garden. Creating that dramatic garden is a matter of both choosing the right plants and knowing how to combine them to best effect. Join the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and Laura Eisener of Laura Eisener Landscape Design on Thursday, May 17, at 7 pm at Elm Bank in Wellesley. Register online at www.masshort.org.  Based in Saugus, Massachusetts, Landscape Designer Laura Eisener also teaches at the Arnold Arboretum Landscape Design Institute of Harvard University.

  • Thursday, May 10, 7:00 pm – The Dirt on Dirt

    Kathi Gariepy of the Massachusetts Master Gardener Association will speak at Elm Bank in Wellesley on Thursday, May 10, beginning at 7 pm, as part of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s ongoing Thursday night series.  Her topic?  The Dirt on Dirt.  Enough said.  Register for this free event on line at www.masshort.org.  Image from River of Love Urban Farmstead.

  • Wednesday, July 4 – Monday, July 9 – Thirtieth Perennial Plant Symposium

    The yearly Perennial Plant Symposium is the only annual symposium devoted entirely to perennials. It is also the oldest with the first symposium presented in 1983. The location changes each year. Enjoy learning about and observing perennials, gardens, and production facilities all across the USA and Canada. This summer the annual meeting of the Perennial Plant Association takes place in Boston, Massachusetts. The conference includes optional tours before and after the symposium, trips to public and private gardens, a trade show, and retail, grower, or designer’s talks and tours. Selected highlights include:

    July 4th: Optional walking horticultural tour of Boston, historical tour by bus of Boston, Lexington and Concord,  and fireworks cruise

    July 5th: Public Day Seminar Speakers

    Julie Merservy:  Home Outside – Creating the Landscape You Love

    Debra Knape: Good Enough To Eat – Designing Edible Landscapes

    David Culp:  Best of Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow

    Adrian Bloom:   Bloom’s Best Perennials and Grasses

    Roger Swain: Ace of Shovels: Finding the Perfect Garden Tool

    Laura Deeter: Bringing Your Perennials Up Right

    July 6th: Eleven fascinating presentations featuring growers, landscape designers, and retailers, plus Keynote by Julie Merservy:  Hearing the Stream With Open Eyes – The Evolution of a Designer

    July 7th: Morning Bench to Border Tours of Cavicchio Greenhouses, Stonegate Gardens, Russell’s Garden Center, Garden in the Woods, Weston Nursery, and Tower Hill Botanic Garden.

    Afternoon Divine by Design Garden Tours of four private gardens, Elm Bank (Massachusetts Horticultural Society), Weston Nursery, and Tower Hill Botanic Garden.

    July 8th – Trade Show and Sixteen Lectures on topics ranging from Biological Controls to New and Upcoming Coreopsis Cultivars to Container Gardening.

    July 9 – Optional Tour to garden centers and Newport gardens

    July 10 – Option Tour:  Journey to the Edge!  The Maine Event.  Visit five wholesale and retail growers in New Hampshire and Maine, and experience a lobster bake at the Coastal Maine Botanic Garden.

     

    Lectures, reception and the trade show will take place at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel, 50 Park Plaza at Arlington Street. The room rate is: $129 for Single or $129 for Double.  Non Perennial Plant Association members are invited to register for the entire conference at non-member rates, or just for the public day on July 5th.  Registration information will be available at www.perennialplant.org.  This is a fabulous opportunity for our Boston area gardening community to participate in one of the nation’s premier horticultural events.

     

  • Sunday, May 20, 9:00 am – 3:30 pm – Great Tomato Celebration and Society Row Plant Sale at Elm Bank

    Quick: what’s the difference between ‘Sungold’ and ‘Black Cherry’ cherry tomatoes? ‘San Marzano’ and ‘Martino’s Roma’ paste tomatoes? ‘Red Brandywine’ and ‘Mortgage Lifter’ beefsteak varieties? And just exact what kind of tomato is a ‘Missouri Pink Love Apple’, ‘Orange Flesh Purple Smudge’, and ‘Pink Ping Pong’? You’ll have the opportunity to find out the answers to those questions – and to purchase those varieties of tomatoes – on Sunday, May 20 from 9:00 – 3:30 when one of the major horticultural events of the year will be held in MetroWest Boston’s back yard.

    The Massachusetts Horticultural Society hosts the Society Row Plant Sale at Elm Bank. Again this year, the Society Row sale is joined by The Great Tomato Celebration , which is hosted jointly by Mass Hort and White Flower Farm of Litchfield, Connecticut. ‘Society Row’ isn’t about high society. Rather, the name refers to the thirteen plant societies that come together for the annual event. These societies, together with a group of specialty nurseries, offer an extraordinary array of high-quality plants for your garden. Among the groups that will be represented are the Hosta Society, Lilac Society, Begonia Society, Rhododendron Society, Miniature Plant Society, Daylily Society, and the Herb Society. Collectively, they’ll offer thousands of plants grown by members; many of them unusual cultivars. The Massachusetts Horticultural Society will also sell perennials and annuals grown in its own greenhouses.

    Many of the local chapters of plant specialist societies will continue to offer their own plant varieties including unusual and popular cultivars that Society Row has provided for more than 75 years.

    Vendors from around New England will also be selling anything you can think of to help you plant your garden at home including:

    – A variety of pots, containers and raised bedding
    – Seeds, seedlings and young plants
    – Fruits, vegetables, and flowers for planting
    – Garden sculpture
    – Garden and patio furniture
    – Tools and Clothing
    – Horticultural vendors: landscape designers, arborists, landscapers

    Mass Hort has planned a full day of lectures, children’s’ activities, food vendors, and fun for the whole family.  For more information, visit www.masshort.org.

    Special members’ hours: 8:00 -9:00 am
    Open to the public: 9:00 am – 3:30pm

     

     

     

  • Thursday, May 3, 7:00 pm – Backyard Apples

    The visual experience of flowering fruit trees in the home landscape is surpassed only by the delicious variety of summer and fall fruits which they produce. Growing apples successfully can be a horticultural challenge, but it can be done! Dr. Wes Autio will present a program at Elm Bank on Thursday, May 3 beginning at 7 pm  on how to grow apples in the home landscape. Varieties, root stocks, young-tree care, nutrition, pruning, training, and pest control will be covered.

    Wes Autio grew up in a rural/tourist part of western Maine and received his B.S. degree in Horticulture from Virginia Tech and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Pomology from UMass. In 1985, he joined the faculty at the University of Massachusetts. He currently serves as the UMass Fruit Program Leader and Coordinator of the Stockbridge School of Agriculture’s Fruit & Vegetable Crops Program. He regularly interacts with tree-fruit farmers and the many individuals interested in tree fruit in the landscape. His research focuses on apple and peach rootstocks and controlling growth of apple trees with mechanical and hormonal approaches.  Photo from Through a Glass, Darkly. Free, but registration recommended at www.masshort.org.

  • Sunday, May 6, 8:00 am – 4:00 pm – The Art of Garden Photography with Rich Pomerantz

    Learn the basics of garden photography with this Massachusetts Horticultural Society hands-on photography workshop on Sunday, May 6 at Elm Bank, from 8 – 4, that will teach you how to effectively use ‘magic light’ and apply the rule of thirds when composing your images. Plan to spend most of the day shooting, with a designated period to download imagery and review your work. Garden Club of the Back Bay speaker Rich Pomerantz’s critique is one of the most popular parts of the workshop!

    Bring your camera, charged battery, storage cards, lenses, and enthusiasm.  The cost of this workshop is $95 for members and $125 for non-members. There is also an option for a $10 lunch. You may register at www.masshort.org.The workshop is limited to 12 participants.  Learn more about Rich Pomerantz at his website, richpomerantz.com.

  • Thursday, April 26, 7:00 pm – Grass-Free Small Gardens

    Designing a landscape with shrubs, sub-shrubs, and ground-covers can eliminate the chore of mowing and significantly reduce the need for supplementary water and fertilizer. This Massachusetts Horticultural Society slide lecture given by Sally Muspratt of Sally Muspratt Landscape Design explores ways of creating beautiful, ecologically responsible, low maintenance plantings without enraging the neighbors with horticulturally correct sunburned, shaggy lawns. The lecture begins at 7 pm on Thursday, April 26, at Elm Bank in Wellesley, and although free, registration is recommended at www.masshort.org.  Photo from www.guardian.co.uk.

  • Thursday, April 19, 7:00 pm – Vegetable Garden Design for a Full Season of Great Food

    The secret to a great garden is in the planning.  The vegetable garden benefits greatly from good planning.  If you start early and make choices wisely, you can enjoy a summer’s worth of vegetables with plenty left over for storing or sharing.  Your vegetable garden can be a fun and healthy choice as you make the decisions about what to grow and how you want them grown.  Betty Sanders (www.BettyOnGardening.com) leads this Massachusetts Horticultural Society lecture on Thursday, April 19, beginning at 7 pm at Elm Bank.  Betty is a Lifetime Master Gardener, and co-designed the Chef’s Garden at Elm Bank in 2011.  Her horticultural hints appear monthly in Mass Hort’s Leaflet, and on her website.  To register for this free event, visit www.masshort.org.

  • Thursday, March 22, 7:00 pm – Starting Seeds Indoors

    Join the Massachusetts Horticultural Society on Thursday, March 22 at Elm Bank in Wellesley, beginning at 7 pm, for a talk by Gretel Anspach entitled Starting Seeds Indoors.  Get a jump on the season by starting your plants from seeds.  It’s cheaper than buying transplants, offers a much broader variety of plants, and can be quite addictive!  Gretel is a Lifetime Master Gardener and a trustee of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.  Visit www.masshort.org to register to attend this free event.

  • Tuesday, March 13, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Impressive Entryways

    As part of the True North Garden & Landscape Series,  The Massachusetts Horticultural Society is hosting Barbara Pierson at Elm Bank on Tuesday, March 13, from 10 – noon.  She  will lecture on creating Impressive Entryways.  In this class, you’ll delight in discovering dramatic, colorful combinations for steps, porches and patios. Also included are the latest in container trends and new breeding for flower power. Barbara Pierson is the Director of Greenhouse Operations at White Flower Farm.

    To RSVP, please call 781-433-6400.