Boston Flora

Tag: Native Plants

  • Saturday, September 26, 10 am – 2 pm – Fall Harvest Festival and Perennial Swap

    Bring plants to swap and share, get gardening advice, or bring your over-sized produce to enter in the Incredible Crop Olympics, at Boston Natural Areas Network’s Fall Harvest Festival and Perennial Divide, Saturday, September 26, from 10 in the morning to 2 in the afternoon, at BNAN’s City Natives Nursery, 30 Edgewater Drive in Mattapan.  Admission is free.   Divide your crowded perennials and bring pre-divided plants to the free plant swap.  Bring your own containers. Volunteers will answer plant care questions, and you may purchase fresh, local produce and native plants.  Tour the vegetable display beds and visit the woodland garden.

    Boston Natural Areas Network (BNAN), organized in 1977, works to preserve, expand and improve urban open space through community organizing, acquisition, ownership, programming, development and management of special kinds of urban land –

    In all of its endeavors, BNAN is guided by local citizens advocating for their open spaces and assisting them to preserve and shape their communities.

    For more information, call 617-542-7696, or email info@bostonnatural.org.

  • Sunday, September 13, 10 am – 3 pm – Mastering Asters – Nasami Farm Workshop

    Asters can be among the more difficult species of native plants to identify in the field, for both amateurs and professionals. However, they are an important family of plants to know, for they comprise a substantial proportion of the late summer and fall-blooming herbaceous flora of our region. They’re also beautiful and have an exquisite structure which makes them exciting to study.

    This workshop will focus on identifying 15-20 of the most common species – the ones most likely to be found in the wild most of the time. A field trip to a natural area close to the classroom will follow a two-hour lab.

    Please note that this subject is somewhat technical. An identification key and other handouts will be provided. Bring hand lens, bag lunch, and wear hiking boots for damp conditions.

    Location:
    Nasami Farm
    128 North Street
    Whately , MA 01373

    Sponsor: New England Wild Flower Society
    Time(s): 10 a.m – 3 p.m.
    Cost: $55 (NEWFS Member) / $65 (Nonmember)
    Phone: 508-877-7630, ext. 3303
    Fax: 508-877-3658
    Email: registrar@newenglandwild.org

    http://www.botany.wisc.edu/art/images/outreach/thumbs%20posters/asters.jpg

  • Thursday, October 1, 6 pm – Massachusetts Horticultural Society 2009 Honorary Medals Dinner

    On October 1, MassHort will continue its almost century-long tradition of honoring superior achievements in horticulture when Elm Bank hosts the 2009 Honorary Medals Dinner, with the University of Georgia’s Allan Armitage receiving the George Robert White Medal of Honor.

    Widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost horticulturists, Armitage is a professor at the University of Georgia, Athens, where he teaches, conducts research on new garden plants, and runs the University of Georgia Horticulture Gardens. He is generally credited with creating the concept of the independent trial garden, the first one of which opened in Athens in 1982. He is the author of ten books, including Armitage’s Native Plants for North American Gardens and Armitage’s Garden Annuals. He has been cited as one of the ten most influential people or organizations in the floriculture industry.

    Armitage is not the only distinguished honoree. The Jackson Dawson Award will go to Pierre Bennerup, president of Sunny Border Nurseries, one of the leading producers of perennial plants for the northeast. Sunny Border, headquartered in Kensington, Connecticut, is known around the world for being on the cutting edge of new plant development. Pierre, the second generation Bennerup in the industry, is an integral part of the global horticulture community and has been instrumental in searching out new plants suitable for North American gardens.

    Also to be honored is Holly Shimizu, Executive Director of the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C. Ms. Shimizu, who will receive the Thomas Roland Medal, has been responsible for the overall operation of the USBG for the past nine years and, under her leadership, the widely acclaimed new National Garden opened 2006. Ms. Shimizu is well known through her work as one of the hosts of The Victory Garden and as a frequent commentator on horticultural topics for National Public Radio.

    Receiving the MassHort Large Gold Medal will be Arabella Symington Dane. Ms. Dane, a former member of the MassHort Board of Trustees and Chairman of the New England Spring Flower Show, is past chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Horticultural Society. She is past chairman of the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts and a noted flower arranger. Ms. Dane is widely known for her leadership on issues of public education, native plant ecology and conservation.  Ms. Dane was also, for a number of years, a member of the Garden Club of the Back Bay.

    Seven other Gold and Silver Medals will also be presented at the event, including Gold Medals to Dr. Robert Cook, Director of the Arnold Arboretum; Maureen Horn, Librarian at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society; Dr. Brian Maynard, Professor and Chair of the Department of Horticulture of the University of Rhode Island; Peter Sadeck, President of Peter Sadeck Landscaping, and Mark Sellew, President of Prides Corner Farm. Silver Medals will be awarded to the Bemis family of Bemis Farms Nursery, and Peter and Leslie Van Berkum, co-founders and owners of Van Berkum Nursery.
    The public is invited to the dinner, which will include a keynote address by Mr. Armitage.

    2009 Honorary Medals Dinner
    Schedule of Events

    Thursday, October 1, 2009
    Hunnewell Building at Elm Bank
    900 Washington Street
    Wellesley, Massachusetts

    6:00 PM
    Wine and Cheese in the James Crockett Garden

    7:00 PM
    Dinner in the Hunnewell Building

    7:30 PM
    Awards Presentation

    8:00 PM
    Keynote Address by Allan Armitage

    Proceeds from this event will be used for the maintenance and improvement of the gardens

    Tickets are $150 per person to this event. There are also opportunties to either co-host or host a table. You may order individual tickets here. To co-host or host a table, please call Jen Courtney at 617-933-4921. All proceeds from the dinner will be used to support maintenance and improvement of MassHort gardens.

  • Wednesday, September 30, 10 am – 1 pm – Two Collectors’ Gardens

    Visit two of the area’s finest fall gardens in their autumn glory.  The Dover garden sits on an acre of land, not far from the Charles River, with rich alluvial soil and plenty of moisture and light.  With these ingredients, Carrie Waterman has created an outstanding naturalistic garden, which has evolved to accommodate the owner’s passions for plant propagation, native plants and color. Plants with long bloom times and handsome foliage fill the mixed borders which peak in fall splendor. In nearby Needham, discover a fall garden that glows in the autumn light, highlighting a collection of brilliant maples, golden birches and deciduous confers, beech, bamboos and grasses of every type.  Using variation in foliage size, color, and texture, Ellen Lathi has achieved a bold and colorful effect for four-season interest. Natural stone, a bog filled with large-leafed plants, and a stream add to the fall scene. Both gardeners are fans of serendipity and love to see the native plants, with the help of the birds, spread themselves around and get comfortable!  Many Garden Club of the Back Bay members may remember seeing Ellen Lahti’s slide presentation at The Country Club last year, sponsored by The Boston Committee.  This tour is presented by The New England Wild Flower Society, and will cost $30 if a NEWFS member, $36 if a non member.  To register, log on to www.newfs.org, or call 508-877-7630.http://images.mooseyscountrygarden.com/mooseys-garden-tour/driveway-garden/autumn-garden-colors.jpg

  • Saturday, September 12 – “Native Plants” at The Mall at Chestnut Hill

    The final installment of The Mall at Chestnut Hill’s 2009 Organic Garden Series will take place Saturday, September 12 with “Native Plants.”  Hear a presentation on winterizing gardens, and best of all, there will be a tomato tasting and a lecture on how to preserve food (canning, freezing, fermenting) with results from June’s seedlings.  Also, there will be an opportunity to purchase from a vegetable and fruit stand.  For more information, log on to www.simon.com and click @Your Mall Now!, or call 617-965-3037.

  • Wednesday, September 9, 1:00 pm – Gardening For Wildlife

    Now in its third year, the American Horticultural Society’s “webinar” program , offered exclusively to members, is a great way to learn from and interact with leading horticultural experts without having to leave home.  Past presenters include Julie Moir Messervy, Norm Lownds, and Scott Calhoun.  On Wednesday, September 9, beginning at 1 pm, Douglas Tallamy, author of the highly aclaimed Bringing Nature Home, will present “Gardening for Wildlife.”  The seminar will consist of an online slide show with the presenter’s voice streamed through your computer’s speakers, or delivered by telephone.

    Tallamy takes an obvious observation—wildlife is threatened when suburban development encroaches on once wild lands—and weds it to a novel one: that beneficial insects are being deprived of essential food resources when suburban gardeners exclusively utilize nonnative plant material. Such an imbalance, Tallamy declares, can lead to a weakened food chain that will no longer be able to support birds and other animal life. Once embraced only by members of the counterculture, the idea of gardening with native plants has been landscape design’s poor stepchild, thought to involve weeds and other plants too unattractive for pristine suburban enclaves. Not so, says Tallamy, who presents compelling arguments for aesthetically pleasing, ecologically healthy gardening. With nothing less than the future of North American biodiversity at stake, Tallamy imparts an encouraging message: it’s not too late to save the ecosystem-sustaining matrix of insects and animals, and the solution is as easy as replacing alien plants with natives. After the presentation, which lasts about an hour, the speaker will take questions from participants via a chat box.  Space is limited so registration prior to the event is required.  A high-speed Internet connection is strongly recommended for an optimum viewing experience.  For more information on registering and joining the American Horticultural Society, log on to www.ahs.org.

    Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens

  • Wednesday, August 12, 7:30 p.m. – Bringing Nature Home

    Can gardeners make a difference for the future of biodiversity in our communities? Come to the Polly Hill Arboretum in West Tisbury, Massachusetts for the Annual David H. Smith Memorial Lecture on Wednesday, August 12, beginning at 7:30 p.m.

    Yes we can! In this talk based on his book, Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens, Douglas Tallamy, professor and chair of the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, reveals the importance of the interaction between plants and insects in our own backyards.

    Tallamy will illustrate the unbreakable link between native plant species and native wildlife: when native plants disappear, native insects disappear, impoverishing the food source for birds as well as other animals. Learn how as gardeners we can help sustain this link by planting native species that support our native wildlife population. Book signing after lecture. $10/$5 for PHA members. Begins at 7:30 pm.  Sponsored by SBS: the Grain Store.  For more information contact Karin Stanley at karin@pollyhillarboretum.org, or call her at 508-693-9426.