At this year’s Garden Club of the Back Bay Twilight Garden Party in June at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Boston, The Club’s Magnolia Award was given to Piattini Cafe on Newbury Street, honoring the outstanding garden personally planted and tended by the owner, Josephine Megwa. By renewing the plantings seasonally, Piattini promotes both civic beauty and the education of the public. The many colorful planters are an inspiration to other businesses on Newbury Street and to our community.
Kassie Foss of Onion Hill Designs created the original artwork. The painting depicts the three different types of Magnolias planted by the Garden Club of the Back Bay over the past fifty years. The Saucer Magnolias that blossom each spring along Commonwealth Avenue are the result of a project organized by Club member Laura Dwight in 1963. The Club repeated the project in 1995 with forty-five additional ‘Leonard Messel’ Magnolias. In celebration of the Garden Club’s 50th anniversary in 2013, fifty ‘Moonglow’ Magnolias were planted in the Back Bay and in the city of Boston, continuing this tradition into the 21st century.
The Magnolia Award is given to recognize a person or organization whose civic activities parallel and celebrate the mission of the Garden Club of the Back Bay, Inc.
- Promote civic beauty in our community
- Improve, advance and encourage horticultural improvements
- Advocate for the street trees of the Back Bay
- Educate the public in the art of gardening and keeping our community green
