Boston Flora

Tag: flowers

  • Thursday, April 2, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm – Mastering the Art of Flower Gardening – Postponed

    A comprehensive and highly practical study of growing flowers, Mastering the Art of Flower Gardening presents expert advice and guidelines on growing many of today’s favorite flowers. Author Matt Mattus has curated a selection that ranges from the most common of flowers, like zinnias and dahlias, to uncommon or challenging flowers like primroses and sweet peas. Learn about old-fashioned biennials and the finest perennials as well as beloved flowers that grow as shrubs, bulbs, or vines. Organized seasonally, there is even a winter chapter featuring flowers for cool, indoor windowsills or a backyard greenhouse. Mattus shares what he’s learned over decades of first-hand experience as a horticulturist, testing techniques in his own garden and greenhouse. Whether you’re interested in raising a small cut-flower garden, enhancing your flower border or containers, or figuring out how to grow the best Bread Seed Poppies next year, Mattus has it covered.

    Active in many horticultural leadership roles, Matt’s day job is quite different. Professionally Matt works as a Principal Designer at toy and entertainment giant Hasbro, Inc. (Pawtucket, RI), but that doesn’t preclude his deep involvement in many plant societies and botanic gardens. Matt has been involved with horticulture throughout his career. By age 10 he was exhibiting as a ‘junior exhibitor’ in the many plant society shows held at Worcester County Horticultural Society’s Horticultural Hall in Worcester, MA throughout the 1970’s. He is the author of the award-winning gardening blog Growing With Plants. His greenhouse and gardens have also been included in many popular magazines, blogs and books including Martha Stewart Living (Nov. 2016 – Chrysanthemums), House & Garden (Nov 2016, South African Bulbs), and Better Homes & Gardens, to name a few.

    This Tower Hill Botanic Garden talk and book signing will take place April 2 from 6:30 – 8:30, and is $15 for Tower Hill members, $20 for nonmembers. Register at www.towerhillbg.org.

  • Wednesday, July 12, 9:00 am – 10:30 am – Extending the Flowering Season

    Adding new plants to the collections at Mount Auburn Cemetery which flower in late spring or summer is not just about adding color to the landscape. This initiative is also a response to climate change and the general trend of plants flowering earlier and earlier each year. Join Dennis Collins, Horticultural Curator, on Wednesday, July 12 at 9 am on this walking tour to learn about this important horticultural initiative. Free for Friends of Mt. Auburn, $12 for nonmembers. Register online at http://mountauburn.org/2017/extending-the-flowering-season-2/ Funding for programs has been provided in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Image from www.tclf.org.

  • Fridays, October 25 – November 22, 12:15 pm – 2:00 pm – Plant Stories and Poetry Reading Group

    Bring your lunch and join the Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens for a weekly discussion with experienced group leader Joan Parrish of short stories and poetry featuring plants.  Joan is a WCBG docent with a master’s degree in adult education from Boston University and teacher of short story courses for Life Long Learning at Regis College.  Each week (Fridays, October 25 – November 22, from 12:15 – 2) read one assigned short story and one poem for discussion.  Peas, mango blooms, sawlogs, and blue flowers are some of the plants that inspire and contribute meaning to works by authors including Andrea Barrett, Rick Bass, and Marjory Stoneman Douglas.  The story for the first session, “Flowers” by Alice Walker, and the poem “Peonies” by Jane Kenyon can be read online or picked up the the Friends’ office.  WCBG free, nonmembers $25 for the series.  Contact www.wellesley.edu/wcbgfriends, or call 781-283-3094.

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  • Tuesday, November 6, 10:30 am – Have Scissors Will Travel

    The Acton Garden Club will present Have Scissors Will Travel, a lecture and floral demonstration with Ann McDevitt, on Tuesday, November 6 beginning at 10:30 am in Room 204, Acton Town Hall, 472 Main Street in Acton.  The public is invited.  Ann McDevitt is an accredited International Flower Designer and teacher, with over twenty years of experience.  For information, visit www.actongardenclub.org.

  • Tuesdays, October 19, October 26 , & November 2, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm – Sogetsu Ikebana with Kaye Vosburgh

    Sogetsu Ikebana is an internationally recognized school of Japanese flower arranging.  In these Tuesday classes, to be held at the Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge, Massachusetts from October 19 – November 2, you will learn the essentials of this venerable art from Garden Club of the Back Bay member Kaye Vosburgh.  Kaye has, for many years, exhibited and taught Sogetsu Ikebana in Massachusetts, New York, several other states, and three foreign countries. Sogetsu Ikebana is the art of flower arranging in which nature and humanity are brought together. Using creative expression within certain rules of construction learn how to shape living branches, leaves, grasses, and blossoms into a simple but elegant floral design. Learning how to handle, trim and place plant material to its best advantage is a skill that will be useful in all kinds of arranging. This three session workshop will be for beginners, but continuing students are welcome to work independently and receive critiques.

    Kaye Vosburgh is an Accredited Master Judge in the National Garden Clubs and a First Grade Ikebana Teacher, Komon, in the Sogetsu School. She has been approved as a Design Instructor for Flower Show Schools in NGC, Inc. $40 BBG members, $45 non-members. Register online at www.berkshirebotanical.org, or call 413-298-3926.  $40.00 (BBG members) or $45 (non-members).  Register online at www.berkshirebotanical.org.

  • Thursdays, September 16, October 7, October 28, and November 18, 9:30 am – 12 noon – Sogetsu Ikebana with Kaye Vosburgh

    Sogetsu Ikebana is an internationally recognized school of Japanese flower arranging.  In these classes, to be held at Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, Massachusetts, you will learn the essentials of this venerable art from Garden Club of the Back Bay member Kaye Vosburgh.  Kaye has, for many years, exhibited and taught Sogetsu Ikebana in Massachusetts, New York, several other states, and three foreign countries.  Kaye provides flowers for each class and will have supplies and equipment for purchase by students who wish them.  Sign up for any or all of these sessions, most of which cover two lessons in the course’s inexpensive text, which is available from the instructor for $20.  Each session costs $29.50 (Tower Hill members) or $32 (non-members).  Register online at www.towerhillbg.org.

  • Wednesday, April 28, 9:30 am – Ichiyo Ikebana Workshop

    Elaine Jo, Executive Master of the Ichiyo School, will give a workshop on Ichiyo Ikebana on Wednesday, April 27, beginning at 9:30 am at University of Massachusetts Waltham Center, 240 Beaver Street in Waltham.  Registration is required, and for information on joining Ikebana International, log on to www.ikebanaboston.org.

    Two important philosophies of the Ichiyo School include the concept that an arrangement must fit the environment in which it is displayed and the individual arranger’s emotions and character are to be expressed in the arrangement.  Thus, it is not just flowers in a vase: it is considered to be an art of human communication.

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  • Don’t Forget – Time to Collect

    We remind our members today that extra, interesting greens, seed pods, branches, holly, dried fruits and flowers, grasses, pine cones, and twigs in interesting shapes are all needed next week during wreath making days at The First Lutheran Church of Boston.  Below is a picture of Past President Sarah Monaco and Executive Committee Member Maureen O’Hara collecting last weekend in the Berkshires.  Please bring as much as you can to the Church, cleaned down if possible, for the decorators to use creating the beautiful wreaths, one of which is pictured below, bedecked with collected finds.

  • Saturday, November 21 – Berkshire Grown Holiday Farmers Markets

    There will be two Berkshire Grown Holiday Farmers Markets on Saturday, November 21.  The first will be held in Great Barrington at the old firehouse on Castle Street from 9:00 am – 2:00 pm.  The second will be set up at the Williams College Field House on Latham Street in Williamstown, from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm.

    Berkshire Grown envisions a community where healthy farms define the open landscape, where a wide diversity of fresh, seasonal food and flowers continue to be readily available to everyone, and where we celebrate our agricultural bounty by buying from our neighboring family farms and savoring their distinctive Berkshire harvest.

    For more information, log on to www.berkshiregrown. com.

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  • Saturday, November 7, 2-4 pm – Holiday Floral and Decor Demonstration

    The Millis Garden Club invites you to a Holiday Floral and Decor Demonstration this Saturday, November 7, from 2 – 4 pm, at the St. Thomas Large Hall/Rectory, Route 109, Millis, Massachusetts (between 972 and 984 Main Street).  Master Floral Designer Barbara Wysk of Wysk Designs will create beautiful arrangements suitable for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and all arrangements will be raffled off.

    Barbara’s world is flowers.  Her sense of design and her eye for color is extraordinary.  Her mind runs full of creative thoughts 24/7.  She’s ingenious on recycling objects found around the home into her designs. Her motto is “If it holds water, it’s fair game” and she will demonstrate that during this program.
    One does not have to be a floral arranger to enjoy this program. She will offer many tidbits of information so that everyone can incorporate something into their upcoming holiday tables.

    Festive holiday savories and sweets will be served.  $5 donation at the door suggested.

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