Boston Flora

Tag: Hemlocks

  • Thursday, November 18, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm – The Fight to Save Our Hemlocks, Online

    Once the third-most common tree in New York, native hemlocks have been dying at an alarming rate due to the infestation of the hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA), a non-native insect pest. Sometimes called “the redwood of the East,” hemlocks are keystone species that stabilize riparian ecosystems and provide shelter, food, and habitat for many native plants and animals. Join New York Botanical Garden’s Plant Health Director Don Gabel online on November 18 to hear about ongoing local efforts to mitigate the loss of this important conifer through biological control, as well as establishing groves of a HWA-resistant selection of Canadian hemlock. $15 for NYBG members, $18 for nonmembers. Register at www.nybg.org

    Botanical

  • Fridays, June 18, July 16, and August 20, 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Cocktails in Great Gardens of the Berkshires

    The Berkshire Botanical Garden has arranged for a series of Friday evening visits to spectacular private gardens featured in the Rich Pomerantz’s beautiful book, Great Gardens of The Berkshires. Enjoy this rare opportunity to roam these private spaces with the gardeners themselves while enjoying wine and hors d’oeuvre in the beautiful waning light of the summer day. The book’s creators will be in attendance. For advance reservations contact call the Garden: 413-298-3926. The parties will all take place from 5 – 7 p.m.    Admission is limited. Berkshire Botanical Garden Members $20, non-members $25; all three for $50/65.

    The dates and locations are: June 18, Molly’s Folly in Richmond, MA; July 16, Richard Brown Garden in Stockbridge, MA ; and August 20,  Three Hills Farm in Richmond, MA.   For additional information, log on to www.berkshirebotanical.org.  Photo below by Rich Pomerantz.

    http://www.richpomerantz.com//srv/htdocs/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/kuhn-9505-nwsltr.jpg

  • Saturday, November 21, 1:00 – 3:30 pm – Great Magnolia Swamp Hike

    Celebrate Ravenswood and get some exercise on this guided four mile long hike discovering swamp ecology in this rugged yet beautiful habitat.  You’ll get a closer look at Ravenswood’s geological features on Saturday, November 21, from 1 – 3:30 pm.  Sponsored by the Trustees of Reservations, free to members, $5.00 non-members. For more information and driving information email needucation@ttor.org.

    Ravenswood Park offers 600 acres for solitude and quiet contemplation of nature. Whether you prefer to surround yourself with snow-covered hemlocks, experience spring emerging in a burst of color and aroma, or escape the summer’s heat – you’ll find a refuge here. The park is a testament to one man’s conservationist philosophy, and to all those who have cared for this special place.

    With 10 miles of carriage paths and trails that meander through the park, you can find plenty of room to picnic, bird watch, walk, cross-country ski, and simply appreciate the outdoors. Children love the Ledge Hill Trail – a 2-mile round-trip walk among magical-looking, fern-covered boulders. You don’t want to miss trekking to the overlook to Gloucester Harbor or traversing the boardwalk through the Great Magnolia Swamp, home to native sweetbay magnolias (Magnolia virginiana).

    http://www.yorkseed.com/catalog/images/Magnolia-Sweetbay-2.jpg

  • July through September – Cocktails in Great Gardens of the Berkshires

    The Berkshire Botanical Garden has arranged for a series of Friday evening visits to spectacular private gardens featured in the new book, “Great Gardens of The Berkshires.” Enjoy this rare opportunity to roam these private spaces with the gardeners themselves while enjoying wine and hors d’oeuvres in the beautiful waning light of the summer day. The book’s creators will be in attendance. For advance reservations contact call the Garden: 413-298-3926. The parties will all take place from 5 – 7 p.m
    Admission is limited. Berkshire Botanical Garden Members $20, non-members $25; all four for $70/85.
    The dates and locations are: July 10, Under The Hemlocks, West Stockbridge, MA; July 24, Good Dogs Farm, Ashley Falls, MA ; August 14, Rockland Farm, Canaan, NY; September 4, Seekonk Farm, Great Barrington, MA.  For additional information, log on to www.berkshirebotanical.org.

  • Sunday, June 28, 10 – 4 – Berkshire County Open Day

    The Garden Conservancy’s Berkshire County Open Day will include the following superb properties. For more information, log on to www.gardenconservancy.org.

    Seekonk Farm – Honey Sharp’s Garden: 296 Division Street, Great Barrington, Massachusetts

    Featured in the 2008 book, Great Gardens of the Berkshires, this eighteenth-century Seekonk Farm is set amidst New England fieldstone walls, antique iron gates, and a handmade fence. A natural arbor beyond an American elm and a large katsura tree invites one to a woodland path where Honey Sharp continues to labor on re-introducing native plants. Closer to the house, a lavender edged walkway follows a small herb garden while the old-fashioned perennial beds now feature pale pink penstemon and dark fuchsia-colored sanguisorba rubbing shoulders. Leading to the pool garden are old-fashioned climbing roses spilling over a fence that borders the small vegetable garden. The pool garden enjoys a chartreuse, silver, and burgundy palette. Contrasting textures and shapes abound amidst the grasses, Japanese maples, smoke bush, ‘Black Lace’ sambucus, and small conifers. An old stone well cover, highlighted by rust colored lichens, remains a focal point. Golden Trowel Award in 2000.

    Under the Hemlocks,258 Great Barrington Road, Housatonic, Massachusetts

    This bowl-shaped garden in the foothills of Tom Ball Mountain came with many natural gifts: boulders, hemlocks, black birch, pines, etc. Adding shrubs, bulbs, and perennials rich in textures and color, Goshen stone paths, and various sculptures completed it. The owners were lucky to uncover a perfect place within the given ledge for water to gracefully fall into a small lily pond. This is a major focal point in the garden. It’s the flow of these gardens that seems to please: from the sunken “fairy woodland”, with a succession of bluebells, foxgloves then in fall, echinacea, to the over-scale rock garden, topped out by hydrangeas. Look for the secretive, mossy “Othello Boudoir” engulfed by ligularias next to the outdoor living room. Going behind the huge rhodies up the secretive path to the “upstairs” hosta path garden and around back to view the water garden, with perhaps a lotus in bloom will complete your tour. In June a few tulips and other bulbs may still be in bloom. This garden is one that is featured in the new book: Great Gardens of the Berkshires, by V. Small & R. Pomerantz.

    Good Dogs Farm – Maria Nation and Roberto Flores, 334 West Stahl Road, Sheffield, Massachusetts

    This is a distinctly handmade garden that includes the whims and accidents and (let’s be honest) half-baked ideas that would never end up in a professional “landscape.” It’s a place that reflects the owners’ philosophy that, like life, the garden is best when shared with friends, when simple pleasures are part of the plan, and when things aren’t taken too seriously. Here, good dogs romp and friends linger. Garden paths lead to numerous garden rooms, “secret” sitting areas, an outdoor shower, and an outdoor sleeping room. A handmade, rough-cedar fence surrounds our large vegetable/cutting garden where a very crowded bat house towers above. A wood burning bake oven gave Maria and Roberto an excuse to add a hedge garden that defines the pea-stone cooking courtyard. A new greenhouse-type-thing gave them another reason to add yet another garden area. The gardens have been featured in Cottage Living, Berkshire Living, The Litchfield County Times, and Oprah’s O at Home magazine. In 2008 they were honored to be included in the book Great Gardens of the Berkshires, and are still blushing to be included in such august company.