Boston Flora

Tag: Nat Day

  • Saturday, June 8, 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm -Fête des Fleurs

    Berkshire Botanical Garden’s annual Fête des Fleurs on June 8 is THE garden party of the season, and this year the Garden celebrates the opening of Lucy’s Garden, donated last autumn by Lucy and Nat Day, and considered one of the finest collections of topiaries in North America.

    Be prepared for photo ops galore as you enter the magical garden space and encounter topiary animals, each representing a different country and decked out in their party best, along with ‘live’ furnishings including a wing chair, table, urn, floor lamp, umbrellas and more. Meet Jumbo the elephant with his spouting trunk and personal attendant who will assist guests in climbing aboard his howdah while a caricature artist creates a drawing to mark the moment. 

    An adjoining tent decorated with whimsical whirligigs and lanterns will feature music by Boston-based swing band The Late Risers. A topiary inspired meal will be catered by Main Street Hospitality, and a signature cocktail, “Rites of Spring Punch,” served by the staff of U.K.- based Tenure Vodka will be featured at the bar. Our friends from Tenure will also staff their signature “Royal Mail” station, where guests snap a photo using an instant camera, write a note to a loved one on a beautiful notecard, and mail it off using an old fashioned, Tenure-branded wax sealer.

    Tickets start at $150 for BBG members, $175 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/f%C3%AAte-des-fleurs

  • Berkshire Botanical Garden’s New Topiary Collection

    We take the liberty of reprinting an article from The Berkshire Edge by Emily Edelman:

    Berkshire Botanical Garden has received a gift of a world-class topiary garden, donated by Lucy and Nat Day of Greenwich, Connecticut.

    The donated garden is considered one of the finest topiary collections in North America and includes 23 large, custom-designed topiaries in nine different vignettes including cavorting frogs; a hunting dog and pheasant; a yew wing chair and boxwood easy chair; and Jumbo the elephant, with his multi-ton root ball, howdah with glass ball finials, and water-spouting trunk.

    “The donation of this beautiful, established, collection brings a wonderfully dynamic, sculptural element to the Garden,” said BBG board chairman and topiarist Matt Larkin of Grant Larkin design company in Richmond, “and its relocation nearly 100 miles to Stockbridge is unprecedented. Topiary gardens of this scope are quite rare, and to pick one up and move it is unheard of.”

    Moving a topiary garden of this size has required a team effort at both locations. The topiaries were hand-dug by Dennis Gendron and a crew of 10 from Twin Brooks Gardens in Millbrook, New York. The pieces were removed with a crane operated by Thad Tomlinson of Berkshire Crane in Lanesborough. Once loaded into trucks, the topiaries were trucked more than three hours to BBG, off-loaded and temporarily housed on wooden pallets to await their planting.  Photo below by Robin Parow.