Boston Flora

Tag: Garden Club of America

  • Thursday, March 18, 6:00 pm – The Life and Gardens of Beatrix Farrand

    Thursday, March 18, 6:00 pm – The Life and Gardens of Beatrix Farrand

    The compelling film The Life and Gardens of Beatrix Farrand chronicles the life of one of the founders of the American Society of Landscape Architects, Beatrix Farrand (1872-1959) who was the niece of Edith Wharton. Beatrix grew up in the privileged world of the East Coast elite and fought through the challenges of working in a male-dominated profession to successfully design over 200 landscapes during her remarkable 50-year career.


    The narrative is recounted through interviews with Farrand scholar Diana Balmori, landscape historian Judith Tankard (a GCBB member!), and landscape architect Shavaun Towers. Current photographs and footage of more than 50 Farrand-related sites along with archival images from the Beatrix Farrand Archives at the University of California Berkeley are woven together to bring to life Beatrix Farrand’s extraordinary story, reminding us why her awe-inspiring work is still relevant to this day.

    This March 18 Garden Club of the Back Bay Zoom screening followed by a discussion with the director, Karyl Evans. Respond by March 12 by clicking HERE. A Zoom link will be sent a few days before the program.

    Karyl Evans is a six-time Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker. Ms. Evans, owner of Karyl Evans Productions LLC in North Haven, Connecticut has produced more than 50 historical documentary projects over her 30 year career. Karyl is on the National Speakers List for the Garden Club of America and is a Fellow at Yale University. 

  • Thursday, July 23, 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm – Emily Dickenson’s Gardening Life Webinar

    On July 23 at 6:30 pm, enjoy a Berkshire Botanical Garden lecture and Q&A session with author Marta McDowell about her new book, Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life. In addition to writing poetry, The Belle of Amherst was a gardener. She cultivated flowers on her father’s property and in the glass conservatory that he added to the Homestead. This lecture explores Dickinson’s gardens through excerpts from her letters and poems and historic and modern images of her garden. The book is available for purchase through the BBG online shop. Our Summer Author Series is presented in collaboration with Tower Hill Botanic Garden and Timber Press. $10 for sponsor members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/summer-author-series-marta-mcdowell-emily-dickinsons-gardening-life-online

    Marta McDowell teaches landscape history and horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden and consults for private clients and public gardens. Her latest book is Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life, published by Timber Press, who also published The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder, New York Times bestselling All the Presidents’ Gardens and Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life, now in its seventh printing. Marta is working on a new book about The Secret Garden and its author, Frances Hodgson Burnett, due out from Timber Press in 2021. She is the 2019 recipient of the Garden Club of America’s Sarah Chapman Francis Medal for outstanding literary achievement.

  • Thursday, May 16 – Sunday, May 19 – Showtime! Garden Club of America Annual Meeting

  • Monday, April 9, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm – Boston Committee of the GCA Spring Meeting

    The Boston Committee of the Garden Club of America Spring Meeting will take place Monday, April 9, 2018. Please note change of venue: Brae Burn Country Club, 326 Fuller Street,
    West Newton, MA 02465. The morning will begin at 10:00 am with coffee and socialization, followed at 10:30 am by a welcome and business meeting, and, at 11:00 am, the lecture and luncheon. This spring’s guest speaker is Marta McDowell, author of All the President’s Gardens: Madison’s Cabbages to Kennedy’s Roses – How the White House Grounds Have Grown with America. The book is the winner of a 2017 American Horticultural Society Book Award, and is the fascinating story of America’s first garden. A limited number of Marta’s book will be available for purchase at the luncheon for $25, with advance registration. Members of Boston Committee Clubs will receive a written invitation by mail, but if have not received an invite, visit http://www.bostoncommitteegca.org/contact.html and request additional information. Guests accompanied by Members are welcome.

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  • Saturday, January 13, 2:00 pm – The New Shade Garden: Creating a Lush Oasis in the Age of Climate Change

    Berkshire Botanical Garden’s 2018 Annual Winter Lecture will take place Saturday, January 13 at 2 pm at Lenox Memorial High School in Lenox.

    Ken Druse plumbs the depths of shade once again – 20 years after the publication of his best seller, The Natural Shade Garden. This time, it’s to tackle the challenges that have arisen due to our changing climate. The low-stress environment of shade (lower temperatures, fewer water demands, carbon sequestration) is extremely beneficial for our plants, our planet, and us. Ken details new ways of looking at all aspects of the gardening process, in topics such as designing your garden, choosing and planting trees, preparing soil, solving the deer problem, and the vast array of flowers and foliage – all within the challenges of a changing climate, shrinking resources, and new weather patterns. Ken knows that the best defense is to create a cool, verdant retreat – he says, “The garden of the future will be in the shade.”

    Ken Druse is a celebrated lecturer, an award-winning photographer, and an author, who has been called “the guru of natural gardening” by the New York Times. He is best known for his twenty gar­den books published over the last twenty-five years. The American Horticultural Society listed his first large-format work, The Natural Garden (Clarkson Potter, 1988), among the best books of all time. His book, Making More Plants (Stewart Tabori & Chang, 2012) won the award of the year from the prestigious Garden Writers Association. That group gave Ken the 2013 gold medal for photography and the silver for writing. Also in 2013, the Smithsonian Institute announced the acquisition of the Ken Druse Collection of Garden Photography comprising 100,000 images of American gardens and plants.

    The Garden Club of America presented Ken with the Sarah Chapman Francis medal for lifetime achievement in garden communication.

    KenDruse.com is a blog with ten years of archived podcast interviews. He also appears monthly on Margaret Roach’s radio show, A Way to Garden.

    The Winter Lecture Series was begun by the Berkshire Botanical Garden in 1997 and was established to bring inspiring speakers to the region to talk about horticulture, landscape design and history, plants and plant exploration, and home gardening.

    Over the years, the Garden has invited such luminaries as Marco Polo Stufano, Anna Pavord, Joe Eck, Tovah Martin, Dan Hinkley, W. Gary Smith, Penelope Hobhouse, Ken Druse, Gordon Hayward, Lauren Springer and Scott Ogden, Bill Cullina, Fergus Garrett, Debs Goodenough, Margaret Roach, Michael Dirr, Glyn Jones, Louis Benech, Alan Power and Thomas Woltz to share their knowledge of plants, gardening, design and history with an interested audience of gardeners and horticulturists from the region. The series has proven to be a popular event in the region and is held annually in mid-winter. Proceeds from ticket sales are used to further the Garden’s education and horticulture efforts.

    Advance registration is highly recommended, but walk-ins are always welcome, space permitting.  Many thanks to the Winter Lecture sponsor: The Red Lion Inn. Register online at https://berkshirebotanical.org/see-and-do/winter-lecture-series/

  • Friday, October 27, 10:00 am – 1:30 pm – Boston Committee of the Garden Club of America Annual Fall Meeting and Luncheon

    Friday, October 27, 10:00 am – 1:30 pm – Boston Committee of the Garden Club of America Annual Fall Meeting and Luncheon

    Dr. David Barnett, Mount Auburn’s President & CEO, will present a brief history of the Cemetery and explain how it is being managed today as both a cultural institution and still an active cemetery. Through pictures he will describe some of the cutting-edge practices used to continue providing a high level of service to families at their time of need, while at the same time working to preserve and enhance the character of this historically significant landscape and to also be a model of environmental stewardship. He will summarize the recently completed strategic plan and resulting vision for sustaining Mount Auburn for the next century and beyond. Dr. Burnett was awarded the Garden Club of America Distinguished Medal of Honor in 2016 for “his tireless stewardship of the horticultural and ecological enhancements at Mount Auburn Cemetery, an inspiration to all who visit and study the exceptional spaces.”

    Dr. Barnett is the featured speaker for this year’s Boston Committee of the Garden Club of America’s Annual Fall Meeting, followed by lunch, at The Country Club, 191 Clyde Street, Brookline. Coffee and registration begins at 10 am, business meeting at 10:30 am, and lecture at 11:00 am. Garden Club of the Back Bay members should email info@bostonflora.com if interested in car pools. For more information visit http://www.bostoncommitteegca.org/index.html

  • Wednesday, August 9, 11:00 am – 4:00 pm – 63rd Annual Nantucket House and Garden Tour

    The Nantucket Garden Club, Inc., a Member of The Garden Club of America, Inc., announces its 63rd Annual House and Garden Tour on August 9, from 11 – 4, rain or shine. All proceeds support Nantucket conservation efforts, fund scholarships to Nantucket High School graduates, and award grants to Island non profits. Tickets sold at every house and on Main Street the day of the tour. Advance ticket sales (cash or check) the week before the event at G S Hill Gallery on Straight Wharf or Sconset Rotary (11 am to 2 pm), Bartlett’s Farm (10 am to 2 pm) and on Main Street (10 am to 2 pm).

    Credit cards may be used for purchase at the Main Street location.

    Advance tickets may also be purchased on line by clicking the “Purchase 2017 House Tour Tickets On Line” tab on on http://nantucketgardenclub.org until midnight, August 7, 2017. Tickets are non-refundable. Ticket price $60.

    The Nantucket Garden Club, Inc. is a registered, non-profit corporation which is exempt from US Federal Income Tax under Section 501(c) 3 of the Internal Revenue Code. If you have questions, please email ngardenclub@gmail.com  Image from www.nantucketrealestate.com.

  • The Garden Club of the Back Bay Announces 2017 Grants

    At the Annual Meeting of The Garden Club of the Back Bay on May 8, the membership approved the following grants for fiscal year 2017. These grants, given to organizations whose mission closely tracks our own, are in addition to $20,000 allocated directly to neighborhood tree care.  We thank all our volunteers and supporters, who make the magic happen.  Image courtesy of www.tclf.org. The following list is in alphabetical order:

    Arnold Arboretum: $1,500 for the Campaign for the Living Collections, to collect and preserve plants of critical conservation value.

    Blossom Fund of the Boston Committee of the Garden Club of America: $500

    Boston Nature Center/Mass Audubon: $4,000, to support scholarships for their summer camp.  Children range in age from 5 – 14 and are from local neighborhoods of Mattapan, Roslindale and Jamaica Plain.

    Charles River Clean Up Boat: $2,000

    Commonwealth Avenue Mall Committee: $5,000 for its tree care program, including Dutch elm disease monitoring and soil improvement.

    Emerald Necklace Conservancy: $2,500, to the Olmsted Tree Society for planting a pathway tree.

    Esplanade Association: $5,000, for the 2017 critical tree maintenance program, allocated to pruning.

    Friends of Copley Square: $1,500 for treating trees for root stress, and for fertilizer and fungicide.

    Friends of the Public Garden: $5,000 for tree care and preservation of the historic elms planted on Commonwealth Avenue in the block west of Massachusetts Avenue.

    Food Project: $2,000 for building raised bed gardens for Boston residents and community centers.

    Mothers Out Front: $1,000 for educating the public on the effects of gas leaks on trees in the urban landscape.

  • Tower Hill Botanic Garden Announces Appointment of Grace Elton as CEO

    Tower Hill Botanic Garden is pleased to announce that Grace Elton will become CEO of the Boylston-based nonprofit this spring.

    Elton has been the director of horticulture at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, Va., since 2011, where she has established herself as a forward-thinking leader of one of the nation’s premier gardens.  Among Elton’s achievements at Lewis Ginter are a new apiary with demonstration beehives, partnerships to grow hops for a local brewery and expansion of a vegetable garden which contributes produce for an area food bank, and the planting of Lewis Ginter’s first native plant garden.

    A Florida native, Elton was first turned on to the importance of plants as a child living in Everglades National Park, where her parents worked. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Interdisciplinary Studies with a specialization in public garden management from the University of Florida and a Masters in Public Horticulture from the Longwood Graduate Program of the University of Delaware. After experiences interning at London’s Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania, Elton returned to the UK to work with five separate gardens as a recipient of the Garden Club of America’s prestigious Martin McLaren Horticulture Scholarship.

    Prior to joining Lewis Ginter, Elton served as adjunct professor and arboretum supervisor at the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University.  Currently, she serves on the Board of the American Public Gardens Association, the leading association for professionals in public horticulture.

    Elton will succeed interim CEO Suzanne Maas. Maas has led Tower Hill since the departure of Kathy Abbott, who in May 2016 returned to her roots in Boston to work on waterfront and harbor issues.

    Elton will join Tower Hill during a period of tremendous growth for the organization, which welcomed 137,000 visitors and celebrated its 30th year at its Boylston location in 2016. This year is the 175th anniversary of Tower Hill’s parent organization, the Worcester County Horticultural Society. Tower Hill is also offering more programs and welcoming more members than ever before. Elton will take the reins as the organization moves closer to implementing the first phases of its new Master Plan, which calls for more gardens and programs for visitors to enjoy.

    Tower Hill Botanic Garden is a nonprofit organization dedicated to connecting plants and people. Its mission is to inspire the use and appreciation of horticulture to improve lives, enrich communities and strengthen commitment to the natural world. The Tower Hill property includes 15 gardens, an historic apple orchard, a restaurant, gift shop, conservatories, library, and art galleries, as well as year-round programs for all ages.

  • Tuesday, November 8, 10:00 am – Boston Committee Annual Meeting and Luncheon

    The Garden Club of the Back Bay is an affiliate member of the Boston Committee of the Garden Club of America, which has its Annual Meeting in the fall each year.  This year on Tuesday, November 8 (yes, election day), John R. Clark, President and Executive Director of the Center for Plant Conservation (CPC) in San Diego, California  will speak.  Registration and coffee begin at 10:00 am at The Country Club, 191 Clyde Street in Brookline.  A short business meeting will follow at 10:30 followed by the lecture at 11.  Luncheon will follow.

    Dr. John Clark is a distinguished scientist with the CPC. In 2015, CPC moved its headquarters to San Diego in order to formally partner with the San Diego Zoo Global.  Together, these two world class organizations are working to “preserve the imperiled plants and animals of the world.”

    CPC is a non-profit association of 40 botanical gardens, arboreta, and other groups that work collaboratively on sustainability and restoration of native ecosystems, habitat monitoring and management, plant-animal interactions, and recovery programs for endangered species.  In addition, their global management models and seed bank initiatives include 800 of the nation’s endangered plant species.

    CPC originated by Harvard University scientists at the Arnold Arboretum and was formerly based at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. Dr. Clark will speak on CPC’s model programs and collaborations with a particular emphasis on Sustainable Ecosystems to Protect Endangered Plants and Animals.  The event is open to all members of the member clubs of the Boston Committee and their guests. Please email info@bostoncommittee.org for more information.  Garden Club of the Back Bay members will receive a car pool notice.

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