Boston Flora

Tag: Harvard University

  • Wednesday, May 9, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – The Philosophical Breakfast Club and the Invention of the “Scientist”

    In 1812, four remarkable men met at Cambridge University: Charles Babbage, John Herschel, Richard Jones and William Whewell. Recognizing that they shared a love of science (as well as good food and drink), they began to meet on Sunday mornings to talk about the state of science in Britain and the world at large. Inspired by the great seventeenth-century scientific reformer and political figure Francis Bacon, the Philosophical Breakfast Club plotted to bring about a scientific revolution—one which privileged an evidence-based, inductive method of discovery, and one which asserted the need for science to serve the public good. In her book, The Philosophical Breakfast Club, Laura Snyder follows the intertwined lives and works of these men over the next 60 years, and shows that by the end of their lives they had succeeded, even beyond their wildest dreams, in bringing about a scientific revolution. She will speak about one aspect of the revolution they wrought: the shift from the amateur natural philosopher to the professional scientist.  Dr. Snyder, Associate Professor of Philosophy at St. John’s University, will speak at the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum on Wednesday, May 9, from 7 – 8:30 pm.  Register online at www.my.arboretum.harvard.edu.  Fee: Free for Arboretum members; $15 nonmembers.

  • Saturday, May 12, 8:00 am – 11:30 am – Nature Photography Workshop

    Improve your photographs of nature in this half-day Arnold Arboretum workshop–a talk followed by hands-on experience. The class with freelance photographer Erik Gehring takes place at the Arnold Arboretum at one of the most beautiful times of year. Learn about composition, color, light, depth of field and focus. Bring your camera and manual and familiarize yourself with the operation of your camera prior to the workshop. Fee $70. Offered with the Eliot School of Fine & Applied Art. Register on line at www.my.arboretum.harvard.edu.

  • Monday, May 21, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Defining Gardens: A Global View

    From meadows and forests to desert or barren glacial till, how do cultures in different environments satisfy their need for gardens? Is the focus on planned order or wild nature, on plants or man made structures? Are there favorite plants or flowers? How do the residents interact with their gardens? Wellesley College Professor Emerita Mary Coyne’s extensive travels to many lands always include garden visits. With her as our guide, we’ll armchair-wander to the Arctic, Europe, Asia, South and North America, and Africa to take a peek at gardens old and new. After many years teaching in Wellesley College’s Department of Biological Sciences, Mary Coyne embarked on a retirement career as a landscape designer. She received her Certificate from the Landscape Institute in 2010. The Harriet B. Creighton Educational Garden (below) across the driveway from the Visitor Center is designed and maintained by her. The May 21 lecture will be preceded by tea at 2 pm. Co-sponsored by the Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture and by the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, the cost to attend is $10 for members of either sponsoring organization, or $15 for non-members. Register at www.wellesley.edu/WCFH.

  • 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.

  • Wednesday, April 25, 9:00 a.m. – Museum of Fine Arts Boston to Receive Historic Flowering Cherry Tree for Japanese Garden

    As part of the celebration to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the gift of flowering cherry trees from Japan to the US, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston will be the recipient of a tree grafted from the original Japanese trees in Washington’s Tidal Basin. On Wednesday, April 25 at 9:00 am, when the Museum’s renowned Tenshin-en Japanese garden opens for the season, the cherry tree will be presented to Museum of Fine Arts Boston Director Malcolm Rogers by Consul General of Japan in Boston Takeshi Hikihara.

    The more than 3000 trees which were planted in Washington in 1912 were a gift from Tokyo Mayor Yukio Ozaki to express Japan’s appreciation to the U.S. for its role in brokering the Treaty of Portsmouth which ended the Russo-Japanese War. The cherry trees have become a symbol of the close relations between Japan and the United States.

    The Greater Boston-Japan Cherry Blossom Festival 2012, marking the centennial of the trees, began in March and will continue through May. Upcoming events include Haru Matsuri, a Japanese-style festival in Copley Square, a Kioi Sinfonietta Tokyo concert at Harvard University as well as other performances, lectures and exhibits. For further information visit:

    Consulate General of Japan in Boston: www.boston.us.emb-japan.go.jp/

    Japan Society of Boston: www.japansocietyboston.org/sakura/eng

    For national information, see:

    Embassy of Japan in Washington DC: www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/sakura100

    For questions regarding this event, contact: Richard Winslow, r.winslow@cgjbos.org or 617 973-9772 x137

  • Saturday, April 28, 9:30 am – 12:00 noon – Arnold Arboretum 2012 Members’ Tour Day

    Enjoy the brilliance of spring and reconnect with the landscape on Arnold Arboretum’s Members’ Tour Day. Members are invited to come for refreshments and staff-led tours in the living collection on Saturday, April 28 beginning at 9:30am. This year, reserve space for Members’ Tour Day via an online registration system, or contact the membership office. Please respond by Friday, April 20. The staff hopes you’ll join us for a morning of fun, seasonal highlights, and the fellowship of our staff and members on April 28!  Fraxinus lanuginosa, in bloom at the Arboretum in April, pictured below.

  • Thursday, April 26, 10:30 am – Boston Committee Spring Meeting and Luncheon – Living on Earth

    The Boston Committee of The Garden Club of America invites members of its constituent fourteen clubs to its Spring Meeting and Luncheon on Thursday, April 26, beginning with registration at 10:30 am at The Country Club, 191 Clyde Street in Brookline. The featured speaker will be Steve Curwood.

    In 1970, as a writer for the Boston Phoenix just out of Harvard University, Steve broke the story that Polaroid’s instant photo system was key to apartheid pass system in South Africa. Steve moved on to the Boston Globe as an investigative reporter and columnist and shared the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service as part of the Boston Globe’s education team.  His production credits in public broadcasting include reporter and host for NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered, host of NPR’s World of Opera, producer for the PBS series The Advocates with Mike Dukakis, and creator, host and executive producer of Living on Earth, the prize-winning weekly environmental radio program heard for more than 20 years on public radio stations  and distributed by Public Radio International (PRI) since 2006.

    The cost of the lecture and luncheon is $50, lecture only $25. Please make your check payable to The Boston Committee of the GCA and mail to Jensie Shipley, 40 Dunster Road, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467 before April 19, 2012, and note on the memo portion of your check your Garden Club affiliation. All reservations will be held at the door. Garden Club of the Back Bay members will receive written invitations and a car pool notice in the mail.

  • Tuesday, April 10, 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm – Consequences of Multiple Species Invasions

    Tufts Professor Frances Chew will be the featured speaker at the Cambridge Entomological Club’s April meeting on Tuesday, April 10, from 7:30 – 9.  She will talk about the Consequences of Multiple Species Invasions: A Native Butterfly Confronts Exotic Plants and Parasitoids.   CEC meetings are held the second Tuesday of the month from October through May. The evening schedule typically includes an informal dinner (6:15 to 7:15 PM) followed by our formal meeting (7:30 – 9:00 PM) in MCZ 101, 26 Oxford Street, Harvard University. The latter begins with club business and is followed by a 50 minute entomology related presentation. Membership is open to amateur and professional entomologists.  For more information, email CEC President Jessica Walden-Gray at jessisoutside@gmail.com.  Photo from www.lepcurious.blogspot.com.

  • Tuesday, April 3, 6:00 pm – Learning From Insects: How Our World is Shaped by Bees, Ants, and Other Social Insects

    Discover why many of the world’s top scientists have devoted their careers to the study of social insects in Learning From Insects: How Our World is Shaped by Bees, Ants, and Other Social Insects, a dialogue and booksigning with Thomas Seeley, Biology Professor at Cornell, and Bernd Heinrich, Profession Emeritus at the University of Vermont, on Tuesday, April 3, at 6:00 pm at the Harvard Museum of Natural History in Cambridge. Moderated by Professor Naomi Pierce, Curator of Lepidoptera in the MCZ at Harvard. The speakers will discuss their research and why it’s critical that we study and learn from insects.

    Following the presentation, there will be reception and book signing in the Museum’s galleries. Cosponsored with Harvard University Press. Free and open to the public. Free parking available in the 52 Oxford Street garage.  For more information, visit www.hmnh.harvard.edu.

  • Tuesday, March 13, 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm – Pretty and Poisonous: The Role of Plant Defenses in Flowers

    Lynn Adler, Associate Professor of Entomology at UMass Amherst, will be the featured speaker on Tuesday, March 13 at the Cambridge Entomological Club.  She will present a lecture entitled Pretty and Poisonous: The Role of Plant Defenses in Flowers.  CEC meetings are held the second Tuesday of the month from October through May. The evening schedule typically includes an informal dinner (6:15 to 7:15 PM) followed by our formal meeting (7:30 – 9:00 PM) in MCZ 101, 26 Oxford Street, Harvard University. The latter begins with club business and is followed by a 50 minute entomology related presentation. Membership is open to amateur and professional entomologists.  For more information, email CEC President Jessica Walden-Gray at jessisoutside@gmail.com.