Boston Flora

Tag: Garden in the Woods

  • Thursday, November 10, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Winter Gardening: Challenges and Rewards

    New England winters can be cold, long, and gray but our landscapes don’t have to be. Our gardens can still provide cheer even on the dreariest winter days. Get tips from Nate McCullin, Horticulturist of the New England Wild Flower Society,  for creating a landscape with year-round appeal as well as ideas to help your plants survive the season’s challenges such as damage from ice, snow, and voracious mammals. Learn about plants that provide color, texture, shelter, and food sources throughout the winter with a few surprises etched in along the way.  The class takes place at Garden in the Woods in Framingham on Thursday, November 10, from 1 – 4 pm.  Fee $36 member, $43 nonmember
    Offered by the Arnold Arboretum with the New England Wild Flower Society.  You may register online at www.arboretum.harvard.edu, or at www.newfs.org.  Doug Green photo from www.simplegiftsfarm.com.

  • Friday, September 30, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm – Invasive Plants: Identification, Ecology, and Control

    This September 30 class led by Ted Elliman, Vegetation Management Coordinator of the New England Wild Flower Society, provides an introduction to about 40 invasive non-native plants most commonly found in local landscapes. Through the combination of a classroom presentation, access to herbarium specimens, and a walk outside, you will become familiar with identification clues as well as the habits of a number of these plants. You will also discuss management techniques, appropriate for both small- and large-scale landscapes, for many of these species. The Invaders issue of the New England Wild Flower Society’s magazine and the MA Field Guide to Invasives will be available for purchase at a discount. Bring your lunch and a hand lens if you have one. This class takes place at New England Wild Flower Society’s Garden in the Woods, from 10 – 2.  Co-sponsored by the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and the New England Wild Flower Society, you may register on line at www.my.arboretum.harvard.edu.  $48 for members of the sponsoring organizations, $58 for nonmembers.

  • Saturday, October 1, 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Clean Water Action’s 17th Annual Benefit Party

    Come enjoy a buffet of tasty vegetarian treats donated by local restaurants, visit the beautiful Garden in the Woods, and celebrate a year of hard work for the environment, at Clean Water Action’s 17th Annual Benefit Party on Saturday, October 1, from 3 – 5!

    They are thrilled to announce the 2011 recipients of the John O’Connor Awards for Grassroots Leadership. This year they are taking the unusual step of recognizing multiple grassroots organizations and community activists with the John O’Connor Grassroots Leadership award. The board felt that this year is a uniquely challenging one, with efforts to roll back clean air, clean water and healthy communities facing us on every front. Please join them in celebrating the unique role these awardees are playing in holding the line and even making progress against the odds. The awardees and all the benefit details are on Clean Water Action’s website, www.cleanwateraction.org.

    Please help make the party a success by being a sponsor today. Your sponsorship will enable their continued work to protect our health, environment and democracy. Sponsorships options include:

    $75 Sponsor (includes one ticket)
    $150 -$299 Advocate (includes two tickets)
    $300 – $499 Building for Victory Sponsor (includes four tickets)
    $500 – $999 Making It Happen Sponsor (includes six tickets)
    $1000+ Leader (let them know how many tickets you need)

    Individual tickets are $30 each.

  • Thursday, September 15, 9:00 am – 3:00 pm – Survey of Late Season Grasses of the Northeast

    This New England Wild Flower Society workshop, to be given by Dennis Magee at Garden in the Woods in Framingham on Thursday, September 15 from 9 – 3, focuses on the grasses which are in identifiable condition in late summer and early fall. Key identification characteristics are given for 10 tribes and 60 or so genera of common grasses using dried specimens and microscope displays. Following a morning session of lecture and observation of the plant materials, there is an afternoon field trip to observe as many grasses as can be found in the time available. Students are expected to have a good understanding of basic botanical nomenclature and concepts. A good 10x to 15x hand lens is essential.  NEWFS member fee is $72, nonmembers $86.  Register at www.newfs.org.

  • Wednesday, May 18, 10:00 am – Gardening in Wet Spaces with Native Plants

    The May meeting of The Garden Club of the Back Bay will feature Kristin DeSouza speaking on Gardening in Wet Spaces with Native Plants. The meeting will be held Wednesday, May 18, beginning at 10:00 am at The College Club, 44 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. There is a free program, but there will be an optional lunch with the speaker following the talk, for which there will be a charge of $20 per person (members) and $25 per person (guests.) Reservations for the program and the luncheon are essential. Email info@bostonflora.com if you plan to attend. Garden Club members will receive written notice of this meeting.

    Working with native plants that enjoy ‘wet feet’ adds great interest to a pond side or wet area in your garden. While providing wildlife habitat, pond-side and moisture-loving plants also act as a filter for runoff water. In this illustrated presentation, horticulturist Kristen DeSouza will introduce a gorgeous native plant pallet based on the beautiful Lily Pond at Garden in the Woods. She will present design ideas that you can use in your own wet environment using native perennials, shrubs and trees for seasonal interest.

    Kristen DeSouza is a Horticulturist at Garden in the Woods, and a Landscape Architect. She has worked for New York’s Central Park and was awarded the Garden Club of America’s Martin McLaren Horticultural Scholarship, providing a ten month noncredit work/study opportunity in Great Britain.

    http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/04/be/ba/lily-pond-area-as-viewed.jpg

  • Friday, May 6, 5:30 pm – Invertebrates on Plants: Identifying Galls, Mines, Leaf-ties, and Other Signs in a New Field Guide

    Charley Eiseman and Noah Charney, authors of Tracks & Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates, will conduct a special session for the New England Botanical Club on Friday, May 6, beginning at 5:30 pm at Garden in the Woods in Framingham, Massachusetts, on the topic Invertebrates on Plants: Identifying Galls, Mines, Leaf-ties, and Other Signs in a New Field Guide. For more information, log on to www.rhodora.org.

  • Sunday, April 17, 12:30 pm – 4:30 pm – Invasives: ID, Ecology, and Control

    Get a head start on invasive control this year by learning to identify invasives in the early season. This New England Wild Flower Society course, co-sponsored by the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, provides an introduction to about 40 of the most common invasive non-native plants in our local landscapes. Through lecture, discussion, power-point presentation, herbarium specimens, and a walk outside at Garden in the Woods in Framinham, become familiar with identification clues as well as the habits of a number of these plants that are so disruptive of natural ecosystems. Discuss management techniques for many of these species, on both a home and a landscape scale. The “Invaders” issue of the Society’s magazine as well as the Field Guide to Invasive Plants in Massachusetts will be available for purchase at a discount.  The session will take place Sunday, April 17 from 12:30 – 4:30, and will cost $48 for members of the sponsoring organizations, $58 for non-members.  Register online at www.newfs.org.

  • Saturday, April 16, 10:00 am – 3:00 pm – Vernal Pool Ecology

    During the end of the last ice age, retreating glaciers carved some of New England’s most unique habitats, vernal pools. These ephemeral bodies of water harbor an array of plants, invertebrates, reptiles, amphibians, and other wildlife. Mark D. Cooperman begins this Saturday, April 16 New England Wild Flower Society workshop with an introduction to the geology and ecology of these pools. He will discuss the natural history of the organisms inhabiting them, devoting particular attention to those that rely upon vernal pools for successful reproduction. The afternoon session at Garden in the Woods in Framingham brings us into the field where we take a first hand look at the Garden’s Lost Pond, a classic woodland vernal pool. Bring a lunch and rubber boots. $60 for NEWFS members, $72 for non-members. Register on line at www.newfs.org. Photo of the Lost Pond by Andrew Watson.

  • Thursday, April 14, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Wild Foods, Nutrition, and Land Conservation

    Land conservation has many obvious benefits — protecting habitats and watersheds, preventing erosion, offering places of beauty and respite. Few of us consider the additional benefit to our health and well-being that derives from the wild, nutrient-dense foods these natural areas can provide. Take a provocative look at agriculture (particularly small-scale) and its effects on the environment and human health in this Thursday, April 14 lecture by Arthur Haines at Garden in the Woods, Framingham, co-sponsored by the New England Wild Flower Society and the Massachusetts Audubon Society, Drumlin Farm. How does clearing the canopy and understory of a natural area affect wild food sources? Do changes in our diet over the past century have a physiological and genetic impact? Appreciating the critical need humans have for wild food provides another powerful argument for the protection of land from uses that drastically alter its ecological function. $20 for members of the sponsoring organizations, $24 for non-members.  Register at www.newfs.org.

  • Sundays, April 3 and 10, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Garden Adventurers Lectures

    On Sundays, April 3 and April 10, come to Heritage Museum & Gardens, 67 Grove Street in Sandwich, and travel to exotic gardens vicariously through the exploits of other Garden Adventurers! On April 3, Jonathan Shaw will share his visits to Japan’s most beautiful and unique gardens, including Kenrokuen Garden (The Six Sublimities, pictured below) in Kanazawa and Saihoji (The Temple Moss Garden). Mr. Shaw was formerly Director of the New England Wildflower Society at the Garden in the Woods near Boston, and is the retired President of Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales, Florida. He lives in Sandwich, his native town, where he has an extensive garden in the Village that he and Norwegian wife Eugenie maintain. Then on April 10, Linda Calmes Jones, who chairs Heritage’s Board of Trustees, will share her garden travel experience to London’s Chelsea Flower Show (The Great Spring Show) and various English gardens. Join them for both of these inspiring presentations, free with museum admission.  For more information, log on to www.heritagemuseumsandgardens.org, or call 508-888-3300.  Image from www.kanazawa-tourism.com.