Boston Flora

Tag: Litchfield

  • Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, October 9 – October 26 – Hogpen Hill Farms

    Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, October 9 – October 26 – Hogpen Hill Farms

    Edward Tufte’s sculpture park, Hogpen Hill Farms, will be open to the public for the first time in five years, beginning October 9.

    Hogpen Hill Farms is Professor Tufte’s 234-acre tree farm + landscape sculpture park in Litchfield County in northwest Connecticut with 100 ET artworks. The artworks will remain open space in perpetuity.

    “It is wild, whimsical, grand and incredibly beautiful, with sculptures ranging from stainless steel surfaces reflecting every nuance of light, to lacy stone walls and silent boulder megaliths.” Michele McDonald, Boston Globe

    “North America’s best sculpture park: Edward Tufte’s Hogpen Hill Farms”   Philip Greenspun

    “Each of the works transforms the landscape…consider yourself lucky if you get to see these amazing pieces up close.”   Atlas Obscura

    “One of Connecticut’s 30 Hidden Gems.”   Connecticut Magazine

    The admission ticket is for a car. Ticket includes map guide to Hogpen, parking, restrooms for all, access to sculpture barn. $80 per car (4 wheels, 4 people or less). Hogpen Hill Farms closes at 5:30pm.

    For heavy rain, the ticket is good for anytime on any future days we are open. Ticket is good for one date. No refunds. Advanced ticket purchases only. For multiple cars and/or multiple days and questions, email pmozier@graphicspress.com or call 800-822-2454.

    You must bring a mask and wear it when you arrive to check in. Be sure to wear your mask when close to people not in your group. Use 10 foot physical distancing between your group and other groups, which is easy on our 234 acres.

  • Thursday, June 28, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Behind the Scene Tour of White Flower Farm

    Join nursery manager of White Flower Farm, Barb Pierson for a “Behind the Scenes” tour, of this renowned nursery located in Litchfield, Connecticut. One of Bershire Botanical Garden’s most popular instructors, Barb will lead participants through the production greenhouses where she grows hundreds of varieties of plants. Learn how she propagates, cultivates, evaluates and produces some of the best plants available. Following the greenhouse tour Tom Bodnar, the Retail Store Manager will tour participants through the display gardens highlighting some of the best varieties in bloom. (From BBG to White Flower Farm approximately driving time 1.5 hour, from Boston, approximately 3 hours).   Meet in parking lot of White Flower Farm, Litchfield, CT. Directions available upon registration at www.berkshirebotanical.org.  $30 BBG members, $35 non-members.  Photo below of the Lloyd Border at White Flower Farm copyright Irene Jeruss for White Flower Farm.

  • Saturday and Sunday, May 19 and 20 – Trade Secrets Garden Tour

    The Northeast’s most talked about annual garden event, Trade Secrets, a benefit for Women’s Support Services, a domestic violence program, is celebrating its 12th annual garden weekend in May. Trade Secrets begins on Saturday, May 19th at LionRock Farm in Sharon, CT with the antique and rare plant sale from 10am to 3pm, and, of course, for the early birds there are the early-buying tickets available that include admittance at 8am with an early-buyers breakfast available. On Sunday, May 20th you can tour four gardens including the tours signature garden of Trade Secrets’ founder Bunny Williams.

    From young to old, famous to not-so-famous, Trade Secrets is certainly the place where you find those rare garden plants and antiques for your home. For the past 12 years, Trade Secrets has brought garden-lovers from around the world to the Litchfield Hills of Connecticut to discover new plants, topiary, and antiques for their gardens. 2012 will be no exception with nearly 60 vendors and garden antiques dealers from around the northeast region readying their wares for the trip to the picturesque LionRock Farm (pictured below)  for this annual event.

    With their truckloads of rare garden plants and unusual accessories – those kind of unique treasures that you might search a lifetime for – vendors will descend upon LionRock to offer garden lovers a day of pure treasure hunting! Shoppers can find rare plant specimens from specialized growers and from some of the nation’s best known small nurseries, as well as furniture, antiques, cloches and garden statuary from the choicest purveyors of garden antiques, wrought-iron fencing, textiles from select antiques dealers, and so much more.

    A special treat this year will be a presentation by renowned owner, Marina Marchese of Red Bee Honey. Featured in Martha Stewart Living, this boutique honey bee farm is changing the way consumers taste and use honey! Committed to a sustainable lifestyle, Red Bee Honey boasts a spectacular edible garden, chickens and honeybees!

    Sunday’s garden tour will feature an opportunity to eavesdrop on Bunny Williams’ and John Rosselli’s affair with their house, as their garden is back for the 12th year by popular demand. Also back for a second time on the tour is Jack Hyland’s and Larry Wente’s eco-friendly, forty-one acre futuristic estate that is both outward-looking and inwardly conscientious. Two new gardens added this year are the Linden Hill Farm owned by Richard deBart and Debra Blair, owner of Debra Blair Associates in New York City, and Hawk Hill Farm owned by Robert & Jane Keiter.

    Tickets for the rare plant and garden antique sale on Saturday are $35 for regular admission from 10am to 3pm and $100 for “early buying” tickets. Ticekts for Sunday’s garden tours are $70 ($60 in advance). Tickets may be purchased on line at www.tradesecretsct.com.

  • Saturday, February 25, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Big, Bold and HOT!

    Summer bulbs make great standouts in the late summer garden. Join expert horticulturist Barb Pierson, Garden Manager for White Flower Farm, located in Litchfield, CT for an informative lecture/demonstration on this hot topic at Berkshire Botanical Garden on Saturday, February 25, from 10 – noon. Learn about the best of the bunch including Cannas, Dahlias, Eucomis and more. See why summer bulbs are among the most exotic and exciting plants in our gardens. This lecture will cover top tips for growing and storing, and Barb will be bringing some great varieties for sale following the lecture.

    Barb Pierson  holds a degree in horticulture from Cornell University and has worked at WFF since 1998. She is a popular speaker at horticultural conferences and has appeared as a guest on TV and radio. She is quoted widely in the print media and was the lead horticultural resource for a 2010 New York Times garden series.  BBG member price $25, non-members $30. To register, visit www.berkshirebotanical.org, or email info@berkshirebotanical.org.

  • Friday, August 27 – Sunday, August 29 – Hollister House Garden Study Weekend

    A gardener’s dream: seminar, rare plant sale, gala reception, and tour of exceptional gardens.  Speakers at the Hollister House Garden Weekend, August 27 – 29  include Peter Wirtz, Page Dickey, Margaret Roach, Jill Nokes, Dick Button, Hitch Lyman, and Adam Wheeler. Pre-registration is required.

    The art of gardening as a channel of personal as well as cultural expression will be explored in depth in a program of stimulating lectures. The keynote speaker is Peter Wirtz, scion of the renowned Belgian architectural landscape firm Wirtz International, who will speak on Personal Expressions in the Garden, and be joined by other outstanding horticulturists. The weekend gets underway with a gala cocktail supper Friday evening where participants may informally mingle with the speakers and fellow garden enthusiasts in the gardens at historic Hollister House in Litchfield County, Connecticut.

    Saturday’s symposium takes place at the nearby Montessori School in comfortable, air-conditioned spaces with up to date lecture facilities. A delicious buffet luncheon, a sale of beautifully written and illustrated garden books and a plant sale featuring a select group of New England’s finest specialty plant growers, plus a ‘show & tell’ plant colloquy are included in Saturday’s all-day agenda.

    Other thought-provoking speakers on the roster are:
    • Page Dickey, a popular lecturer and prolific garden writer of, among other books, Gardens in the Spirit of Place, the award-winning Breaking Ground: Portraits of Ten Garden Designers, and to be published in the fall of 2010, Embroidered Ground;
    • Margaret Roach, a journalist who became a major force at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and is now a garden blogger with a devoted following;
    • Jill Nokes, a landscape designer and author whose latest book Yard Art and Handmade Places is about 20 Texans who have been astonishingly creative in transforming and decorating their yards and gardens;
    • Dick Button, a former Olympian and figure skating commentator whose North Salem, NY garden is an explosion of color, self-described as “an anything-I-like garden.”

    In the afternoon – two outstanding plantsmen – garden designer Hitch Lyman and nurseryman Adam Wheeler of Broken Arrow will debate the merits of the best plants for late season gardens during the “Plant Show and Tell.”

    There will also be a Rare Plant Sale with opportunities to purchase choice plants for the late season garden from Broken Arrow Nursery (Hamden, CT), Loomis Creek Nursery (Hudson, NY), Falls Village Flower Farm (Falls Village, CT), O’Brien Nurserymen (Granby, CT), Pergola (New Preston, CT), Opus (Little Compton, RI), Rocky Dale Gardens (Bristol, VT), and Sunny Border Nurseries (Berlin, CT).

    Garden books, selected by Washington Depot’s treasured independent bookseller The Hickory Stick, will also be for sale, many authored by the symposium speakers and available for signing.

    The weekend’s grand finale is on Sunday when the Garden Conservancy opens six exceptional private gardens in New Preston, Roxbury and Washington as part of its Open Days Program. Four of them — Stiteler Meadow, Muddy Rugs, the garden of Norman Sunshine & Alan Shayne, and the garden of Mrs. Michael Wiener — are on the Open Days circuit for the first time. The two others are the esteemed gardens of Martine and Richard Copeland and Georgia Middlebrook.
    Hollister House Garden is also featured on the Sunday tour.

    The weekend package includes the Friday, August 27 Gala Cocktail Supper, Saturday, August 28 Continental Breakfast, Seminar, Lunch, Plant & Book Sale.  $230 for members of Garden Conservancy or Hollister House Garden, $240 for non-member.  You may register online at www.hollisterhousegarden.org, or call 860-868-2200.

  • Friday, May 21 – Sunday, May 23, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm – Tomatomania

    White Flower Farm, at 167 Litchfield Road in Litchfield, Connecticut will have over 100 varieties of tomato seedlings available, along with fertilizers, stakes, ties, containers, and a selection of herbs and vegetables to make this year’s garden the best ever, on Tomatomania weekend, May 21 – May 23, from 9 – 5 each day.  Scott Daigre, noted tomato expert and author, will give straightforward advice about growing his favorite subject.  For more information, log on to www.whiteflowerfarm.com.

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  • Saturday, April 10, 2:00 pm – The Best New Perennials of 2010 at White Flower Farm

    The famous White Flower Farm in Litchfield, Connecticut opens this Saturday, April 10 for its annual Spring Open House.  Enjoy refreshments, tour the display gardens, shop from a special selection of plants, and, at 2 pm, hear a talk on “The Best New Perennials of 2010.”  For directions and more information, log on to www.whiteflowerfarm.com.

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  • Wednesday – Friday, January 13 – 15, and Monday – Tuesday, January 19-20 – NOFA Course in Organic Land Care

    The 9th annual NOFA Course in Organic Land Care will be held January 13, 14, 15, 19 and 20, 2010 at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, 6 Plum Island Tpke., Newburyport, MA. (pictured below).  This 5-day intensive course trains and accredits professionals to practice organic land care (caring for land without the use of synthetic pesticides or soil amendments). It is recommended for landscapers, designers, municipal and parks employees, horticulturists, master gardeners and entrepreneurs.

    $550 Course Course fee includes a delicious, catered lunch daily

    • $150 Exam & Accreditation (optional)

    Exam & Accreditation may be paid during the course

    • NOFA Membership Discounts

    Visit www.organiclandcare.net for more information or call Kathy Litchfield at (413) 773-3830 or email: kathy@nofamass.org.

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  • Saturday, June 20, 9 – 5 – Annual White Flower Farm Open House

    For the past 56 years, White Flower Farm has been pleased to welcome old friends and new for iced tea and cucumber sandwiches on the lawn by their house. This informal tea party provides an opportunity for some garden chat, a leisurely view of the white border, and a cameo appearance by the pair of Shire horses used to mow grass. The date of the annual Open House this year is Saturday, June 20. The hosts for this gathering will include some or all of the owner’s children, and they are looking forward to meeting you. Service begins about 2:30, weather permitting, and continues until the grub runs out. The hat contest is in its second year. Last year some two-dozen ladies appeared in stylish sunbonnets and the winner, Ms. Donna Ferri, created a design that won our $100 gift certificate hands down.

    The annual Open House coincides with a spring Tent Sale that will be held Friday and Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the store. Bring a friend and enjoy bargains on plants and garden accessories, as well as a stroll around the display gardens to see what we’ve been up to. New this year, you’ll find products from the Gardener’s Supply Company in Burlington, Vermont.  For directions, log on to www.whiteflowerfarm.com.