Hunnewell Building

Wednesday, May 1, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Global Environmental Threats: Why They are So Hard to See and How Using a Medical Model Can Help

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Tragically and self-destructively, we human beings have so much difficulty recognizing that we are an integral, inseparable part of the natural world and that we have no other choice but to preserve it. Our failure in understanding this fundamental truth is central to our difficulty in seeing the changes, happening before our eyes, that we are making to the global environment and in acting to prevent them. This talk, given by Eric Chivian, MD, Director of the Program on Biodiversity and Human Health, Center for Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard School of Public Health, shall look at why these alterations are so hard to see and how looking at their consequences from a medical perspective can be helpful. The session will take place on Wednesday, May 1 beginning at 7 pm in the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum, $5 for Arboretum members, $10 for nonmembers. Sign up on line at www.arboretum.harvard.edu.  And here he is below with Harrison Ford – perhaps not the photo the Arboretum had in mind for this post, and we doubt anyone will mistake Mr. Ford as an environmental threat, but we just couldn’t resist.

http://archives.focus.hms.harvard.edu/2002/June7_2002/harrison_ford449.jpg

Monday, April 1, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Becoming Hydrangea: The Wild History of a Popular Garden Plant

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Larry Hufford, Ph.D., Plant Systematics and Evolution at Washington State University, will speak in the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum on Monday, April 1, beginning at 7 pm, on Becoming Hydrangea: The Wild History of a Popular Garden Plant. Hydrangeas are among our most popular garden plants, but what were they and where were they before hydrangeas entered gardens? Larry Hufford will explore the history of the hydrangea family in the wild. He will look at hydrangea’s desert roots, the origin of its two forms of flowers, including the flag flowers so prominent in garden varieties, and what happens when hydrangeas migrate to tropical forests.  Free for Arboretum members, $10 nonmember.  Register on line at www.arboretum.harvard.edu.

http://www.wildflower.org/image_archive/640x480/BGNP/BGNP_0188.JPG

Monday, March 11, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Plastic: A Toxic Love Story

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The next Director’s Lecture Series event at the Arnold Arboretum will take place Monday, March 11, from 7 – 8:30 in the Hunnewell Building.  As coal fueled the industrial revolution, one could say that plastic built the modern world. But a century into our love affair with plastic, we’re starting to realize it’s not such a healthy one. Plastics draw on dwindling fossil fuels, leach harmful chemicals, litter landscapes, and destroy marine life. And yet each year we use and consume more; we’ve produced as much plastic in the past decade as we did in the entire twentieth century. Journalist Susan Freinkel will speak about our dependence on this material, guiding us through history, science and the global economy to assess the real impact of plastic in our lives. She’ll present a new way of thinking about a substance that has become the defining medium—and metaphor—of our age. Her book, Plastic: A Toxic Love Story, will be available for purchase and signing.  Free, but registration requested at www.arboretum.harvard.edu.

http://changeobserver.designobserver.com/media/images/PlasticCoverDetail.jpg

Thursday, February 28, 6:00 pm – Bioengineering, Earth Focused Design

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Duke Bitsko of the Bioengineering Group will speak about bioengineering, an interdisciplinary approach to site and resource protection in the built environment, at the Arnold Arboretum on Thursday, February 28, with refreshments at 6 and lecture at 6:30 in the Hunnewell Building. With a strong land stewardship ethic, Duke applies degrees in landscape architecture, engineering, and earth science to development planning and design. With each project, the indigenous water cycle and watershed protection are the first considerations.

Learn about his approach as applied to local projects including Walden Pond, Pope John Paul II Park (image from www.bostonharborwalk.com below,) Magazine Beach, and the Watertown Arsenal.  Co-sponsored by the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and the Boston Society of Landscape Architects.  Free for sponsor members, $25 general public.  Register by telephoning 617-384-5277, or email pam_thompson@harvard.edu.

http://www.bostonharborwalk.com/dbuploads/Pope_John_Paul_II_Park_3.jpg

Tuesday, January 22, 6:00 pm – Collecting Vines in Australia

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Last fall, visiting Arnold Arboretum researcher Juan Losada and Head Arborist John Del Rosso traveled to Australia to make collections of Austrobaileya, an evergreen vine found only in the rainforest of Queensland. Although the Arboretum has a century-long history of plant collecting in Asia, this trip marked only the second expedition by Arboretum representatives to the Australian subcontinent. Join us for a special presentation for Arboretum members on January 22 in the Hunnewell Building; refreshments at 6:00pm, presentation at 6:30pm. Juan and John will talk about their experiences and share pictures and videos from the tropical rainforest.  Register on line at www.my.arboretum.harvard.edu.

Saturday, January 26, 9:00 am – 12:00 noon – Pruning in Winter

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The Arnold Arboretum will hold a class on Pruning in Winter in the Hunnewell Building, 125 Arborway, on Saturday, January 26 from 9 – noon. Jen Kettell, an ISA-certified arborist, will explain the reasons for pruning and what to consider when pruning dormant trees, shrubs, and vines. She will demonstrate techniques, give guidelines for determining which plants benefit from winter pruning, and explain how plants heal from pruning wounds.

Note: this workshop teaches ornamental pruning techniques; it does not provide information on pruning for fruit production. The fee is $48 ($35 for Arnold Arboretum members) and you may register by emailing pam_thompson@harvard.edu.  Image from www.danwilt.com.

Monday, October 29, 9:30 am or 7:00 pm – Gardens for a Beautiful America

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At the opening of the 20th century, pioneering photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864 – 1952) was front and center in the movement to beautify America. Gilded age industrialism had brought a new prosperity to life in the United States, but at the price of once pristine forests, rivers, and clear air. In response, the Garden Beautiful movement began. Johnston, a progressive and perhaps one of America’s first “house and garden” photojournalists, was enlisted to photograph gardens from coast to coast. Historian Sam Watters will reveal a sampling of Johnston’s images for lectures delivered across America to advance the Garden Beautiful movement. He will speak about her as an artist and the relevance of her work as a cultural history collection. Over the course of 5 years, historian Sam Watters scanned through millions of books and magazines to match Johnston’s unlabeled hand painted glass garden slides (now in the collection of the Library of Congress) to the sites they depicted, bringing them to light again after more than 70 years, and showing them as a collection of significance in his new book Gardens for a Beautiful America.

The morning lecture will take place at the new Weld Hill Research Building, 1300 Centre Street in Roslindale, and optional tours of the building will be available at 9:30 am for those registered for the morning lecture. For those unable to attend in the morning, an evening session will be held in the Hunnewell Building, 125 Arborway in Jamaica Plain. Due to space considerations, limited spaces are available for both lectures, and early registration will be encouraged. Co-sponsored by The Garden Club of the Back Bay with Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens, Photographic Resource Center at Boston University, and The Garden Conservancy.  Garden Club of the Back Bay members will receive written notification in the mail.  All others may register at www.arboretum.harvard.edu.  Fee to the public  is $20 through October 15, and $25 thereafter.

Thursday, October 18, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – A Rich Spot of Earth: Thomas Jefferson’s Revolutionary Garden at Monticello

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Were Thomas Jefferson to walk the grounds of Monticello today, he would no doubt feel fully at home in the 1,000 foot terraced vegetable garden where the very vegetables and herbs he favored are thriving,  Extensively and painstakingly restored under Peter J. Hatch’s brilliant direction, Jefferson’s unique vegetable garden now boasts the same medley of plants he enthusiastically cultivated in the early nineteenth century.  Peter reveals the Monticello garden’s bounty and legacy and its continuing impact on the culinary, garden, and landscape history of the United States.  A Rich Spot of Earth will be available for purchase and signing at this lecture, taking place Thursday, October 18 at the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston.  Free parking.  Co-sponsored by the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens, The Garden Conservancy, and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc.  Fee to attend for a member of any of the participating sponsors is $20, non-members $25.  To register, call Wellesley at 781-283-3094, or you may visit www.arboretum.harvard.edu.

Tuesday, October 2, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm – Birch: More than Meets the Eye

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White-barked birches hybridize freely, suggesting that current species are too narrowly defined. Even the well-known common native North American paper-bark or canoe birch (Betula papyrifera) causes consternation. Birch expert Hugh McAllister of University of Liverpool and Ness Botanic Garden will explain a bit about the white-barked birches’ propensity to cross-pollinate and thus confound taxonomists, on Tuesday, October 2, from 6:30 – 8 at the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum. He will discuss birch distribution around the world while showing images of his research travels and herbarium specimens and posing some as-of-yet unanswered questions that keep this botanist awake at night. Free, but registration requested at www.arboretum.harvard.edu.

Tuesday, October 16, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Flower Design Workshop with Donna Morrissey

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The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts announces a series of three  hands-on Design Workshops for beginning and intermediate flower arrangers.  The first will take place Tuesday, October 16, from 10 – noon at a new location, the Hunnewell Building at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s Elm Bank in Wellesley.  Dates for the next two workshops are January 15 (snow date January 17) and April 9.  The fee for all three sessions is $125, and includes all materials and instruction.  No refunds will be given if you are unable to attend, but you may designate someone to attend in your place, or ask a friend who is attending to collect your flowers and container at the end of the class.  You will need to bring clippers, notebook, and a clean up bag.  Please mail your check, made out to GCFM, Inc., to Donna C. Morrissey, 143 Commonwealth Avenue, Newton, MA, 02467, and include your name, address, Garden Club affiliation, telephone number, and email address.  Space is limited to 90 people and will be on a strictly first come basis.  For additional information, email Donna at donnacmorrissey@aol.com.  Below is a snapshot of an arrangement Donna so kindly did for The Garden Club of the Back Bay’s Twilight Garden Party on June 5, 2012.