Boston Flora

Tag: Ferns

  • Tuesdays, September 27 – November 1, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm – Techniques of Botanical Drawing and Painting: Fungi & Ferns, Live and Online

    Refine your drawing and watercolor techniques with Sarah Roche and Wellesley College Botanic Garden in a six session class beginning Tuesday, September 27. You will focus on achieving the accurate representation of botanical subjects, with the fall project being Fungi & Ferns. Fall in the woods is an exciting time as all the showy plants have faded away, and the fungi, ferns and grasses become the stars. Your composition will be the result of your foraging. Observation, note taking and detailed sketching will be key since your specimens won’t be in their prime for long. You will create a painting of your habitat with all the fall leaves, twigs, ferns and grasses that are associated with your fungi. In person sessions at Elm Bank will take place September 27, October 18, and November 1. Other sessions are online. WCBG members $295, nonmembers $345. Register by calling 781-283-3094 or emailing wcbgfriends@wellesley.edu The series will be offered again January 31 – March 7.

  • Wednesdays, February 17 & 24, 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Design & Native Plant Palette

    This two-part in-person Berkshire Botanical Garden design class led by Bridghe McCracken, the founder of Helia Land Design, will introduce students to native plants and their effective use in the residential garden. Part I of the class will focus on perennials and grasses. Learn about our gorgeous native perennial plant palette from rare beauties to classic stand-bys, as well as what plants to add to your garden to attract pollinators, provide butterfly habitat and enhance visual interest throughout the season. Class two will focus on designing with woody plants and ferns. Learn what shrubs to use for screening, habitat creation and four-season interest. Delve into the world of ferns, how to integrate them into your garden design and which native ferns thrive in our region. Students enrolled in this class are encouraged to also participate in Stewardship in your Gardens and Land. To add your name to the wait list, visit https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/design-native-plant-palette

    Bridghe McCracken, founder of Helia Land Design, has over 20 years of experience in land stewardship and designing landscapes, gardens and beautiful food systems. Bridghe has a BA in biology from Colorado College, is a Certified Organic Landcare Professional from the Northeast Organic Farmers Association, a Certified Horticulturist from MCLA, a Massachusetts Master Gardener and a graduate and advanced practitioner of the Four Winds Society. Photo courtesy of Berkshire Eagle.

  • Saturday, January 23, 11:00 am – 1:00 pm – Indoor Fern Garden, Online

    Fresh from the release of her new book, The Complete Book of Ferns, Mobee Weinstein – New York Botanic Garden’s Foreman of Gardeners for Outdoor Gardens – will show you how to choose the right species of ferns to group together into a lush, living arrangement. Become familiar with a wide variety of ferns-their cultural requirements and how big they’ll be-so you can choose the best ones to combine into your own miniature landscape. Design an indoor fern garden along with Mobee, or watch and learn! This class will take place online on January 23 from 11 – 1. NYBG members, $59, nonmembers $65. To register, and for a pdf of the materials list, visit www.nybg.org.

  • Saturday, June 1, 9:00 am – 2:30 pm – Grow Native Plant Sale

    Grow Native Massachusetts’ sale at the UMass Waltham Field Station, 240 Beaver Street in Waltham om June 1 from 9:00 – 2:30, is now in its fifth year! Native plants are the foundation of our local food webs. Help support birds, pollinators, and other beneficial insects by adding more natives to your landscape.

    • Perennials for sun, shade, part-shade, and all types of soil conditions. 
    • A large selection of ferns, both evergreen and deciduous.
    • Grasses and sedges, for cool season and warm season interest. 
    • Trees and shrubs, at small sizes you can take home in your car. Remember that native trees and shrubs do the most to increase biodiversity and to enhance the wildlife value of your landscapes.
    • This year we will have three previously unavailable species—sweet goldenrod, bluestem goldenrod, and spotted beebalm—custom grown just for our sale.  

    All of our plants are native to the eastern United States, and the majority are indigenous to New England.

    Our friendly native plant and landscaping Experts will be available all day to answer your questions and give advice on plant selection. All sale proceeds support our programs. For complete information, and to download a pdf of the flyer, visit https://www.grownativemass.org/programs/plantsale

  • Saturday, June 1, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm – Identifying Ferns at the Arnold Arboretum

    Saturday, June 1, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm – Identifying Ferns at the Arnold Arboretum

    Considering its size and location New England has a relatively rich flora of ferns and fern allies (clubmosses, spikemosses, and quillworts). While it is possible to see almost all these species somewhere in the state of Massachusetts, several can be found at the Arnold Arboretum. Fern specialist Jacob Suissa will teach the anatomy, reproduction, and key identifying characters that will help you to identify the ferns and fern allies of the Arboretum and New England. Participants will begin indoors at the Arboretum’s Weld Hill Research Building with a lecture and then move outdoors to Hemlock Hill and Bussey Brook for a fern foray. Dress for indoor and outdoor learning. The class will be held June 1 beginning at 9:30 am. Meet at the Weld Hill Research Building.
    Fee $40 Arboretum member, $50 nonmember Register at http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.

  • Saturday, September 15, 12:00 noon – 4:00 pm – Blue Hills Ferns Walk

    This New England Wild Flower Society field study on September 15 from noon – 4 explores a particularly biodiverse area in Milton, near Blue Hills Reservation, inhabited by more than a third of the fern species native to Massachusetts. In addition to ferns, participants encounter and learn about several club-mosses, horsetails, and hybrids. This easy/moderate hike will be led by Don Lubin, and is co-sponsored by the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions. $38 for members of sponsoring organizations, $46 for nonmembers. Register online at www.newenglandwild.org.

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  • Thursday, September 6, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm – Discovering Native Ferns

    New England contains a rich and unusual diversity of ferns. In this September 6 New England Wild Flower Society class at Garden in the Woods in Framingham, students discuss their significance and how to identify those most common to the region. A lecture includes slides, laminated specimens, and microscopic details. Afterward, participants explore the Garden’s extensive collection of ferns. Bring any ferns for identification. The lecture, by Don Lubin, takes place from 10 – 1, and is $40 for NEWFS members, $48 for nonmembers. Register online at www.newenglandwild.org.

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  • Friday, June 1, 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Identifying Ferns of the Arnold Arboretum

    Considering its size and location New England has a relatively rich flora of ferns and fern allies (clubmosses, spikemosses, and quillworts). While it is possible to see almost all these species somewhere in the state of Massachusetts, several can be found at the Arnold Arboretum. Fern specialist Jacob Suissa will teach the anatomy, reproduction, and key identifying characters that will help you to identify the ferns and fern allies of the Arboretum and New England. Participants will begin indoors at the Arboretum’s Weld Hill Research Building with a lecture and then move outdoors to Hemlock Hill and Bussey Brook for a fern foray. Dress for indoor and outdoor learning. The class will take place Friday, June 1, from 2 – 5 (originally scheduled for June 3, so take note.) Fee $40 Arboretum member, $50 nonmember. Register at http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.

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  • Tuesday, June 5, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Ferns and Native Beauty at Norcross Wildlife Sanctuary

    Starting with a 100 acre woodlot, Norcross Wildlife Sanctuary founder and benefactor – Monson, Massachusetts native Arthur D. Norcross Jr. (1895-1969) – bought, bartered and traded to amass over 2,000 acres that he dubbed the Tupper Hill Sanctuary. Today, the Sanctuary is operated by the Norcross Wildlife Foundation and has grown to over 8,000 acres of forests, meadows and wildlands in Massachusetts and Connecticut. The Sanctuary is managed and maintained for the benefit of native plants and animals of New England, as Mr. Norcross originally directed.

    There are just under three miles of walking trails that traverse a variety of habitats and naturalistic wildflower gardens in the 75 acre Pocket Sanctuary, which represents the diversity that can be found at Tupper Hill. Plants grown here are native to the eastern seaboard, from the Carolinas to Canada.

    Hundreds of plant species can be found in the various habitats and 14 gardens maintained at the Norcross Wildlife Sanctuary. Among the wildflower collection are also a variety of ferns. Over 50 species of native ferns can be found along the trails ranging from the small, Dissected Grapefern (Botrychium dissectum), to the very large, Log Fern (Dryopteris celsa), and from the wetlands Netted Chain Fern (Woodwardia areolata) to the rock garden Wooly Lipfern (Cheilanthes lanosa). There is a variety of ferns growing in various habitat gardens. A walk through the gardens can help you identify ferns for every garden situation.

    Part of the conservation mission includes rescuing plants destined for destruction. Probably the most remarkable salvage operation involved rescuing the flora of a parcel in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey and transporting it lock, stock and Gentiana autumnalis (Pine Barren Gentian) to Massachusetts, where it still sits today. White cedars, gentians, cattails, pitcher plants, cranberry bushes, sphagnum moss, grasses and sedges, and several species of orchids all made the trip.

    You are welcome to bring a lunch to enjoy in the picnic area at the conclusion of this Ecological Landscape Alliance tour on June 5.

    Tour guide, Leslie Duthie will lead this inspiring walking tour through many gardens and wildlands and will provide detailed information about the wide array of native ferns that make their home in the Norcross Wildlife Sanctuary. Leslie Duthie, is a horticulturalist at Norcross Wildlife Sanctuary. She has been working in native plant horticulture and propagation for over 35 years. Her devotion to ferns started the first time she grew a fern from spore. The gardens of Norcross are full of plants that she has raised and her knowledge of the ferns is extensive. Leslie is a life-long gardener starting with her BS in Plant Science and includes experience in greenhouse growing, both landscape plants and native plants.

    Directions to the Norcross Sanctuary:

    The Sanctuary is located in Wales, MA between Rt. 32 and Rt. 19 on the Monson-Wales Road. If you use a GPS, enter 30 Peck Road, Wales, MA 01081. Turn onto Peck Road and then turn left into the parking lot.

    $20 for ELA members, $30 for nonmembers. Register online at https://www.ecolandscaping.org/event/eco-tour-ferns-and-native-plants-at-norcross-wildlife-sanctuary/

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  • Thursday, July 13, 10:00 am – 2:30 pm – Fun with Ferns

    Elizabeth Farnsworth (aka “Fernsworth”), coauthor of the Peterson Field Guide to Ferns, will introduce you to the major groups of true ferns, moonworts, horsetails, clubmosses, spikemosses,and quillworts. We will learn how to identify these plants, discuss their lifestyles and ecology, view specimens under a microscope, and travel into the field to view a variety of these diverse plants. The class will take place at Garden in the Woods, Hemenway Road in Framingham, on Thursday, July 13 from 10 – 2:30.  Bring a bag lunch.  $60 for NEWFS members, $72 for nonmembers. Register online at www.newfs.org.

    There is a second Fun with Ferns in Amherst, MA, on Thursday, July 20, 2017, 10 a.m. -2:30 p.m.