Boston Flora

Tag: Massachusetts Horticultural Socity

  • Saturday, October 21, 10:00 am – 11:30 am, and 12:00 noon – 1:30 pm – Designing the Cottage Garden

    Creating a romantic and ethereal English cottage garden is all about embracing a natural, slightly wild aesthetic while maintaining a sense of structure and charm. Join Kelly Orzel as she leads a morning Massachusetts Horticultural Society lecture on the essentials of cottage—aka English—garden design. From how to choose plants, colors, and textures to create romantic, ethereal spaces. The importance of structure and how to achieve that intangible, whimsical sentimentality the cottage garden is known for. Whether looking for a formal space to entertain or an intimate, informal place for your own enjoyment, you’ll learn how to achieve both while keeping that charming, nostalgic quality of a cottage garden.

    In addition to the morning lecture, Kelly will be leading an afternoon design workshop for those looking to layout their space. From 12 pm to 1:30/2 pm, students will look at layouts, structural elements, how to balance formal with informal spaces, and more. Working with Kelly participants will map out their current garden/project, those taking the afternoon workshop are asked to bring basic measurements of their current gardens, and any current photos they have. Graph Paper and sketching materials will be provided. The afternoon session has a limited class size. 

    Kelly Orzel is a small-scale, organic herb farmer, author, and speaker growing in coastal Maine. As a lover of green things from an early age, she worked at a local farm—before she even had her license— and with serious growers throughout college. As an undergrad at Rutgers she won a USDA research grant in Plant Biotechnology. Several years after a stint as an actuarial analyst and high school math teacher, Kelly graduated with her Master of Science in Horticulture from Texas Tech University. Since then, Kelly’s been living the dream of growing organic herbs on her small-scale farm in Cape Elizabeth, Maine for 8 years. She’s done it all: from farmer’s markets and mail-order, to florists, brides, and wholesale. Kelly’s first book, The Backyard Gardener, was published by Lyons Press in 2017 and her freelance work has appeared in national garden magazines, including Hobby Farms as well as local newspapers. $75 – $95. Register at www.masshort.org

  • Tuesday. February 23, 10:00 am – 11:30 am – Captivated by Trees: The Work of Rutherford Platt, Online

    Rutherford Platt’s captivation by trees, and his almost 40 year career as an esteemed, Burroughs Medal winning naturalist, writer, and photographer, was set in motion one winter day in 1929 when, to his astonishment, he noticed that flower and leaf buds were already present on the seemingly bare branches of trees. Through an exploration of Platt’s life and work we will share his delight for trees, broaden our perceptions through ranges of time and scale, and discover the functional advantages of the distinct characteristic of trees as they grow, reproduce, and interact with their environment.

    This Massachusetts Horticultural Society webinar is instructed by Michael Wojtech on February 23 from 10 – 11:30. $25 for Mass Hort members, $37 for nonmembers. Register at www.masshort.org.

    As a naturalist, writer, photographer, illustrator and educator, Michael strives to share the science and beauty of natural history in an accessible and compelling fashion. He writes and teaches about the fascinating structure, function, and ecology of trees—including their bark, buds, leaves, roots, and wood—for audiences at all levels of experience, and explores how knowing the natural history of the places we live and love fosters connection and the feeling of home. Michael earned his Master’s Degree in Conservation Biology from Antioch University New England and is the author of Bark: A Field Guide to Trees in the Northeast and co-author of Drawing Trees and Leaves.

    To find out more about Michael, a past Garden Club of the Back Bay presenter, and his works check out his website at http://knowyourtrees.com